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So far, we have taken you through the process of designing and implementing strategies to improve gender equality across your organisation, programs and ecosystem. Now we need to work out whether these efforts are actually making a difference! To do that you need a clear plan to measure, evaluate and learn from the impact of the strategies you implement.
Start measuring your efforts towards advancing gender equality
Choose the right variables to measure the outcome of the strategies you have selected
Establish how and when you will collect data
Get guidance on how to review and analyse the data you have
Find out how to share the progress that you have made
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When we consider gender, it is very unlikely that there will be a one size fits all approach. Depending on the context, gender can be characterised by biological sex, gender roles and other social structures, or gender identity. It is important for you to research and understand what characterises gender within your culture and the culture of your enterprises, and use this knowledge when setting up your measurement approach.
Some useful tips include taking into account your and your enterprises local languages, as in some instances, these can exclude words around gender and this would need to be taken into account when you contextualise strategies from this toolkit, as well as measure the impact you are having through them. If you are finding it challenging to understand gender within your context, you could consult or partner with local organisations or researchers that focus on understanding gender structures, roles and identities locally to further your understanding and expertise.
Given our limited resources as incubators and accelerators, we will never be able to measure everything. We recommend starting small, and building up from there. If you don’t currently have a method for measuring the impact of the work you do as an accelerator or incubator, you might want to start by establishing a simple framework to do so. If you are already measuring the impact of your activities, but are not currently disaggregating your data by gender, you can start adapting your data collection and analysis methods to incorporate gender, so that you can get a better picture of what is and isn’t working for different genders within your work. This will in turn help you inform what you can do to increase access, inclusion and equity within your organisation and programs. If you are already collecting data and disaggregating it by gender, you can establish additional indicators that can help you deepen your understanding of the accessibility, inclusive and equitable nature of your work, and how you are advancing gender equality.
Measuring how your work is contributing towards advancing gender equality is important. It can allow you to make more inclusive, accessible and equitable decisions, as well as equip you with the information needed to share your impact more broadly.