A workplace like any other community is comprised of men and women who have various social, cultural, religious, racial, educational and economic backgrounds. In the presence of such diversity, it is important to determine the presence of any discrimination and/or harassment which jeopardise the environment of the conduciveness of the workplace. Periodic assessments of members of the workplace can aid in identifying instances of discrimination and/or harassment, and lead to implementing solutions to mitigate it.

Specifically, gender issues tend to permeate from private into public workplaces. Considering that gender, and its related behaviour is a social issue, it manifests itself even at the workplace. Its face at the workplace would include but is not limited to, gender-based discrimination and sexual harassment.

COMESA has planned to prepare an overarching Regional Gender Based Violence Workplace Policy which takes into account workplace’s gender power relations in line with other factors such as age, educational level and expertise, organizational position, race, religion, and cultural background.

The purpose of this questionnaire is to understand the overall situation of workplace environments with specific attention to gender-based discrimination and harassment in differential power dynamics of workplace.

The questionnaire will be completed by men and women employees of public and private sector organizations. This includes international civil servants in international organizations in the region.

The responses will be analysed to feed into the assessment report to develop a regional gender-based violence workplace policy.

Your reliable information is vital so please answer the questions as honestly as possible. To maintain confidentiality, all answers will be treated anonymously.