In recognition of the importance of establishing gender equality around the world, the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) was established as a separate fund within the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in 1984. At that time, the General Assembly instructed it to “ensure women’s involvement with mainstream activities.”3 The Platform of Action resulting from the 1995 Beijing World Conference on Women expanded this concept, calling it “gender mainstreaming”—. the application of gender perspectives to all legal and social norms and standards, to all policy development, research, planning, advocacy, development, implementation and monitoring—as a mandate for all member In this way, the gender factor is no longer to be only a supplement.
