Taking action: achieving gender equality and empowering women

Chapter 12
Making it happen
Although no country has successfully addressed all seven strategic priorities,
some countries have shown that significant progress can be made to empower
women and reduce gender disadvantage. This chapter reflects on what it takes to
achieve significant progress. It identifies the ingredients necessary for large-scale
transformation, assesses the experience of five countries that are attempting significant
institutional reform, and closes with recommendations for addressing
gender inequality in MDG-based country poverty reduction processes.
This report has described seven strategic priorities and a series of practical
actions for each to bring about gender equality and empower women. Various
countries, communities, and institutions have implemented different combinations
of these actions and shown good results. The problem is not a lack of
practical ways to address gender inequality but rather a lack of change on a
large and deep enough scale to bring about a transformation in the way societies
conceive of and organize men’s and women’s roles, responsibilities, and
control over resources. Essential for that kind of transformation are:
• Political commitment by and mobilization of a large group of change agents
at different levels within countries and in international institutions.
• Technical capacity to implement change.
• Institutional structures and processes to support the transformation,
including structures that enable women to successfully claim their
rights.
• Adequate financial resources.
• Accountability and monitoring systems.
Commitment and mobilization of change agents
For transformation to occur within countries, there must be a critical mass of
change agents committed to the vision of a gender-equitable society described