Gender Action Plan Model Blueprint: a Toolkit for Equality in Standards, Regulation and Public Service

A practical guide empowers regulatory bodies and quality infrastructures to embed gender considerations into trade, standards, metrology, accreditation, and conformity assessment. Developed under a UNECE initiative, the blueprint draws on gender-responsive expertise to foster inclusive, equitable reforms. This publication provides a practical and actionable roadmap for public authorities, regulators, and quality infrastructure bodies seeking to integrate gender considerations into their organizational structures and outputs. Developed under the UNECE Trade subprogramme project on Mainstreaming Gender throughout Quality Infrastructure, the GAP Model Blueprint is the first of its kind in the UN system to directly target the intersection of gender equality and regulatory systems in trade, standards, metrology, accreditation, and conformity assessment. Gender equality remains a central pillar of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. The publication builds on UNECE’s longstanding work on gender-responsive standards and the efforts of its Working Party on Regulatory Cooperation and Standardization Policies and its Team of Specialists on Gender-Responsive Standards. It represents a timely, concrete contribution to international efforts to make institutions more inclusive, effective, and equitable.