Inclusion only matters if it changes daily decisions. UNDP’s experience shows how combining internal DEI systems with program-level tools and measurable accountability turns inclusion from a slogan into practice, and gives small and growing business (SGB) support organizations a clear playbook to follow.
Policy Frameworks to Foster Inclusion
ANDE Asia Chapters have continued their ambition and effort to make the Access & Opportunity implementation possible within their cohort members’ organizations, leading to more inclusive ecosystems for the small and growing businesses (SGBs).
This final session of ANDE Access & Opportunity Learning Lab focused on policy frameworks that enable inclusion, both internally in organizations and in their external programming. During the session, the participants explored Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) approaches, practical tools, and frameworks to measure and sustain inclusion.
A Policy-at-a-Glance: Learning from an international organization’s inclusion journey
Shamha Naseer, Gender Specialist for the Youth Empowerment Portfolio in Asia and the Pacific at UNDP’s Bangkok Regional Hub, provided a policy-at-a-glance overview at both organizational and programmatic levels—framing the foundation for fostering meaningful inclusion. She shared UNDP’s inclusion journey in the hope that it would offer participants practical insights and strategies for taking their own inclusion journeys forward.
At its core, UNDP’s model looks at the full “policy journey”: what frameworks are in place, how they are operationalized, and what it takes to track inclusion over time—so that inclusion becomes a sustained practice rather than a one-off.
A two-front approach: looking inwards and looking outwards
UNDP operates on two fronts. As an employer, it has responsibilities to build an inclusive workplace (looking inwards). As a development organization, it has a mandate to support countries to advance the Sustainable Development Goals (looking outwards). For UNDP, inclusion is therefore both an internal commitment and a programmatic imperative.
Inclusion inwards: workforce, culture, and systems
“Inclusion inwards” focuses on how the organization engages its people, builds culture, and strengthens systems. It can be grounded in simple but powerful questions, such as:
- Is the organization meaningfully engaging with its own staff?
- Is it creating an inclusive environment?
- Do staff feel safe to bring their authentic selves to work?
- Are people able to integrate their lived experiences into how they shape and deliver results?
These questions help move inclusion from abstract values into everyday organizational practice.
Inclusion outwards: programs, partnerships, and power
“Inclusion outwards” examines programs and partnerships through an inclusion lens: how they are designed, who they reach, and whether the way we work shifts power dynamics in meaningful ways. It pushes us to ask:
- How are programs being designed—and by whom?
- Who benefits, and who may be excluded?
- How inclusive are the processes and outcomes?
- What practical tools and guidance can help teams embed inclusion across the program cycle?
This is where inclusion becomes visible—not only in intentions, but in decisions, partnerships, and outcomes.
People for 2030: the backbone of people and culture
At the policy level, the People for 2030 is a key internal strategy shaping UNDP’s commitment to a respectful, fair, and inclusive workplace—free of discrimination and supportive of a strong “speak-up” culture. People for 2030 has evolved through phases (including Phase 2: 2022–2025), reflecting lessons learned and organizational priorities, and continuing to adapt as UNDP learns what it takes to create an enabling environment for all personnel.
DEI Strategy (2023–2025): embedding equity and inclusion
As part of the People for 2030 agenda, UNDP launched its first Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Strategy (2023–2025). The strategy provides a roadmap for embedding DEI across workforce policies and organizational culture and is supported through governance arrangements including a Global DEI Committee that helps drive oversight and accountability around implementation.
UNDPListens: listening at scale, acting with intent
Beyond strategies, the session also underscored the importance of ensuring people actually feel included and that requires listening systematically.
UNDP uses UNDPListens, its People Listening Architecture, to understand and amplify personnel voices and generate actionable insights on organizational culture. It supports a more comprehensive view of staff experience and helps teams identify barriers to engagement and inclusion, and then act on those insights. Findings are used to inform short-, medium-, and longer-term priorities.
UNDPListens includes:
- An annual Engagement Survey, capturing perceptions of the overall working experience and environment.
- An annual Inclusion Survey, tracking key drivers of inclusion such as belonging, trust, and psychological safety—including perceptions of respectful, harassment-free workplaces.
- An annual People Leadership Pulse, enabling upward feedback on leadership behaviors.
The session also noted that interpreting these results matters as much as collecting them: an intersectional lens helps the organization understand how different experiences and identities shape how inclusion is felt across teams and contexts.
Gender Equality Strategy (2022–2025) and Gender Parity Strategy (2022–2025)
UNDP’s Gender Equality Strategy (2022–2025) sets the direction for advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment—both through programming and through strengthened institutional practices and accountability.
In parallel, UNDP’s Gender Parity Strategy (2022–2025) focuses on sustaining and strengthening gender balance across the workforce, including at leadership levels.
Accountability tools: tracking investments and strengthening action at country level
To match ambition with resourcing, UNDP uses the Gender Marker as an accountability tool to track investments that advance or contribute to gender equality and women’s empowerment.
At the country-office level, these commitments are often operationalized through a Gender Equality Strategy and Action Plan, supported by institutional mechanisms and reinforced through the UNDP’s Gender Seal for Development.
Disability inclusion: a shared UN system commitment
The United Nations Disability Inclusion Strategy (UNDIS) provides UN-wide direction to mainstream disability inclusion across all areas of work. UNDIS is guided by three overarching approaches:
- Twin-track approach: disability inclusion is mainstreamed across all work, alongside targeted actions focused specifically on persons with disabilities.
- Intersectionality: disability intersects with factors such as age, gender, and location—shaping lived experiences and barriers in different ways.
- Coordination: coherent, coordinated approaches across entities help accelerate progress and build on each other’s efforts toward inclusion.
Inclusion integrated into programs: tools that support practice
The session emphasized that inclusive programming is not only about values—it’s about the tools and habits that teams consistently use to design, deliver, and learn.
Across programming, UNDP commonly applies tools and approaches such as:
- Gender analysis to understand gender barriers and power dynamics that should shape programme design and implementation.
- Leave No One Behind (LNOB) and vulnerability lenses to identify who is being left behind, why, and what barriers prevent access, participation, and benefit.
- Partnership approaches that intentionally bring in civil society actors such as women’s organizations and organizations of persons with disabilities (OPDs) to ground programme choices in lived realities.
- Resource tracking and accountability, including the Gender Marker, to align financial investments with inclusion ambitions.
- Corporate reporting and system-wide frameworks that help track progress and highlight where stronger effort is needed (for example, reporting linked to gender equality and UN system-wide accountability frameworks).
Beyond internal policies and operational tools, UNDP aims to leverage these approaches externally—supporting partners and ecosystems to move the needle on inclusion and gender equality.
Two examples highlighted were:
- The Gender Equality Seal: a certification framework recognizing strong performance in delivering gender-transformative results, typically involving self-assessment against benchmarks, action planning, and third-party validation (with recognition levels such as Bronze, Silver, and Gold).
- Evidence and benchmarking tools that support better decisions and accountability, such as:
- A global Gender Social Norms Index, which provides data on how social norms and biases continue to shape gender equality outcomes, and
- The 2024 LGBTI Inclusion Index: Report on the Pilot Implementation, which offers benchmarks to help institutions understand and strengthen inclusion through an LGBTI lens.
The practical advice for cohort members advance Access and Opportunity implementation within their own organizations, include:
- Leadership commitment is key—leaders can set the tone for inclusion from the start.
- Policies and strategies matter, but they must be translated into day-to-day practice.
- Simple, practical steps can shift outcomes: How inclusive are your terms of reference? Is your language gender-biased? Do your outreach messages and visuals reflect inclusion in who they speak to and how they represent people?
- Committees and oversight mechanisms help—technical and advisory structures can strengthen accountability and follow-through.
- Track progress with meaningful markers—this can go beyond quantitative targets to include inclusion-focused indicators, benchmarks, and success measures throughout the year.
- Connect inclusion to reporting—link organizational commitments to programme and corporate/donor reporting so progress is visible and action-oriented.
- Partner with and through women’s organizations and OPDs—so programs continue to reflect real barriers and deliver solutions that are practical, lasting, and sustainable.