Gender Inclusiveness Policy

The term ‘inclusiveness’ indicates the acceptance and respect of diversity while understanding the difference of individual needs in order to ensure the rights of every community member in a balanced and fair manner.

Adopted from GI policy, Preamble, pg. 1

As inclusiveness involves every sphere of the society such as politics and economy, Gender Inclusiveness (GI) focuses on mainstreaming gender and reducing inequality.

Adopted from GI policy, Principle, pg 5, b) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

The policy looks into the volume of women in the workforce especially on the decision-making level to achieve a ratio of 40% women, 40% men, and 20% of man and women.

Adopted from policy rationale B)

The ratio is a guideline and benchmark to achieve gender equality in terms of the management and decision-making sphere. Researches from UK and Asia countries including Japan and Singapore had shown that a balanced workforce and leadership create an environment supportive of career growth for women and men.

Ensure equal opportunities are given to both men and women in the decision-making and implementation level of every project and programme.

Adopted from United Nations Statistics Division – UNSD. Global Gender Statistics Programme.

Diversity promotes the individuality within an organisation, acknowledging that every person can contribute with different, creative and new ideas and solutions. Employees with different backgrounds and experiences can bring together a variety of perspectives on matters and thus increase the productivity and deliver better results.

Workplace diversity increases creativity and problem solving. Having a variety of different people from various backgrounds together is essential for finding and implementing creative solutions to business problems. With diverse mindset coming together many more solutions will arise as every individual brings in their way of thinking, operating and solving problems and decision making.

The Gender Inclusiveness policy looks at the implementation and institutionalisation of the policy and it is an environment/ecosystem that the Penang State government wants to achieve, while GRPB is a tool or a mechanism in order to achieve an inclusive society.

One of the main purposes of the policy is to institutionalise GRPB, which is going to be implemented beyond the decision makers. All state departments and agencies are expected to support and implement the policy in line with Penang2030 which advocate for inclusive and a people-centric society; and the United Nations 17 SDGs in order to achieve gender equality and reduce inequalities.

• Adopted from Principles of GI, pg. 5 & 6

PWDC will help to develop an example of gender checklist and each department can modify and improvise the checklist based on the nature of their work and task respectively. The checklist could be used during the planning, implementing, budgeting and monitoring phase of programmes, projects and schemes (PPS).

Due to the different work nature of each departments and agencies, we understand the challenges the stakeholders are facing. The PWDC will help to build capacity to incorporate GI into the SOPs and KPIs. A Gender focal point will be appointed to monitor the process with the help of PWDC.