Exploring the Practices, Challenges and Opportunities of Gender Mainstreaming among Public sectors of Chilga Woreda.

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.