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Implementing and monitoring the project
Indicators describe changes The use of indicators is an integral part of monitoring and evaluating projects, but you must design them already at the planning stage. During the period in which the project is being implemented and monitored, the indicators help you see whether the project has carried out the planned activities, achieved the expected results, and advanced towards its objective. Realisation of the gender equality perspective is monitored either by special indicators for measuring and/or describing the advance of gender equality and the empowerment of women or by means of gender-disaggregated indicators. Indicators measure or describe change. In order to show a change the project has achieved in respect to the beneficiaries, there must be a clear baseline before the project starts. Information must therefore be collected right at the beginning of the project in order to specify the baseline. (You can find ideas for collecting such information in the section on tools.) This information is obtained according to the means of verification specified for each indicator. These means of verification may consist of statistics or research results that are already available, or of studies, observations and analyses carried out by your own organisation or your partner’s. It is always good to check whether there is any material your project could use that is already available from local or international organisations working in the area, or from UN organisations, national or local authorities, or other individuals and organisations engaged in development cooperation. It could be difficult to find collected and analysed information at the community or village level but it is worth trying. In any case it is important that your project and all the people involved in it have as much information as possible already before the project itself starts to be carried out so that operations answer the right needs of the women and men concerned. Involve women and men in implementing the project When carrying out the project and monitoring it you must make sure that both women and men participate throughout the whole of the project period. It is important that the project target groups are involved, not just as sources of information at the planning stage, but as participants on an equal level during the implementation of the project, making decisions as to what should be done within the project. The participation of all beneficiary groups must therefore be monitored throughout the whole project life cycle. It can happen that a number of groups and individuals are present in the planning stage, but some fall away during the period of implementation. You must find out the reason for this.
Remember, too, that mere participation in implementing a project is not necessarily a sure guide as to who makes the decisions about the project. Participation must not mean just providing labour. And even though, for example, a project’s administration may have been given to a community of women and men to look after, it is not always self-evident that all of them can make decisions about matters. Your organisation and your partner’ s are responsible for the project and you must pay continuous attention to how it is managed and how decisions are made. Who makes decisions about what the beneficiaries’ opinion really is? A positive attitude to gender equality is the most important tool for carrying out a project The attitude that project workers themselves take towards gender equality is one of the most important factors in implementing a project as far as promoting gender equality is concerned. Even if the objective and expected results of the project are good and correspond well to the gender-related needs of women and men, the roles of the project workers and supervisors are still decisive. It is their attitudes and mindsets that finally determine how people talk about gender equality issues, and when and with whom, and how well the aims and results are achieved. Attitudes and the general level of know-how can indeed be influenced through training. It may well be useful to discuss with the project workers and/or the voluntary workers as to their need to take part in gender equality training. Time must be reserved for specific gender equality work The work plans for project workers must include tasks for promoting gender equality that are linked to goals and specific operations. Time for performing these tasks must also be earmarked in the work plans. What will be done in the project, and how the time is allocated, is normally seen most clearly in the actual work plans for each year. The same considerations also apply to the budget for the project. Equal pay for work of equal value Gender inequalities can be seen all over the world in the inequalities of wages and salaries. There is not a single country in which women and men are paid the same in all professions for work of equal value. Wage equality is nevertheless an important question of human rights, just like gender equality. In development cooperation projects that try to promote gender equality women and men receive the same wages for work of equal value. This equality in development cooperation also concerns other employment benefits, such as daily expense allowances, travel, visits, training opportunities and so on. Make sure that women and men take part equally.
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