§ The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean)The FCO has today published a booklet entitledInclusive Government: Mainstreaming gender into foreign policy, prepared by its Gender Advisory Group. Copies of this booklet have been placed in the Library of the House. From 23 June it will also be available on the FCO's website at www.fco.gov.uk.
Mainstreaming gender is about considering fully the impact on men and women of a particular policy, project or service, and taking steps to ensure that those impacts are positive for both sexes. Mainstreaming gender is crucial to the work of the FCO.
This booklet draws together the work the FCO is already doing on gender, and serves as a toolkit for FCO staff to mainstream gender more fully into their work. I hope it will help to ensure that the FCO can devise more effective policies, and make better use of resources, leading to positive outcomes for the UK.