This Guide is based on the document called Destination Equality: Path for the development of institutional capacities for gender mainstreaming in public policies (2012), put together by the Gender Practice Area of the United Nations Development Program Regional Center for Latin America and the Caribbean, and it offers some guidelines for the development of capacities within the Legislative Branch for attaining gender mainstreaming in all its actions.

The proposed tool consists of a series of strategic steps or stations that guide a process oriented towards legislative change with gender equality as the arrival point. Parliaments that decide to involve themselves in this challenge will set out on a journey that includes a process of self-diagnosis, the definition of a Plan for the development of capacities and their implementation and evaluation. The methodology will be useful in reinforcing the political control activities under the Legislative Branch and in strengthening its responsibility to offer public information to the citizenry. These considerations evidence that gender mainstreaming will contribute to democratic governance in the region.