In 2013, the Country Office (CO)’s Gender Equality Strategy (the Gender Strategy) which is aligned to the country programme document (CPD) (2011 – 2015) entered its second year of implementation1 and saw an overall improvement in the implementation of the CPD from a gender perspective.

The Gender Strategy adopts a four-pronged approach to meet its overall objective of ‘ensuring that gender equality and equity and women’s rights are well respected, women’s positions are improved and women’s active participation is ensured throughout UNDP’s programmes in Somalia through a gender focused approach that will include strengthening of the CO’s work on gender, improving coordination, data gathering and analysis and capacity development.2 The four prongs of thestrategy can be perceived as the key building blocks of the Gender Strategy; they are : 1) Mainstreaming gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE) outputs and indicators under Outcomes 1, 2, and 3 of the CPD; 2) Undertaking specific interventions to support GEWE;Outcome 4: Somali women and men attain greater gender equality and are empowered; 3) Mainstreaming gender equality considerations in all institutional and organizational practices; and 4) Developing strategic partnerships in implementing gender-responsive interventions. Against each of these building blocks, specific sets of benchmarks help the CO to maintain focus and measure progress.