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The promotion of gender equality in such institutions is
vital to increase operational effectiveness, strengthen inclusion, enhance
oversight, and maintain accountability and compliance with the most relevant
international standards on the topic, including the principle of shared power
and responsibility between women and men.
Nonetheless,
the Program identified gender mainstreaming gaps in OAS member states'
counterdrug LEAs, especially in regards to female involvement in decision-making
processes and operations.
In order to fill this gap, in January 2018 CICAD started
the execution of the Inter-American Program for Strengthening Gender
Equality in Counterdrug Law Enforcement Agencies (GENLEA), which aims
to increase gender equality in OAS member states' counterdrug law enforcement
agencies in order to strengthen their capacity to counter drug trafficking.
The GENLEA Program adheres to the OAS Hemispheric Drug Strategy 2010, which
requires policies and measures that address the world drug problem to take
gender issues into account. Similarly, this initiative is aligned with the
Outcome Document of the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on the
World Drug Problem (UNGASS 2016) and the OAS Hemispheric Plan of Action on Drugs
(2016-2020), which recommend the incorporation of a gender perspective into all
stages of the development, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of drug
policies and programs, ensuring the involvement of women in said activities.
COMPONENTS OF THE PROGRAM
A
main component of the GENLEA Program is
the delivery
of
national workshops and regional conferences to strengthen gender
equality in counterdrug law enforcement agencies, delivered in collaboration
with recognized international experts on the subject, as well as with relevant
counterparts from beneficiary countries, in order to produce an effective and
sustainable impact. During
2018-2019,
Argentina, Barbados, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican
Republic, and Trinidad & Tobago hosted GENLEA national workshops
that allowed CICAD to identify challenges and gather best practices that could
be implemented within the framework of the program.
These activities represent a unique space to discuss specific measures
that could be implemented in each OAS member state in order to address existing
challenges, and are designed based on an evidence-based approach, aimed at promoting a transformative process by encouraging knowledge sharing, techniques,
and tools to foster changes in the institutional culture of law enforcement
agencies for them to become more effective and gender equitable.
Another component is the delivery of technical assistance to OAS member states that aim to develop or to strengthen strategies and action plans to increase gender mainstreaming in their counterdrug law enforcement institutions. This includes the creation of gender equality offices, the elaboration of gender assessments, and the design and implementation of a monitoring and evaluation system that allows each institution to measure its progress, and obtain perspective on gaps that need to be closed.
GENLEA HANDBOOK: Strategies and Good Practices for Strengthening Gender
Equality in Counterdrug Law Enforcement Agencies
updated on 3/1/2021 4:15:13 PM