The purpose of this issues brief is to assist programme managers and thematic advisers in donor agencies to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment within the framework of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. The approaches, questions and specific actions in the brief are intended for use in consultation with partners to respect and reinforce the Paris principles of ownership, alignment and mutual accountability in particular.
The brief begins by outlining a strategic approach and entry points, and questions to ask in order to influence the development effectiveness agenda, in particular at country level. In addition, a number of gender equality tools that can add value to the aid reform process are presented. Elements of a strategic approach to address gender equality and women’s empowerment to make development interventions more effective are listed.
Recommendations include: monitor experience of aid reforms from a gender equality perspective; and identify influential allies during aid reform discussions at country level. Key questions for identifying entry points are also listed, including: how involved are civil society actors? Finally, the brief outlines a number of tools that have been developed to integrate gender equality and women’s empowerment into development policies and programmes, including gender sensitive poverty and social impact analysis and sex-disaggregated data and gender responsive indicators. A final recommendation includes dovetailing gender responsive budgeting with overall public financial management reforms.