Gender is a critical dimension of parliamentary scrutiny. Considering laws, policies, programmes and budgets from a gender perspective ensures that they are fair to both men and women.

This leads to better decision-making for everyone. This is a practical guide for Members of the Fiji Parliament on how to scrutinise legislation from a gender perspective, in the day-to-day work of a parliamentarian. It is not an academic or theoretical description of the concepts of gender, equality or analysis but is designed to be a practical document.

While the toolkit specifically focuses on the scrutiny of legislation, the ideas can be applied to the scrutiny of policies and programmes too. Considering budgets from a gender perspective will be covered in other documents.