as noted limited accountability mechanisms combined w ith a lack of awareness within the public service have been identified as main barriers to advancing gender equality initiatives and mainstreaming by more than of the countries responding to the survey strengthening implementation and accountability mechanisms supported by a wholeofgovemment approach could significantly advance the implementation of gender equality and mainstreaming initiatives to support the full empowerment of women for countries competitiveness and growth a recent global synthesis report on national gender institutions concludes that legal reforms appear to be a major area of achievement for these mechanisms