NAC Gender Policy

Objectives

The policy establishes a framework for mainstreaming gender and women’s empowerment throughout Zimbabwe’s national HIV and AIDS response and within the National AIDS Council (NAC), its institutional policies, strategies, programmes, budgets, reporting systems and structures.[1][2][3]Its vision is a response grounded in gender equality, gender equity and respect for individual human rights, with the goal of enabling NAC to address disparities between women and men in HIV prevention, treatment, care, support and impact-mitigation programmes.[2][4]

• Address gender inequality through linked internal institutional reform and gender-responsive management of the national HIV and AIDS response.[1]
• Reduce gender-based social, economic, legal, cultural and physiological vulnerabilities to HIV, including unequal power in sexual relations, gender-based violence and practices that expose girls to infection.[1][5][2]
• Strengthen women’s capacity to protect themselves from HIV, participate in decision-making and access treatment, care and support, while reducing the disproportionate care burden on women and girls.[6][7]
• Promote women’s and men’s equal participation, address gender imbalances in staffing, involve men in advancing equality and challenge gender norms that increase HIV vulnerability.[4][3]
• Apply gender-sensitive prevention, equitable care, support and treatment, social and economic impact mitigation, management and coordination, and monitoring and evaluation as strategic programme areas.[6][7]
• Use gender equality, women’s inclusion and empowerment, male involvement, political commitment, accountability, international standards, sustainable partnerships and gender-sensitive planning and review as guiding principles.[4]

Gender mainstreaming is understood as incorporating gender perspectives into policies, programmes and interventions at every stage and level; associated concepts include gender analysis, gender audits, gender-impact assessment, gender planning, sex-disaggregated statistics and gender budgeting.[8][9]Gender equality is framed as enabling people to develop their abilities and make choices without restrictive gender roles, while equally valuing women’s and men’s behaviours, aspirations and needs.[8]

Implementation

Implementation combines institutional change within NAC with multi-stakeholder programme delivery across the national HIV and AIDS response.[1][4]NAC is to develop, adopt and implement an institutional gender policy, systematise gender-related work, identify and address gender-inequality practices, and guide partners and implementers in designing gender-mainstreaming strategies.[1][2][4]The approach is informed by consultation and alignment with the Zimbabwe National Strategic Plan 2006–2010, the Zimbabwe National Gender Policy, domestic legislation including the Domestic Violence Act, and relevant Southern African Development Community, African Union, United Nations and human-rights commitments.[5][2]

• Establish a national institutional framework, including a Gender Taskforce, gender focal points, clear terms of reference and adequately resourced coordination structures across NAC levels.[6][3][10]
• Strengthen institutional and community capacity through gender sensitisation and training for management, staff and stakeholders, alongside guidance materials, adaptable mainstreaming tools, advocacy and policy communication.[6][3]
• Integrate gender analysis and mainstreaming into prevention, care, treatment, livelihoods and impact-mitigation activities, including action on domestic and sexual violence, commercial sex work, male involvement, women’s treatment access and female-condom distribution and use.[6][7]
• Engage AIDS service organisations, non-governmental organisations, civil society organisations, community-based organisations and public and private sector partners in delivery, implementation and resource mobilisation.[10]
• Build continuous partnerships and alliances through collaboration, information sharing and use of stakeholders’ comparative advantages.[6]
• Assign responsibility and accountability at every NAC level, with the NAC Board retaining ultimate leadership for integrating gender equality and women’s empowerment into mandates, policies, strategies, programmes and progress reports.[7]

Monitoring and evaluation are to be continuous and gender-sensitive.[4][6]The Directorates for Programmes and Monitoring and Evaluation are responsible for monitoring and evaluating the policy, establishing baselines and benchmarks, and developing indicators on gender and women’s empowerment.[10]Implementation should use sex-disaggregated data, periodic progress reviews, research, regular gender audits and assessment of resource allocation; reports from all NAC levels should address gender and women’s empowerment.[7][3][10]The policy is to be reviewed every two years.[3][10]

Financially, NAC is expected to incorporate gender budgeting across its budgeting processes, train the Directorate of Finance to integrate gender into financial and accounting procedures, provide adequate human and financial resources, mobilise partner resources, and monitor equitable allocation among men, women and children.[6][7][10]No monetary allocations, financing totals, costed activities, funding gaps or economic assumptions are specified in the supplied text.[6][7][10]

Monitoring & Evaluation

The policy establishes a gender-sensitive monitoring, evaluation and accountability framework for the National AIDS Council (NAC) and the wider HIV and AIDS response. It requires continuous monitoring, evaluation and review of gender-sensitive plans, policies and programmes, supported by political commitment and accountability.[4][6]

• Develop gender-sensitive indicators and baselines, using benchmarks to measure progress towards gender equality and women’s empowerment.[4][10]
• Collect, analyse and use sex-disaggregated data and gender-disaggregated information to inform planning, implementation and comparative analysis of effects on women and men.[7][3][10][9]
• Conduct periodic progress reviews, research, gender audits and gender-impact assessments to assess the differential institutional, policy and programme effects on women and men.[7][8]
• Monitor and evaluate the allocation of resources, including equity in allocations among men, women and children and resources directed towards women and girls.[7]
• Assign NAC’s Directorates for Programmes and Monitoring and Evaluation responsibility for monitoring and evaluating the gender policy, while requiring regular monitoring, evaluation and reporting across NAC.[10]
• Require reports at all NAC levels to cover gender and women’s empowerment, with the NAC Board retaining ultimate responsibility for leadership and for ensuring that mandates, policies, strategies and programmes incorporate these priorities.[7]
• Review the gender policy every two years and maintain accountability frameworks, monitoring tools and implementation guidelines at all NAC levels.[3][10]

The source does not specify a complete indicator set, numerical targets, reporting timetable, surveillance system, evaluation methodology or a detailed enforcement procedure.[1][2][4]

Costing & Financing

The policy requires gender-responsive budgeting and equitable resource allocation as integral elements of gender mainstreaming within NAC and HIV and AIDS programming. It calls for sufficient human and financial resources for implementation and for monitoring and evaluation, but does not provide quantified costs or financing figures.[6][7][10]

• Integrate gender budgeting into NAC budgeting processes at every level and ensure that HIV and AIDS programme budgets respond to gender considerations.[7][10]
• Assess the gender effects of budget allocations and, conceptually, restructure revenue and expenditure to advance gender equality.[8]
• Monitor equitable allocation of resources among men, women and children, including the resources available to women and girls.[7]
• Provide adequate human and financial resources for gender mainstreaming and monitoring and evaluation, and build the Directorate of Finance’s capacity to incorporate gender into financial and accounting processes and manuals.[10]
• Mobilise resources through partners, alongside collaboration involving AIDS service organisations, non-governmental organisations, civil society organisations, community-based organisations, and public and private sector actors.[10]

No total budget, activity-level costing, monetary allocation, funding source amount, financing period, quantified funding gap or economic assumption is specified.[1][2][6][7][10]