As efforts intensify to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, developed and developing countries have committed to new partnerships and aid modalities, designed to align aid to nationally-determined development priorities, to pool diverse aid sources into direct support to the national budget or to particular sectors, and to ensure greater stability and predictability in aid flows. The Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness1 summarizes the principles and indicators of progress agreed to by the OECD-DAC donor countries and the developing country partners.

Linking gender equality to the aid effectiveness agenda
Gender equality is central to achieving the MDGs and other development goals, making it important to ensure that aid structures target and monitor progress towards gender equality goals. Ultimately, gender equality outcomes will be important signs of the effectiveness of the new approach to aid delivery and partnership.

To support gender equality, the new aid architecture should include:
• adequate financing for programmes that respond to women’s needs;
• accountability systems for governments and donors to track and enhance their contributions to gender equality; and
• gender-sensitive progress assessments, performance monitoring and indicators for aid effectiveness.

This note is an outcome of a November 2005 international consultation in Brussels organized by the United Nations Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and the European Commission.2 It identifies an initial set of considerations to ensure that gender equality is central to the aid effectiveness agenda. This note is intended for policy-makers currently adjusting to the new aid modalities— such as officials and analysts in Ministries of Finance, Planning and Women’s Affairs; women’s rights advocates at domestic, regional and international levels; and bilateral and multilateral development actors such as Resident Coordinators in the UN system.

 

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