Social Audit Standard (SAS) 400
Promoting Gender Equality, Empowerment of Women and LGBTQIA+ communities
(SAS 400 should be read in conjunction with the “Preface to the Social Audit Standards”and “Framework
for the Social Audit Standards”, issued by the ICAI)
SECTION I – INTRODUCTION
Objective and Scope
1.10 This Social Audit Standard relates to the thematic area of “Promoting gender equality, empowerment of women and LGBTQIA+ communities”. The Standard aims to provide the Social Auditor with the necessary guidance in relation to independent impact assessment engagement of Social Enterprises engaged in Promoting gender equality, empowerment of women and LGBTQIA+ communities and the audit steps and procedures that should be applied while conducting the social impact assessment. The Standard sets out the minimum requirements to be followed while conducting impact assessment. Laws or regulations may establish additional requirements which should be followed as applicable.
SECTION II – Process of Social Audit
Data Collection
1.20 The stakeholders that may be approached for obtaining data may include:
- Direct stakeholders e.g., Non-profit entities, Implementing partners.
- Target population/ beneficiaries of the direct stakeholders
- Indirect stakeholders e.g., Funding entities, Government and related institutions, media agencies, academic institutions, professional groups (legal, accounting, compliance, etc.)
- Monitoring Agency
- Staff (full time/part time employees, consultants, etc.)
- Board of advisors/trustees/directors
- Key officials of the reporting entity
The overall activity of conducting a survey and collecting sample data should be reviewed in terms of the following factors to assess relevance and reliability:
- designed by an in-house team or external specialized agency
- conducted by an in-house team or external specialized agency
- coverage: number and types of non-profit entities served
Desk Review
1.30 The Social Auditor should conduct a desk review of existing documents to gain further insight into the evaluation procedure and impact assessment. Such documents, in relation to promoting gender equality, empowerment of women and LGBTQIA+ communities, may include the following:
- Memorandum of Understanding /Contract between the reporting entity and the non-profit entities
- Knowledge materials (reports, articles, videos, case studies, caselets etc.) shared with nonprofit entities:
Indicative general documents
- National Policy for Women Empowerment, National Commission for Women Act, Article 377, LGBTQIA rights, Research study/reports of other organizations working for these sections of community, amongst others programme specific documents– Inception Report, Implementation Plan, Overall Project Report, in-house study reports, training reports, amongst others
- Feedback (testimonials, ratings, recommendations, etc.) provided by non-profit entities
- Enrolment data for training/workshops and/or convening programmes designed for non-profits
- Advertisement – leaflets/newspaper/social media
- Photographs of project activities
Inspection and Personal Interviews
1.40 Besides desk review, the social auditor should also consider conducting physical inspection and personal interviews to get a first hand assessment of impact.
Evaluation Questions
1.50 The social auditor should review the evaluation questions addressed through Questionnaires, In-depth interviews and Focused Group Discussions to assess the responses received from various stakeholders and to understand what has changed. This would help the Social Auditor in forming his views on the following aspects, in relation to promoting gender equality, empowering Women and LGBTQIA+ communities.
- Has there been an increase in women & LGBTQIA+ communities in access to health, education, information, training, or other services?
- Has there been an increase in women & LGBTQIA+ communities in access to or control over productive resources, services, or assets, including resources provided by the program?
- Have women & LGBTQIA+ communities been empowered to claim their rights in public and private spheres?
- Have women & LGBTQIA+ communities participated equally with men in the program, including in decision making and leadership?
- Has the program challenged or changed attitudes on the rights of women & LGBTQIA+ communities (including attitudes on violence against women), strengthened women’s knowledge of their rights, or fostered a greater understanding of women’s rights among men and boys?
- Is sex-disaggregated data regularly collected and analysed?
- Have gender and social analysis skills been strengthened among key stakeholders, including their capacity to develop, implement, and monitor gender strategies?
- Is there a greater understanding of gender issues in the sector?
- What factors and strategies of the program helped to foster positive changes toward gender equality?
- What constrained the achievement of equal participation, benefits, and outcomes for women & LGBTQIA+ communities?
- Were there some program components where men or boys benefited much more than women or girls, and what contributed to this?
- Were there any unintended positive or negative changes in gender relations? What factors and strategies contributed to these changes?
- Are positive changes in gender relations likely to be sustained? What factors will contribute to this and what is likely to undermine the sustainability of positive changes?
Key Metrics for Evaluation of Project / Program
1.60 The Social Auditor should review the project/program documents to frame the evaluation criteria for assessing impact. The Social Auditor should identify the combination of quantitative and qualitative evaluation criteria against which the impact has to be assessed.
- The baseline measurement to establish the starting point of project/program, which is then used to measure what actually changed due to the intervention of the entity.
- Assess the past performance trend of the entity.
- Assess the highlights and key achievements during the reporting period.
- Demography
- Socio-economic profile of target group
- Asset ownership pattern
- Change in human capital, economic empowerment, rights & discrimination, equality & gender capacity,
- Demography, Educational and Social Background of the beneficiaries – e.g. Age wise distribution, Marital status, Education qualification (e.g. Primary, Secondary, Senior Secondary, Diploma, Graduation, Post-Graduation), social category wise distribution (e.g. General, SC, ST, OBC, PWD, EWS, BPL Card Holders etc.),
- Relevance & usefulness of project activities
- Quality of the delivery mechanism
- Women in distress, facing abuse in their lives, making them financially dependent
- Support them to have decision making power.
- LGBTQAI+ community- in terms of acceptance, they are prone to several diseases especially due to their high risk sexual behaviour.
Other factors
- Organisation and Programme Strategy
- Resource mobilization
- Leveraging technology
- Attracting, retaining, and nurturing talent
- Service delivery
- Communications
- Forming partnerships
- Financial and impact reporting practices
Socio-economic factors - Socio-economic improvement due to program intervention
- Livelihood creation
- Increase in income
- Improved facilities at home
- Changes in socio-economic factors – acceptance / respect in the village / society, economic condition, health condition, confidence level, purchasing power, earning avenues
Assessment of Evaluation Criteria (Illustrative Key Performance Indicators)
1.70 The Social Auditor should identify the quantitative and qualitative evaluation criteria or the key performance indicators against which the impact has to be assessed. The impact should be assessed in terms of:
Quantitative Criteria
- Within women and LGBTQIA + communities, issues indicators relevant to specific groups, also need to be covered e.g. children, older persons, persons with disabilities, minorities, indigenous peoples, migrants,
- Rate of crimes against women per 1,00,000 female population
- Sex ratio at birth
- Ratio of female to male average wage/salary earnings received among regular wage/salaried employees
- Per 1,00,000 women who have experienced cruelty/physical violence by husband or his relatives during the year
- Percentage of elected women over total seats in the state legislative assembly
- Ratio of female to male Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) (15-59 years)
- Proportion of women in managerial positions including women in board of directors, in listed companies (per 1,000 persons)
- Percentage of currently married women aged 15-49 years who have their demand for modern methods of family planning satisfied
- Operational land holding gender wise (percentage of female operated operational holdings)
- Indicators on the extent of inequalities and empowerment
- Indicators should measure income inequalities, as well as other economic social, political and environmental inequalities,
- Changes in real disposable income and consumption
- Proportion of households living below 50% median income (relative poverty)
Women Empowerment & Gender Equality:
- Geographical coverage of reporting entity
- Type of activities initiated under the thematic area
- Self Help Groups (SHGs) Formation
- Number of SHGs formed
- Number of women involved in SHGs
- Number of women capacitated under capacity building activity
- Small Scale Business
- Types of business introduced
- Reach of the project
- Geographical coverage
- Education
- Literacy gap between male & female
- Enrolment rates for male & female in primary and secondary education
- Number of girls & boys enrolling, attending, and completing primary & secondary education
- Repetition and drop-out rates for primary & secondary schooling by sex, ethnicity & location
- Number of male and female enrolled for adult education/remedial classes
- Number of women trained on gender issues, rights, under women empowerment
- Number of women received counselling in cases of domestic violence or for wrongful behaviour
- LGBTQIA:
- Number of states/area/geographical coverage
- Name of categories of LGBTQIA+ they are working in
- Number of LGBTQIA+ community people covered
- Areas working in for LGBTQIA+ community
- Health
- Men who have sex with Men (MSM)/female sex workers (FSW)
- HIV/AIDS
- Mobile/Static Clinic Set up
- Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) Check-ups & HIV Testing
- Any other health services
- Number of LGBTQIA+ community people with distress received counselling on time
Training:
- Number of trainings organized for your own team to develop their skills
- Number of training programmes initiated for Women Empowerment, gender equality and LGBTQIA+ communities (whichever is applicable)
- Number of people covered under trainings in above-mentioned category
B. Qualitative Criteria
- Inequality gaps for selected social, economic, environmental and political Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets
- Proportion of seats held in national parliament by social group
- Indicators on discrimination in laws, policies and practices
- Indicators to eradicate violence, hate crime and xenophobia,
- Barriers to participation and promote affirmative action.
- Proportion of people from disadvantaged social groups benefitting from affirmative action
- Existence of an independent body to promote equality and non-discrimination
- Existence of policies and programmes to address inequalities
LGBTQIA:
- Advocacy
- Type of sensitization activities held for awareness
- Initiatives introduced for Policy Change
- Community Mobilization
- Legal Awareness
- Counselling (Legal/Health)
- Any legal cell or aid services set up to help them
- Any collaboration/convergence with community-based organizations (CBOs)
- Level of convergence with CBOs
Women Empowerment & Gender Equality:
- Type of Activities for social & behaviour change communication of male & female
- Any legal committee/cell established to support women dealing with abuse
- Difference in participation level of male & female in income generation activities, decision making authority etc.
Training:
- Types of training organized for their staff and purpose of the training
- Types of trainings organized for social & behaviour change communication of male & female
- Types of training programmes initiated for Women Empowerment, gender equality and LGBTQIA+ (whichever is applicable)
- Vocational Training
- Technical Training
- Awareness/Sensitization Training
- Financial & Banking Services
- Self Defence Training
- Any material/equipment provided during training
- Any measures taken for market reach
SECTION III – ASSESSMENT OF CHALLENGES, AND LIMITATIONS
Challenges / Areas for improvement
1.80 The Social Auditor should identify the challenges faced by the stakeholders and the areas for improvement based on the suggestions and feedback received from them, which might have an influence on the impact assessment. Some of the examples of commonly faced issues in relation to promoting education, employability and livelihoods may include the following:
- Workplace culture.
- Lack of female leaders.
- Gender stereotypes.
- Lack of flexible work practices.
- Affordability and accessibility of childcare.
- Sexism.
- Lack of mentors.
- Societal expectations regarding gender roles e.g. household work/childcare
- lack of access to land, capital, financial resources and technology,
- gender-based violence
- Cultural mindsets and stereotypes.
Any significant issues observed during the assessment, that may influence the user of the impact assessment in decision making, should be highlighted by the social Auditor in the social audit report.
Limitations of the assessment
1.90 The Social Auditor should identify the inherent limitations of the evaluation process which might have an influence on the impact assessment. Some of the examples may include the following:
- Cases of no-response in case the questionnaire is not administered in person
- Some of the questions being skipped by the respondents and remaining unanswered
- Non-availability of respondents due to re-location to other places after completion of the course
- Change in contact details of respondents due to which they could not be contacted
- Stigma attached to LGBTQIA community and the issues they face
- Lack of access to equal opportunity
- Acceptance and existence in the society related to their identification
- Disparity in education and economic growth for women
Any significant limitations observed during the assessment, that may influence the user of the Impact assessment in decision making, should be highlighted by the Social Auditor in the social audit report.
SECTION IV – APPENDIX
Taxonomic classification of areas and sub-areas for social objectives
(relating to Promoting gender equality, empowerment of women and LGBTQIA+ communities)
|
Sr. No |
Areas | Sub-areas |
| 4 | Promoting gender equality, empowerment of women and LGBTQIA+ communities | Ending all forms of discrimination against all women, girls and LGBTQIA+ communities everywhere |
| Eliminate all forms of violence against all women, girls and LGBTQIA+ communities in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation | ||
| Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation | ||
| Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family |
||
| Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life | ||
| Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights |
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