This six-week specialized online course examines the interconnections between gender equality, human rights, and sustainable development, with particular attention to the ways in which gendered structures, norms, and inequalities shape development processes and outcomes. Grounded in a rights-based approach, the course introduces the international normative framework for gender equality, including CEDAW and the Beijing Platform for Action, and situates gender equality as both a human rights obligation and an essential condition for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Participants will engage with key concepts such as gender equality and equity, intersectionality, empowerment, gender mainstreaming, and discrimination and violence against women, while exploring how these concepts apply to contemporary development challenges. Particular attention is given to the gendered dimensions of care work, poverty, employment, social protection, migration, political participation and leadership, environmental sustainability, climate action, and access to and control over land and natural resources. Moving from normative foundations to practical application, the course equips participants to assess and integrate gender considerations across the development programming cycle. Participants will explore approaches to gender-responsive governance and feminist leadership, and Gender Equality, Disability and Social Inclusion (GEDSI) analysis, including tools for programme design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. The course emphasizes women not merely as beneficiaries of development interventions but as rights-holders, decision-makers, leaders, and agents of change. It concludes by examining the institutional, financial, and accountability conditions required to translate commitments on gender equality into sustained results, highlighting the importance of collaboration among governments, civil society and women’s organizations, the United Nations, donors, and the private sector in advancing inclusive, equitable, and sustainable development. The course blends academic theory with real-life experiences through e-conversations, readings, videos, and interactive webinars.
- Teacher: Nansiri Iamsuk