Developing Criteria for an Audit with a Systems Emphasis
The audit criteria should be based on good management practices and systems for achieving gender equality.Auditors may also want to select criteria related to the specific strategies the audited organization is using to achieve gender equality. For example, if the organization has implemented gender equity initiatives to increase the participation of women in its programs, criteria related to best practices for gender equity and compliance with the organization’s gender equity policies may be included in the audit plan.
This Practice Guide proposes that criteria for an audit of gender equality that emphasizes systems can be based on management activities that foster gender equality in public sector organizations. Studies have shown that a number of conditions (or success factors) must be present to enable organisations to achieve gender equality:
1. Leadership at senior levels
2. A strong enabling environment and organizational culture (policies, plans, resources and accountability)
3. Capacity building and expertise (internal resources, external experts, awareness and technical training)
4. Monitoring and reporting
5. Continuous improvement
For each of these success factors, Table 3 includes suggested audit criteria that auditors could use to assess whether or not an organization or a program meets the audit objective(s). Of course, the focus of the audit will usually lead to the selection of a subset of criteria rather than the complete list.
Table 3 – Examples of Criteria that Can Be Used as Part of a Systems Audit of Gender Equality
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Key Success Factors
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Criteria
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- Leadership at senior levels
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- Gender equality as a priority—Senior management has emphasized that gender equality is a key objective and a priority for the organization and that achieving it is a shared responsibility of all managers and staff.
- Clear expectations—Senior management has clearly established and communicated expected results in terms of gender equality, complete with targets and indicators.
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- Enabling environment
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- Policy— The organization has a gender equality policy that sets out the principles and practices that it applies to improve gender equality outcomes in the workplace and in its activities.
- Strategic planning—The organization has a strategic planning process that identifies organizational gender-based issues and prioritizes gender equality improvement initiatives.
- Action plan—The organization has defined actions that need to be taken to achieve its strategic gender equality goals and has:
- set clear timelines and performance indicators
- identified and assigned resources to implement these actions.
- Operational planning—The organization’s systems and practices to allocate human resources to its projects and operations take gender equality into account.
- Service delivery— The design and delivery of the organization’s services takes gender equality into account.
- Accountability—Roles, responsibilities, authority, and accountability for gender equality matters are clearly defined, attributed, and communicated.
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- Capacity building and expertise
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- Awareness and training—The organization provides gender equality training to its personnel, including awareness training.
- Expertise—The organization possesses, or has access to, sufficient gender equality specialist expertise to carry out its gender equality initiatives and achieve its goals in this area.
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- Monitoring and reporting
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- Established baselines—The organization has established clear baselines for gender equality in its workforce and/or its programs and services.
- Performance monitoring—The organization continuously monitors the performance of its gender equality programs or the gender equality of the main services it delivers.
- Performance indicators—Relevant performance indicators are available to accountable managers for measuring the performance of gender equality initiatives.
- Benchmarking—The organization regularly benchmarks the main services it delivers in order to assess their relative gender equality and identify areas for improvement.
- Reporting on gender equality initiatives—The organization periodically reports on progress against its gender equality objectives and initiatives. The reports:
- include relevant, timely, reliable, and complete information on gender equality achievements.
- report consistently over time and between projects, using valid and reliable measures and indicators.
- compare current values against baseline data.
- are transparent about the upfront investments and recurrent costs incurred in achieving gender equality.
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- Continuous improvement
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- Continuous improvement process—The organization regularly reviews information on gender equality in its workforce and/or performance information on its gender equality programs and takes corrective actions in a timely manner.
- Service delivery alternatives—The organization periodically identifies and assesses the merits of alternative service delivery methods and models that could increase gender equality.
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