NHRI Guidelines for Mainstreaming the Human Rights of Women and Girls into Our Everyday Work • Share and document good practices across the organisation • Strengthen the capacity of the NHRI to apply a gender perspective to its activities and internal policies and practices. • Contribute to organisational ownership and support for further development. 2.3.2. Planning an NHRI gender audit 1. Form the team to lead the gender mainstreaming strategy (a gender mainstreaming team) and decide the roles people will take. These roles could include designing the audit tool, carrying out the audit, analysing the information gathered and communicating across the organisation and externally. It may be necessary for members of the team to deepen their own understanding and practice of gender mainstreaming through a relevant program. The gender mainstreaming team should also include an NHRI member to ensure ownership at the leadership level. 2. Decide the outcomes of the gender audit. Identify the type and level of information the NHRI needs in order to develop strong and relevant recommendations and to design a gender mainstreaming plan. The outcomes will also be useful for the development of several high-level questions that form an overall framework for the strategy. 3. Identify the personnel and other resources required to carry out the audit and analyse its results. • Personnel will be needed who have the skills and experience to coordinate activities and ensure progress, communicate the audit’s intentions, facilitate the audit methods and analyse and report on its results. The NHRI may also decide that it needs external input for additional (but temporary) expertise. Support or assistance with local expertise from women’s organisations, in particular, or expertise from UN agencies such as ILO or UN Women, may also be sought. • Other resources will include finance, documentation, data capture systems and processes, support systems, communications mechanisms, materials and equipment. 4. Decide who will be involved in the audit. Will the audit include every member of the NHRI? Or selected groups? If so, what groups? How will they be organised? Is it best to separate by gender identity, by unit within the NHRI or by the level of seniority? Is it better to mix the groups? Or will it be based on a mixed model, where everyone in the NHRI is involved in a survey/ questionnaire (if that method is used) and then selected people are included for group methods? 5. Develop a realistic and achievable audit program that includes timelines and milestones, such as preparing for the audit, conducting the audit, analysing the information gathered from the audit and reporting on the audit results. 6. Develop a communications strategy that lets people know what the gender audit is about, how it will benefit the NHRI and their work within the NHRI, the contributions that are sought from them and the timeframes for their involvement. Apart from normal communication methods used by the NHRI, such as intranet, newsletter, staff announcements and notice boards, the gender audit could also be a standing agenda item in regular team and NHRI member meetings. OUTPUT A gender audit plan that has been developed by an appropriate gender mainstreaming strategy team, organisationally owned and supported and widely communicated and understood. 20