This brief seeks to explain the status of the implementation of the Gender Equality Marker (GEM) in the UN system (at the entity level, UN Country Team level, and in the inter-agency pooled funds level).

This guidance note sets out common principles to ensure that UN gender marker systems are comparable and sets standards for gender equality marker systems that track and report on allocations and expenditures for gender equality and women’s and girls’ empowerment. It will guide the development of an effective and coherent approach for tracking resources that support gender equality results with agreed upon parameters and standards inside the UN system. This will allow for UN system-wide reporting2 with regard to funds contributing to promoting gender equality. This guidance note is intended to provide direction for individual entities instituting or improving their gender equality marker systems.

The brief highlights UN Women’s research on disability inclusion markers alongside insights from a wide range of development partners.

This is a presentation on the GEM and financial targets in the UN System as part of the ITC-ILO Course  “Gender Responsive Budgeting within Organizations”, made by UN Women in December 2022. The aim of the presentation was to inform participants about the use of the GEM and financial targets as UN tools for ensuring gender equality and the empowerment of women at entity and country levels and at pooled funds. 

The ILO Guidance on the use of the gender marker explains the requirements for each GEM score and provide examples to ensure the correct application of the gender maker.

The Gender Equality Marker (GEM) is used by UNICEF to calculate the gender expenditure as part of the accountability to the Executive Board under Strategic Plan and Gender Action Plan. The target of 15% expenditure on gender is established in compliance the UN Systems Wide Action Plan on gender (UN-SWAP). The GEM at the output level and the Specific Intervention Code (SIC) at the activity level are the two main parameters used in calculating gender expenditure in UNICEF.

Empowered by the UN-SWAP 2.0, UN Women is able to identify and coordinate the system-wide adoption of good practices and harmonized products that can be scaled from one entity to another. UN Women selects and publishes a series of good practices from various entities on annual basis, normally through the UN-SWAP review reports and the updated technical guidance. This catalog aggregates various best practices under UN-SWAP 2.0 indicators, updated in 2022.

UN-SWAP 2.0 Technical guidance that guides reporting and is updated with references and good practices annually.

This background note provides an overview of existing gender equality markers and reviews issues relating to the tracking and monitoring of investments related to gender equality and women’s empowerment. It is intended as an input into the development of a guidance note for the UN system on principles and standards for the design, implementation and reporting systems on investments that support gender equality and women’s empowerment in the UN system. The target audience is the staff and leadership of UN entities and their development and humanitarian implementing partners