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).

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.