Aid in Support of Gender Equality & Women’s Empowerment

On-line dataset: data on aid in support of gender equality and women’s empowerment can now be accessed through a new on-line dedicated dataset, both at aggregate and activity level: Aid activities targeting gender equality and women's empowerment .

CRS Report: Aid in support of gender equality and women's empowerment

This analytical chapter is divided in five chapters (5 themes):

1. Aid in support of gender equality and women's empowerment: Statistical overview

This chapter examines data on OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) member aid flows that explicitly target gender equality and women’s empowerment. It provides guidance for analysis and interpretation of gender equality marker data and discusses the main methodological issues and possible ways forward.

2. Aid in support of women's economic empowerment

Economic empowerment aims to raise the capacity of women and men to participate in, contribute to and benefit from growth processes in ways which recognise the value of their contributions, respect their dignity and make it possible to negotiate a fairer distribution of the benefits of growth. This chapter examines DAC members’ aid to women’s economic empowerment in 2007-08.

3. Aid in support of gender equality in education and health

This chapter examines the extent to which Development Assistance Committee (DAC) donors’ aid to education and health addressed gender equality objectives in 2009-2010. It compares these aid flows against global gaps in education and health to provide a picture of how aid can be more effectively targeted to enable more girls and women to access education and health.

4. Aid in support of gender equality in Fragile and Conflicted-affected States

This study is a contribution to mark the 10th anniversary of the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (in 2010), and provides an overview of DAC members’ funding targeted to gender equality in fragile and conflict-affected states.

5. Aid in support of gender equality in humanitarian contexts (forthcoming)

Annual charts by donor

The DAC Secretariat annually publishes statistical charts showing the aid allocated by each DAC member for gender equality and women’s empowerment. The document Aid in Support of Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment was last published in March 2013 with aid data for 2010-2011. Information includes the share of aid focussed on gender equality, top ten recipients, a sector breakdown and marker coverage for each DAC donor.

Methodology

Definition:

Data on DAC members’ aid targeting gender equality and women’s empowerment are compiled with the help of the gender equality marker in the Creditor Reporting System (CRS). Every aid activity reported to the CRS should be screened and marked as either (i) targeting gender equality as a “principal objective” or a “significant objective”, or (ii) not targeting the objective.

An activity should be classified as gender equality focussed (score Principal or Significant) if it is intended to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment or reduce discrimination and inequalities based on sex. Criteria for eligibility: gender equality is explicitly promoted in activity documentation trough specific measures which:

Reduce social, economic or political power inequalities between women and men, girls and boys, ensure that women benefit equally with men from the activity, or compensate for past discrimination; or
Develop or strengthen gender equality or anti-discrimination policies, legislation or institutions.

Important note on coverage:

The first element to take into account when analysing the data for one country or when comparing data between countries is the COVERAGE RATIO, i.e. the proportion of aid which is screened. A high percentage of gender equality focussed aid alone does not mean that aid is well aligned with the gender equality policy objective; such a conclusion would only be valid for a donor with 100% coverage. When comparing data between donors, both coverage ratio and % of aid focussed on gender equality and women's empowerment have to be considered.

Data:

To get data on the gender equality marker go to the CRS dataset on Aid activities targeting gender equality and women's empowerment. A Users’ guide for the CRS on-line database to the gender markers is also available.

Click here for an example of statistics on gender equality (Sub-Saharan Africa focussed aid by recipient and sector, 2009).

Follow the money - tracking financing for gender equality This paper, by Patti O'Neill of the OECD's Development Co-operation Directorate, was prepared as an input to the 2012 UN Commission on the Status of women (CSW). It provides an introduction to the DAC gender equality policy marker, and sets out what the data on aid targeting gender equality tell us and how they are used.

Related Documents

Financing the unfinished business of gender equality and women's rights: priorities for the post-2015 framework, technical brief (pdf, March 2014)

Financing the unfinished business of gender equality and women's rights: priorities for the post-2015 framework, based on the technical brief (pdf, March 2014)

Mainstreaming Gender Equality (pdf, November 2011, Evaluation Insights, Network on Development Evaluation)

Aid in Support of Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment - March 2011

Aid in Support of Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment (2007-2008)

Aid in support of gender equality and women's empowerment 2006-2007

Aid in support of gender equality and women's empowerment 2005-2006

Aid in Support of Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment (2004-2005)

Analysis of aid in support of gender equality 1999-2003

Gender equality and women's empowerment

OECD work on Gender