UNICEF integrates gender equality commitments throughout its programming and systems, while simultaneously increasing investments in sex-disaggregated data and analysis as well as targeted, differentiated programming in areas such as the empowerment of adolescent girls as a means of ensuring that no child is left behind. 

The UNICEF Strategic Plan (2022 – 2025) was developed in tandem with the UNICEF gender policy (2021 – 2030) and Gender Action Plan (2022-2025). The UNICEF Gender Action Plan (2022 – 2025), which likewise emphasizes a dual track approach on addressing structural and norms change, details the gender dimensions of programmatic results across the Strategic Plan’s five Goal Areas, spells out the steps necessary to strengthen gender equality across change strategies and institutional systems and processes; and includes clear indicators and monitoring mechanisms to track change.  

UNICEF has been implementing a gender equality marker since 2010 to track resource allocations and expenditures in relation to programme results that promote gender equality. The gender equality marker is based on a four-point scale, that ranges from 0 (no expected contribution to gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls) to 3 (gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls as the principal objective). 

Programmatically, outputs are assessed on their contributions to the advancement of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls using the UNICEF gender continuum as a reference, see Figure 1. If, for example, the output seeks to transform underlying structural barriers and deep-rooted power relations to gender equality through norm change and/or the enabling environment, it is considered gender-transformative and assigned a gender marker score of 3, since the output’s principal contribution seeks to advance gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.   

Figure 1: UNICEF gender continuum 

Since 2018, UNICEF has applied a two-tier gender coding system at the level of outputs as well as at the level of associated activities at the beginning of a planning cycle or when funds are first received. Using a gender equality marker, outputs (or intermediate results) are coded on whether they will make a principal, significant, marginal or no contribution to gender equality and the empowerment of women. These codes remain fixed throughout the planning cycle. 

At the same time, activities under each output are assigned a pre-filled gender tag value; including those of an administrative or operational nature. The gender tag is based on a two-point scale: 0 (not a gender activity) and 1 (gender activity). Activities correspond to a set of 400, fixed specific intervention codes (SICs) that UNICEF has standardized across the organization. There are approximately 400 Specific Intervention Codes (SIC) of which 120 SICs are inherently gender-related (i.e., gender mainstreamed or gender-targeted).

To link the gender tags with the gender equality marker, the gender marker code is determined, in part, on the percentage of budget allocations made to gender activities under each output. See Table 1.

Table 1: GEM Scale and Level of Expenditures at the SIC level

UNICEF introduced the two-tier coding system under the Gender Action Plan (2018 – 2021), specifically the gender tagging system, to better align the intention of gender equality programming, which is reflected at the output level, with the use of funds under the same outputs allocated at the activity levels. By doing so, it has improved the accuracy of tracking resource allocations and expenditures on gender equality and the empowerment of women and provided greater depth and detail for data analysis.  

UNICEF applies the gender equality marker at all levels of the organization: all [100%] of UNICEF’s programme expenditures that are supported by both regular resources and ‘other resources’ are coded against the gender equality marker, including development and humanitarian programmes. Both the gender equality marker system and the gender tagging system are embedded in UNICEF’s corporate financial/enterprise management system –VISION -- and are the two main parameters the organization uses to calculate gender equality expenditures. 

Given the raised ambition on gender equality of the new Strategic Plan (2022 – 2025), UNICEF has consequently amended its formula for tracking and estimating financial expenditures dedicated to achieving those goals. UNICEF calculates gender equality expenditures on results that are gender-transformative and gender-responsive:  See Figure 2

• Gender-transformative expenditures are calculated by only focusing on those SICs that are gender tagged under GEM3 outputs; and
• Gender integrated expenditures are based on a weighting of gender tagged SICs under outputs marked GEM 2 (gender-responsive) and GEM 1 (gender-sensitive).

Figure 2: Calculating gender equality expenditures on results that are gender-transformative and gender-responsive

Financial benchmark: The UNICEF Gender Action Plan (2022 -2025) – with its focus on transformative approaches - commits to going beyond the financial benchmark of 15% of programme expenditures on advancing gender equality as a principal objective.   Gender equality marker data already shows that UNICEF exceeded this threshold in 2020 and 2021. (See Figure 3 below).  This target is not only set at the entity-wide level; each business unit at UNICEF is expected to meet this target as well.  UNICEF has also added another benchmark on gender equality expenditures for programming in exclusively emergency contexts.

There is no formally defined quality assurance process at UNICEF. As a decentralized organization, the Gender Team at HQ maintains a global overview of the implementation of the gender equality marker; improves and updates the gender equality marker and gender tag guidance; revises methodology for calculating aggregate level gender equality interventions; and provides on-demand capacity development trainings to country offices. Periodically, the HQ Gender Team conducts internal reviews to strengthen the organization-wide use of the gender equality marker or refine the methodology. Regional Gender Advisors, because of their proximity to country offices, review and validate the gender equality marker codes of country programme documents and workplans. 

To address quality and accuracy issues in how Country Programme Documents are coded at the country level, there are discussions to introduce automated checks, either quarterly or semi-annually, to screen the quality of output and activity tagging for the 20 – 40 new Country Programme Documents that come online each year.  UNICEF has also devised a dashboard with an in-built alert system that ensures that gender marker scores given to outputs correspond to the budget allocations associated with them (refer to Table 1). 

Reporting on gender equality expenditures forms a part of UNICEF’s accountability to the Executive Board on the Strategic Plan as well as the Gender Action Plan. UNICEF produces two annual reports used by senior managers to internally and externally champion gender equality and UNICEF’s accountability to achieving gender results.  

UNICEF reports to the Executive Board on its gender equality expenditures in the Annual Report on the Implementation of the UNICEF Gender Action Plan as well as in the Gender Equality: Global Annual Results Report (ARR) which showcases the organization’s gender equality results to member states, donors and broader stakeholders.  UNICEF also reports on gender equality expenditures as part of UN-SWAP annual reporting, particularly in relation to key performance indicators 9 and 10. Beyond annual reporting at corporate levels, UNICEF, under the Gender Action Plan (2022 – 2025) plans to strengthen accountabilities for gender equality results at regional and country levels by integrating gender action plans into country office management plans and regional accountability frameworks.  

As shown in Figure 3, the share of expenditures on gender-transformative results more than doubled from 8.2% in 2013 to 21.1% in 2021. UNICEF was also able to exceed its target on gender-transformative expenditures in emergency contexts in 2021, which reached 15.7%.  Moreover, an estimated 64.4 per cent of total expenditures (or approximately USD 3.9 billion) contributes to gender mainstreaming, as measured by outputs where gender equality is either a significant or a marginal objective.   

Figure 3: Trends in gender expenditures, 2013-2021

Ongoing and continued training across UNICEF, particularly but not only of gender specialists and gender focal points, on the use of the gender equality marker are needed, especially at the country level. These investments can also help to build greater, broad-based awareness and capacity on gender equality programming, particularly on gender-responsive and gender-transformative approaches.  

There is greater scope for leveraging gender marker data to drive improved performance for more robust gender equality results at the country level.