promotion of gender equality should be the responsibility of all ministries and agencies across governments from finance to education centrally located gender institutions are often perceived as having more authority and better capacity to steer a governmentwide implementation of equality agenda but this is not a generalised rule and political will and public service leadership support are essential no matter the choice of institutional structures activating and adequately supporting appropriate mechanisms for monitoring and evaluating the impact of initiatives is another key tool for successful policy development effective interdepartmental coordination is also critical to implementation efforts