Introduction
The National Commission for Woman and Children (NCWC), Royal Government of Bhutan, has implemented the project for JFPR9155 (BHU)- Advancing Economic Opportunities for Women and Girls and currently implementing CDTA9016 (BHU)- Decentralized Coordination and Partnerships for Gender Equality Results. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) funds both the projects. As a part of the projects, an online web based “Gender Equality Monitoring System” (GEMS) has been developed to help NCWC, the national coordinating agency for gender issues, to manage, monitor and track progress on gender-mainstreaming activities that are being implemented by different sectors and agencies in the country.
The GEMS is the first of its kind in South Asia. Data and information on the GEMS can be accessed or updated in different ways by changing different parameters like date of coverage, disaggregation of results, and purpose of reporting by sector and/or agency. Currently, the GEMS will be accessed and used primarily by a network of Gender Focal Points (GFPs) operating at the national sector level as well as at the local government level to plan and report progress on gender-mainstreaming activities. However, in the near future, it is expected that the GEMS could also be used to cover planning and reporting on child protection activities with some amendments to the system.
The NCWC expresses its gratitude to the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction (JFPR), ADB for the Technical Assistance to develop GEMS.