The BRS Gender Action Plan (BRS-GAP) was finalized in December 2013 and aims to ensure that principles of gender equality are firmly embedded in activities undertaken by the Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions (BRS). Together, the BRS Conventions have the objective of protecting human health and the environment from the negative effects of hazardous waste, hazardous chemicals and persistent organic pollutants (POPs). In 2012, a single Secretariat was created to organise meetings of the conferences of the Parties to the conventions, to disseminate information, to assist Parties and work with other international bodies. The BRS Secretariat supports “countries…[and] regional centres to address the sound management of hazardous chemicals and wastes.”1 As part of its mandate to address the gender dimensions of the BRS Conventions, the Secretariat has requested Women Engage for a Common Future (WECF) and its partners to carry out scoping studies in two pilot countries, Indonesia and Nigeria. The main objective of the project is to develop an understanding by the Parties and stakeholders of BRS on the issue of gender equality, including identifying vulnerable groups, and the different impacts of hazardous chemicals and wastes on men and women, boys and girls; and to promote the consideration of gender issues in hazardous chemicals and waste management at the national and regional levels. The scoping study aimed to understand three gender dimensions:
• How is women and men‘s health differently impacted by POPs, hazardous chemicals & waste?
• How do women and men’s occupations and roles at home and at work influence their exposure to POPs, hazardous chemicals & waste?
• What best practices with women and men’s leadership exist to substitute and eliminate the negative impacts of POPs, hazardous chemicals & waste?
Gender refers to sociocultural norms, identities, and relations that: 1) structure societies and organizations; and 2) shape behaviors, products, technologies, environments, and knowledge (Schiebinger, 1999). Gender attitudes and behaviors are complex and change across time and place. Importantly, gender is multidimensional (Hyde et al., 2018; Dubois et al., 2025) and intersects with other social categories, such as sex, age, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation and ethnicity (see intersectionality. Gender is distinct from sex (Fausto-Sterling, 2012). Historically, gender definitions have been based on a binary concept – women and men. In most key UN definitions, this binary framework continues to dominate, including in chemical policy. To avoid exclusions, newer definitions and guidelines often additionally use the term “all genders”. Beyond defining gender, applying a binary concept within the difference approach to Gender Mainstreaming remains valuable, productive and necessary, as it allows for comparing the experiences of women and men. Analyzing these differences and using binary-disaggregated data provides insights into social structures and inequalities. While we often work with binary categories for analytical purposes (also in chemicals management), we want to do so with a clear awareness of their limitations and with the aim of building more inclusive approaches in the future.
A Gender Action Plan (GAP) is the plan for gender activities that an institution has adopted for itself. Its purpose is to make the institutions’ activities more effective, efficient, and successful by addressing existing gender inequalities and redefining women’s and men’s gender roles and relations through guidance on gender mainstreaming. Several UN Conventions, Frameworks, and Organizations have their own Gender Action Plans, e.g. the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions; Minamata Convention; the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change; and the Convention on Biological Diversity.
Gender analysis is a critical examination of how differences in gender roles, activities, needs, opportunities, and rights/entitlements affect men, women, girls, and boys in certain situations or contexts. Gender analysis examines the relationships between females and males and their access to and control of resources and the constraints they face relative to each other. A gender analysis should be integrated into all sector assessments or situational analyses to ensure that gender-based injustices and inequalities are not exacerbated by interventions and that, where possible, greater equality and justice in gender relations are promoted.