Purpose

The Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Gender Marker is a tool that codes, on a 2-0 scale, whether or not a humanitarian project is designed to ensure that women/girls and men/boys will benefit equally from it, and that it will contribute to increasing gender equality.

Overview

• A needs assessment is the essential first step in providing emergency health programming that is effective, safe and restores dignity. A gender analysis is critical to understanding the social and gender dynamics that could help or hinder aid effectiveness. The gender analysis in the needs assessment will identify gender gaps, such as unequal access to health services for women/girls and men/boys, that need to be addressed. These should be integrated into activities. The project’s outcomes should capture the change that is expected for female and male beneficiaries. Avoid outcome statements that hide whether males and females benefit equally.
• In order to translate cluster and organisational commitments to gender-responsive health projects into reality, minimum gender commitments can be developed and applied systematically to the field response. A sample of commitments, activities and indicators that draw on elements of the ADAPT and ACT-C Gender Equality Framework can be found on p. 2.

Usage: Guidance for project implementation, Monitoring and evaluation

Audiences: Technical staff; Gender and diversity practitioners

Reference: Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) (September 2012). IASC Gender Marker Tip Sheet: Water Sanitation Hygiene (WASH) (pp. 1-2). Available from: http://reliefweb.int/report/world/iasc-gender-marker-tip-sheet-water-sanitation-hygiene-wash [Accessed: 31 December 2015].