Gender equality benefits women and girls, helping them out of poverty and giving them confidence in getting their voices heard. Additionally, it supports progress on other development goals such as food security thus benefitting the wider community. Progress, however, has been slow and beyond primary education, large gaps in gender parity persist.
Despite aid targeted at gender equality tripling in the last 15 years, it remains inadequate. A trend towards funding shorter, more easily measurable projects has adversely affected women’s organisations which tend to engage in longer term work tackling deep rooted causes of inequality. New forms of funding, such as the private sector and philanthropy, offer both opportunities and challenges. This article notes that besides volume, funding effectiveness is important, yet donor take up for guidance in using tools to ensure gender-sensitive funding has been patchy.
The article notes EU support of a ‘twin-track’ approach to the post-2015 development framework – combining a stand-alone gender goal with comprehensive gender mainstreaming across other targets. The EU Parliament specifically mentions the need for a gender perspective in future development funding. The article provides links to further reading on gender equality: its importance for development, financing and tools and best practices, and background to the UN Conference on financing for development and the Summit to adopt the Sustainable Development Goals.