National Gender Policy 2024 - 2030

Did you know that Belize Cabinet has approved the revised National Gender Policy 2024 to 2030?

This visionary policy aims to foster gender equity and equality, putting an end to discrimination against women and girls across Belize.

Building upon the successes of the 2013 policy, this revamped strategy hones in on key areas like health, education, economic empowerment, gender-based violence prevention, women's leadership, and institutional strengthening.

Still, this policy isn't just words on paper—it's a blueprint for action! By enhancing coordination and adopting a multisectoral approach, Belize is poised to ensure that gender considerations are woven into every aspect of national development.

Strategies of the National Gender Policy:

To achieve gender equity and equality requires the government, civil society, and the private sector to agree to a common set of outcomes that define the priorities of the revised National Gender Policy (2024-2030).

These six priority areas include health, education, wealth and employment creation, violence-producing conditions, and power and decision-making.

Under each priority area, the proposed outcomes and outputs comprise the cross-sectoral programme to be implemented over a specific period to be agreed upon by the National Women’s Commission.

For this cross-sectoral programme to move towards achieving gender equity and equality, it will follow four main strategies that cut across priority areas:

1. Creating and enforcing supportive laws

2. Delivering gender-responsive services

3. Providing equitable access to resources

4. Fostering increased participation or inclusion

13 guiding principles outlined in the National Gender Policy:

Here is an overview and description of the first 6 principles:

1. Human Rights: State policies, regulations, programmes, and allocation of resources must be based on the realization of human rights for all within the context of the Constitution of Belize.

2. Gender Equality: State policies, regulations, and programmes should explicitly aim to identify and eliminate gender-based discrimination in the allocation of resources, benefits, or access to services.

3. Gender Equity: State policies, regulations, programmes, and allocation of resources must ensure fairness and justice in the distribution of benefits and responsibilities between women and men, boys and girls.

4. Women's Empowerment: State policies, regulations, programmes, and allocation of resources must include specific, deliberate actions that identify and give redress to power imbalances and give women more autonomy to manage their own lives.

5. Gender Mainstreaming: Ensure that policy makers and practitioners do not assume that all persons are the same.

6. Respect for Diversity: People in Belize are not a homogeneous group. All policies and programmes must therefore reflect this reality of diversity among the Belizean populace.

Here is an overview of the final 7 principles:

7. Family Strengthening: Family life lies at the core of creating a healthy, productive, and well-functioning society. Family strengthening must be recognized as one of the most important strategies for addressing gender inequalities and inequities throughout the life course.

8. Best Interests of the Child: The best interests of the child, as defined in the Families and Children’s Act, must be a priority in the establishment of all policies, programmes and decisions that impact on development in Belize.

9. Inclusivity: For citizens to successfully exercise their human rights they require access to multiple spaces for participation in the development process.

10. Good Governance: Good governance recognizes the rights of all genders to participation and legitimacy of voice as well as the right to benefit from strategic leadership, long-term visioning, performance measurements, accountability and equity and justice in the rule of law.

11. Accountability of Outcomes: Rights entail corresponding duties and obligations. As a signatory to the Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and various ILO Conventions, the Government of Belize is accountable for progress made in achieving gender equity, equality, and women’s empowerment among its citizens, who are the holders of these rights.

12. Coordination and Harmonization: Gender equality, equity and women’s empowerment requires a multi-sectoral approach to development. This includes collaborative planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, as well as the alignment of policies and programmes with national and international commitments.

13. Human Centred Development: A human centred development approach will ensure that people, regardless of their age, sex, race, gender, ethnicity, or creed, are allowed to participate fully in the development process.

The National Gender Policy 2024-2030 has 6 (six) Thematic Areas of Focus which include:

1. Health Across the Life Course: to secure access to quality affordable gender-responsive health care services throughout the life course. 

2. Education for Life and Lifelong Learning: to eliminate gender-based discrimination in education. 

3. Wealth and Employment Creation: to empower women through the creation of economic opportunities in urban and rural areas. 

4. Gender-Based Violence: to strengthen and expand measures to ensure the safety and security of victims/survivors of gender-based violence. 

5. Women in Power and Decision-Making: to advance the equitable participation of women in leadership and political governance. 

6. Organizational Systems and Strengthening: to support the coordination, advocacy, capacity building, resource mobilization, monitoring, and evaluation of gender mainstreaming and gender programming. 

Priority Thematic Area 1:

The first thematic area focuses on Health Across the Life Course. 

Main achievements in health were made in the decentralization of the health delivery system, the provision of sexual and reproductive health services for women and children, the incorporation of geriatric care services, and the expansion of the national health insurance programme. Legislation was also drafted to ensure greater protection for vulnerable populations.

Areas to be further strengthened under the framework of the gender policy include sexual and reproductive health services for adolescents, older persons, and vulnerable populations, mental health, and substance abuse programmes, and targeted gender-responsive health services to address communicable and non-communicable diseases.

As a result, this thematic area aims to secure access to quality affordable gender-responsive healthcare services and improve health outcomes for men, women, boys, and girls across the life course which will result in:

1. Reduced male and female morbidity and mortality from communicable and non-communicable diseases with high mortality rates, including COVID-19, using gender-responsive strategies.

2. Increased access to affordable, gender-responsive sexual and reproductive health information and services throughout the life course. 

3. Increased availability of gender-responsive mental health and substance abuse treatment services to all groups, with particular attention to adolescents, youth, underserved populations, and older persons.

Priority Thematic Area 2:

The second thematic area of the National Gender Policy 2024-2030 focuses on Education for Life and Lifelong Learning to eliminate gender-based discrimination in education.

The education sector showed achievements in legislative reform and programming that protected the right of girls and boys to education, and increased child protection measures in education. 

Legal reforms also increased employees’ protection (including teachers) from unfair dismissal on the grounds of sex, pregnancy, pregnancy-related reasons, or HIV status. 

Early childhood development programmes were prioritized as well as initiatives aimed at increased school participation and completion among targeted vulnerable populations living in poor geographic areas. Literacy education for children and adults was also a highlight of education sector programming.

Areas for strengthening include increasing the quality and relevance of education to the needs of the labour market. This includes increased investments in curriculum reform, including in science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM). 

A major gap is the need for gender equity in access to STEAM subjects. Other areas for further action include strengthening ITVET education, inclusive education, mental health support for teachers and students, and non-discrimination based on gender.

As a result, this thematic area will produce the following outcomes:

1. Increased girls and women’s enrolment in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and other non-traditional educational programs.

2. Increased male achievement and completion of primary, secondary, and tertiary education.

3. Increased girls and women’s participation in arts, physical education, and sports.

4. Increased legal protection for all persons from gender-based discrimination in the education system.

Priority Thematic Area 3:

The third thematic area of the National Gender Policy 2024-2030 focuses on Wealth and Employment Creation to empower women through the creation of economic opportunities in urban and rural areas. 

Women’s access to wealth and employment was supported by legislative reform in labour, private pensions, child maintenance, and child labour. 

The Labour (Amendment) Act protects employees from unfair dismissal due to pregnancy, pregnancy-related reasons, family responsibilities, marital status, age, race, HIV status or harassment at work, disability, and union membership, among other things. 

Amendments to the Pensions Act offers greater levels of gender equality in the management of private pensions while amendments to the Married Persons’ Protection Act levels out age disparities in child maintenance matters. 

A review of child labour-related legislation is underway to bring greater protection to children. The Government of Belize ramped up women’s economic empowerment initiatives. In 2020 as a result of Covid, even more women fell out of the labour force to care for children and older persons. This unpaid work is not valued within the country’s economic system.

As a result, this thematic area will focus on producing the following outcomes:

1. Increased employment rate of women in urban and rural areas.

2. Increased women’s entrepreneurship.

3. Increased women’s ownership of land and housing.

4. Legislative framework to support women’s economic empowerment strengthened.

Priority Thematic Area 4:

The fourth thematic area of the National Gender Policy 2024-2030 focuses on Gender-Based Violence to strengthen and expand measures to ensure the safety and security of victims/survivors of gender-based violence. 

The Government amended the Criminal Code to give greater protection to children and recognized marital rape as a distinct form of sexual violence. The Government also passed laws supportive of the prevention, intervention, and rehabilitation of victims of commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking in persons. The Evidence Act and the Indictable Procedures Act were also amended to facilitate greater access to justice. 

A series of projects designed to eliminate gender-based violence have been implemented nationally to create public awareness on issues of child protection, domestic violence, commercial sexual exploitation, trafficking in persons, and child labour.

Areas of further action include a greater focus on parent education programmes, strengthening the police response, increasing access to justice, and expanding victim recovery services, including shelters, professional counselling, and economic empowerment opportunities. 

Other considerations for further action include the need to eliminate discrimination against all victims of gender-based violence on the basis of their gender identity, type of employment, disability, or mental health status.

As a result, this thematic area will lead to the following outcomes:

1. Reduced incidence of all forms of gender-based violence (sexual violence, commercial sexual exploitation, human trafficking, domestic or family violence).

2. Increased access to gender-sensitive, trauma-informed, and victim/survivor-centred care and support services for victims/survivors of all forms of gender-based violence.

3. Increased access to justice for GBV survivors.

Priority Thematic Area 5:

The fifth thematic area of the National Gender Policy 2024-2030 focuses on Women in Power and Decision-Making to advance the equitable participation of women in leadership and political governance. 

Women’s political participation and representation are important aspects of ensuring women’s human rights. Along with the right to vote, women ought to have the right to be equally represented in power and decision-making positions. 

While there are gradual improvements in women’s access to technical positions within the public sector, Belize has struggled with increasing women’s leadership participation at the highest levels of decision-making. 

Currently, Belize has no formal special measures to meet specific targets for increasing women’s political participation on an equal basis with men.

Issues of campaign financing, marketing, and family and childcare responsibilities continue to act as barriers to women’s political participation and their access to leadership within the public and private sectors. 

This plan proposes to address these barriers through specific actions that will require public education, legislative reform, capacity building, and advocacy action that will lead to the following outcomes:

1. Increased political representation of women in the House of Representatives, Senate, Cabinet, Municipal Councils, and Village Councils.

2. Increased representation of women in executive and middle-management positions in the public and private sectors.

3. Women’s capacity to advocate for, and participate in power and decision-making strengthened.

Priority Thematic Area 6:

The sixth and final thematic area of the National Gender Policy 2024-2030 caters to Organizational Strengthening to support coordination, advocacy, capacity building, resource mobilization, monitoring, and evaluation of gender mainstreaming and gender programming.

The Theory of Change identifies the importance of building organizational support systems to enable the achievement of the cross-sectoral programme of the National Gender Policy. 

Building on the experience of two previous National Gender Policies (2002 and 2013), this 2024-2030 Policy sets out to deliberately create systems that will allow for greater coordination, advocacy, capacity building, resource mobilization, monitoring, and evaluation.

This pathway system will seek to ensure that the National Women’s Commission, including its multi-sectoral national and district committees, has the human and financial resource capacity to implement a set of integrated, harmonized multi-sectoral interventions to achieve gender equity and equality and end discrimination against women and girls across the life course.

As a result of this thematic area, the following outcomes will be expected:

1. Increased national human and financial capacity for Gender Mainstreaming.

2. Increased multi-sectoral government, civil society, private sector, and public support for gender programming, including the implementation of the NGP and NGBVAP.

3. Increased evidence-based policy and decision-making and adaptive management in gender programming.

By increasing our knowledge of the National Gender Policy, we can all be part of the movement to achieve gender equity and equality and end discrimination against women and girls in Belize.

With the support of this groundbreaking policy, let's celebrate progress and pave the way for a more inclusive and equitable Belize!

Source:

Revised National Gender Policy (2024 - 2030) https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/604665626bb4328821a62cb8/6621343271f094ed0496381e_2024NationalGenderPolicy.pdf