“Gender mainstreaming” is a means to achieving gender equality. It ensures that restrictive norms and power imbalances that lead to gender inequality are addressed at all levels of an organization's programming, as well as its internal policies, systems, and culture. Many public and private institutions have utiilized gender mainstreaming efforts in their portfolios with varying degrees of success. The Chroma Collective offers a unique and collaborative platform for leading donor and funding organizations with a strong track record in gender mainstreaming to jointly address entrenched challenges and co-create innovative solutions to help meet their gender equality commitments

Iris Group is working jointly with IDEO.org, a human-centered design firm, over the next two years to develop and manage this network of leading donor and funding organizations committed to advancing gender equality in global development. Iris Group's role in co-convening the Collective includes providing sound technical direction, support in leading discussions and exercises, and facilitation of diagnostic methodologies such as Group Model Building (GMB), a systems thinking approach for understanding, managing, and designing change within complex systems. Collective members are using GMB to better understand gender mainstreaming successes, challenges, and gaps within their institutions, and is the basis for designing potential solutions.