Abstract:
Gender Mainstreaming is an organizational strategy to bring a gender perspective to all
aspects of an institution's policy. Gender imbalance in different sectors is one of the
current critical issues that requires immediate intervention and implementation of
gender mainstreaming to correct. In line with that, the purpose of this study was to
explore practices, opportunities, and challenges of gender mainstreaming in
governmental offices of Chilga Woreda. The study employed a mixed research
approach. Personal in-depth interviews and focused group discussion were the main
data collection instruments used in the study. A total of 209 sample respondents were
randomly selected for the survey questionnaire, while key informants were purposively
selected. The quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed concurrently using
descriptive and inferential statistics. The study found that in most sectors, gender
mainstreaming tools such as gender specific planning, training, gender analysis,
auditing, monitoring and evaluation, accountability and empowerment issues were
weakly implemented in most of the sectors. National instruments or official documents
such as the Constitution, National Policy on Ethiopian Women, National Action Plan
for Gender Equality, Ten Year Perspective Development Plan (2021- 2030), Women's
Development Package, and others were mentioned and identified as current
opportunities for gender mainstreaming practice by the study's informants and
discussants. Furthermore, in the studied sectors, there was a lack of commitment on the
part of decision-making bodies, a lack of gender awareness and sensitivity, an unclear
mandate, a limited amount of budgetary allocations, and a lack of appropriate linkages
within and among line sector offices. The researcher recommended that development
efforts should not only aim to advance equality between women and men as an
outcome, but should also advance equality throughout by applying gender analysis in
planning, consultations, design, implementation, and evaluation.
