The first RDRS gender policy was introduced in 1995. In 2002 the gender policy was revised on the basis of practical feedback from staff and program participants.
The gender policy is used as a guide to integrate a gender-aware, sustainable development approach in all programmes, projects and policies in order to ensure gender-equitable outcomes and to institutionalize gender and gender-related issues in the organization. In the RDRS strategic plan, gender is a cross cutting issue.
RDRS Women’s forum
Empowering women is not an easy task. Therefore, RDRS has adapted different approaches for women’s development since 1976. To address the gender issues this has been incorporated in all activities as a cross-cutting issue that resulted in the emergence of the women’s forum in RDRS in 1999. The forum is constituted at 3 levels e.g. Upazila, District, Central. All female staff of different level are participating and highlighting their issues for their personal development as well as programme implementation on gender aspects.
The main objectives of this forum:
To orient all categories of staff on gender and gender policy and to encourage them to follow the policy at personal and program levels.
To give active and proper support at all levels for better implementation of the gender policy.
To collect gender related data/ information from different sources.
To establish network from local level to regional and national level.
