This activity brings the broader gender perspective into the development or revision of policies and strategies. The purpose of this step is to gather relevant legislative and policy information on gender equality, as well as evidence and data, in order to provide a clear picture of the gender situation, including any groups that may be particularly marginalized in development processes. This step can also be used to identify and reach out to gender experts who should be involved in the process, including those from volunteer organizations. In many contexts, there will already be one or more documents setting out the situation in terms of gender equality. It will be important to find and use these documents rather than starting any new work, as they are likely to have been developed with the input of relevant experts.

This next step requires a gender analysis of volunteerism in the context, if such an analysis does not already exist. Analysis requires examining everything from volunteering-specific policy and legal frameworks, to rates of participation in volunteer work among women, men, girl and boys, the types of roles and sectors that they work in and how this is perceived and valued. Information can be collated from national statistics on volunteering where these exist, but also studies and reports produced by organizations that work with volunteers, including civil society organizations, private sector organizations and academia. It is important to remember that volunteering goes beyond the delivery of services and includes several forms of civic engagement and participation such as social activism, social movements and campaigning, as well as environmental protection.

National volunteering policies and schemes should consider the perspective and representation of women and girls in relevant policymaking processes, bodies, councils and decisions, particularly since women take on the majority of volunteer work. At the same time, national volunteer policy frameworks and strategies rarely command the type of resources and influence needed to address many key drivers of gender equality through volunteerism. National policies should therefore highlight or summarize how volunteerism and gender equality issues can be integrated into wider policies and frameworks, including national and subnational gender targets, and how volunteering actors can support these linkages.

Most countries have a range of national gender equality frameworks, policies and processes. At present, there is no global database on national policies, but these can be easily accessed from national government platforms or from partners (see the United Nations Armenia repository of national gender documents as an example, which covers laws, frameworks and the establishment of bodies that coordinate and monitor progress).

To date, volunteerism has rarely been integrated into such frameworks, with more focus given to gender dimensions of paid (formal and informal) employment, and more recently, domestic care work. Given that volunteer work comprises around 2.4 per cent of global GDP,6 much of which is carried out by women informally in their communities, it is important to ensure that volunteer work is also covered in gender equality frameworks and plans. This could include integrating indicators relating to volunteer work, as well as documenting volunteer contributions to gender equality in the country or context.

Sector policies or strategies that involve volunteer efforts are also important. Many sectors rely on volunteer labour to support policy goals, even if this is not explicitly stated in official documents. Since sector strategies often direct the comprehensive overview of policy priorities, as well as the resources to tackle these, they are best placed to address gender and volunteering issues, especially the need for investments in volunteers themselves. The relevant sectoral policy will depend on the areas of gender inequality identified in part 2, though could include policy covering labour and employment, care and social policy, health and other basic services, and social protection and welfare. Box 4.2 provides some examples of instances where volunteerism has been incorporated into development strategies.