We are a values-based organisation. Human rights, equity, and justice are at the core of our existence, and it is of the utmost importance to provide our services in a responsible and accountable manner. Therefore, we are committed to gender equality and women’s empowerment:

• We ensure that all aspects of our work reflect our commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment, taking additional measures when possible to honour this commitment. When direct action is not possible, we ensure that our actions do not contribute directly or indirectly in any way to gender inequality, gender-based discrimination, or gender injustice.

• We invest in strengthening our institutional capacity (in terms of our understanding of gender and our skills in relevant tools, methodologies, and approaches) to promote gender equality, women’s empowerment, and gender justice. We strive to develop our institutional expertise on tools, methodologies, and approaches that are designed around or anchored on gender and empowerment (such as feminist evaluation approaches and utility-focused evaluation).

• Our work team is gender-balanced, including when engaging outside of the core team, such as the in-country teams (local and national consultants and enumerators) and other technical teams, experts, specialists, advisors, analysts, editors, and quality controllers.

• Everyone involved with or representing us is expected to demonstrate attitudes and behaviours that promote gender equality, and this is clearly articulated in our contractual agreements. We promote a gender-friendly work environment in our work teams and field operations. Appropriate actions are taken against any team members found to be involved in any manner (directly or indirectly) in promoting or supporting gender-based discrimination, gender-based violence, gender inequality, or gender injustice. 

• We adopt gender-sensitive approaches and methodologies in all aspects of our services, from proposal development to implementation to submission of our deliverables. We propose and apply gender-sensitive and gender-focused methodologies, methods, and tools for undertaking consultancy assignments (even when such approaches are not specifically demanded by the clients or the area of work is not directly related to gender or women).

• We promote participatory approaches in all aspects of our work to ensure women's equitable participation, as well as ensure equitable gender representation in data collection and that women's voices are heard and represented appropriately.

• We adopt gender analysis as a key approach for analysing our data and drawing conclusions. Gender-disaggregated data is an integral part of our data collection, analysis, and presentation.

• We ensure that our recommendations reflect our commitments to promote gender equality, women's empowerment, and gender justice, as well as that the presentation of our findings is gender-sensitive and reflects gender concerns. We use gender-sensitive and gender-neutral (where possible) language in all our communications, including all our reports, presentations, and debriefings, as well as all our official communications and publications (both internal and external).

• We ensure that adequate resources are allocated in our proposed budget so that assignments operationalise the proposed gender-sensitive methods and approaches without constraints. Additionally, we ensure that our work approaches adequately address ethical standards and safety, security, and protection concerns that reflect the importance of dignity and respect for human and women's rights. This is articulated and documented in our proposals and inception reports and agreed upon with the clients.

• We consider it our moral duty to report any kind of gender-based discrimination, gender-based violence, or abuse (actual or potential) that comes to our notice. If such a situation arises, we approach the appropriate authorities and take necessary measures. We also seek partnerships and alliances with institutions that align with our gender principles and approaches. Where any shortfalls are noticed, such partnerships and alliances are discontinued.