In August 2013, a questionnaire on gender equality and culture was distributed to UNESCO Member States. The key objective was to take stock of Member States’ actions over the past ten years related to gender equality and/or women’s empowerment in the field of culture with the purpose of informing the 2014 UNESCO Report on Gender Equality and Culture and feeding into the work of UNESCO’s Culture Sector. The questionnaire aimed to gage the current status and learn from past experiences in order to guide future strategic direction and reform.

The questionnaire was structured around seven areas:

(i)             national policies;

(ii)            national implementation strategies of UNESCO culture conventions;

(iii)           access to decision-making;

(iv)           education, capacity-building and training;

(v)            access to credit and financial resources allocation;

(vi)           visibility and awareness-raising; and

(vii)          statistics and indicators.

31 Permanent Delegations to UNESCO responded with questionnaires, representing 16 per cent of UNESCO Member States (195).