Reply to questionnaire by the Department
for International Development
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE GENDER EQUALITY DUTY
1. What practical measures have you taken
to implement the duty in relation to the employees of your Department?
Have you undertaken an equal pay audit, or another survey to detect
any barriers to the full participation of women in your workforce?
What have you done to address under-representation of women in
specific grades or types of jobs?
— Through its regular workforce monitoring,
The Department for International Development (DFID) identified
that women were underrepresented at the Senior Civil Service (SCS)
and feeder grade level.
— As a result, DFID undertook qualitative
research in January 2005, to identify the barriers to women's
career progression. The barriers identified included: having caring
responsibilities, the need to accelerate change in approach to
the development of women, making senior roles more accessible
to different ways of working and the need for women to meet and
support each other.
— In response, DFID has introduced
a range of measures to address these barriers:
— Crossing Thresholds Mentoring
Programme to develop women in the pipeline. This involves
career-planning workshops, partnering with a SCS mentor, peer
group support networks and coaching sessions.
— Set aside six places on the Civil
Service Preparing for Top Management Programme for women.
— Joined up with the Home Office and
HM Revenue and Customs to pilot a leadership Explorer Programme
to develop women in transition to deputy director level. DFID
is sponsoring four women on this programme.
— Sponsored two women on the Civil
Service Leaders Unlimited development programme run by
the National School of Government.
— Launched the Women's Network in
2005 on International Women's Day. The network has been running
successfully for two years and has over 109 members. The Women's
Network was one of the key forums for consultation on DFID's Gender
Equality (Duty) Scheme.
— Continued to roll out flexible working
practices, including a major investment (£2.5 million) in
remote working technology. DFID has further promoted its flexible
working booklet "Finding a Fit", which has resulted
in a higher take up of the use of variable working patterns.
— DFID last conducted an equal pay
audit for staff (excluding the Senior Civil Servants) in 2004.
At that time, there were no significant pay gaps (ie variations
of 5% or more) across DFID grades on the basis of analysis by
gender, ethnicity, disability or working pattern.
— The difference in average salary
between men and women in one grade is justifiable following analysis
of length of service. In future, the number of spine points for
each grade in the pay structure will be reduced which in turn
will have the impact of reducing possible inequalities.
— An equal pay audit is undertaken
on the SCS on an annual basis. DFID will be conducting a full
equal pay audit following the implementation of our new pay deal,
which should be in place by the end of the year.
2. Have you reviewed the policies and
administrative procedures of your Department for gender bias?
What action have you taken to correct such bias?
— DFID has developed a generic Equality
Impact Assessment Toolkit to ensure that all its relevant policies
are assessed for any adverse bias/impact on the equality strands
(including gender).
— DFID's main committees and Management
Board have changed their submission templates to include an initial
screening to highlight whether a full equality impact assessment
is needed or not for new policies or initiatives.
— As part of DFID's broader Human Resources
Division change programme, all new and existing procedures for
recruitment, postings and promotions have undergone an equality
impact assessment.
3. Have your procurement policies and practices
been changed to take account of the gender equality duty? How
do they reflect this duty?
— DFID's procurement policies and
practices already reflect our commitments to diversity, equality
and other corporate values. The Department ensures that its main
suppliers of goods and services share our commitments by demonstrating
our values in their work practices.
— DFID's Procurement Section is working
with key suppliers to produce a Corporate Social Responsibility
(CSR) framework to understand how the current suppliers to DFID
manage CSR, including gender equality, within their supply chains.
This will enable DFID to monitor performance against social and
equality issues and improve practices.
4. Generally, are there any differences in
your approach to implementing the gender equality duty from your
approach to implementing the race equality duty?
— There is no major difference between
DFID's approach to the implementation of the gender equality duty
and the race equality duty.
— However, I would emphasise that whilst
the statutory requirements of the gender equality duty apply to
activities in the UK only, the vital importance of promoting equal
opportunities between men and women runs through all our development
work internationally.
— Global commitment to promoting gender
equality is articulated throughout the Millennium Development
Goals; and in particular, goal no.3 focuses the international
community on the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment
of women.
— Therefore, DFID's Gender Equality
(Duty) Scheme and associated action plans set out how we will
give greater priority to gender equality in our programme, as
well as, our policy work.
— To take this work forward, Gender
Champions have been appointed at Divisional level (and in some
cases in Country Offices) across DFID. The key role of these Champions
is to provide leadership on gender equality, to review progress
on implementation of Divisional objectives on gender equality
and to advocate for key strategy documents to fully reflect and
guide good practice.
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