The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) believes that gender equality is central to sustained human development, and considers it vital to integrate women’s empowerment and gender equality into the organization’s core business. This is done through two complementary approaches: i) gender mainstreaming, and ii) promoting women’s empowerment.
The development of capacity (both of country stakeholders and in-house staff ) to integrate gender concerns in core areas of development work is a vital element of successfully engendering UNDP’s agenda. The UNDP 2008–2011 Strategic Plan likewise emphasizes that capacity development is UNDP’s ‘overarching contribution’ to global human development efforts. Thus, gender responsiveness in capacity development interventions is a critical element for overall development effectiveness. It is in this sense that the two cross-cutting areas of UNDP’s mandate work in a mutually reinforcing manner.