Gender Equality

Gender equality is an important goal in its own right, it is a cross-cutting issue and an issue of economic and social justice. It is instrumental for achieving all the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and for reducing and eventually eradicating poverty. Poverty is not just about the lack of income and financial resources. Poverty also encompasses the notion of inequalities in access to and control over the material and non-material benefits of any particular society. Gender is an important determinant of inequality in access to and control over these resources and benefits which include human and basic rights, political voice, employment, information, social services, infrastructure and natural resources.

Redressing gender inequalities is an integral part of the EC development policy, its strategies and effective implementation, requiring a twin track approach of gender specific actions and mainstreaming of gender equality.

The EU policy framework for promoting gender equality
At international level, the EU and many of its partner countries are signatories to international agreements and declarations. It participates in initiatives that aim to reduce gender inequalities and promote women rights, for instance the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the 1994 Cairo Programme of Action, the 1995 Beijing Platform of Action and the Millennium Development Goals. In the Beijing +10 Review of the 49th UN Commission on the Status of Women, the EU, through a strong unified voice, played a crucial role as to the outcomes of the negotiations around the Political Declaration.

In 2005, the EU commitment to promoting gender equality was emphasised in the European Consensus, which commits the EU to include a strong gender component in all its policies and practices in its relations with developing countries. Gender equality is also an integral part of the EU regional strategies for Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific countries.

As a European Union response to the gender commitments contained in the European Consensus, the Commission adopted a Communication on Gender Equality and Women Empowerment in Development Cooperation on 8 March 2007. This Communication sets the basis for the first time of a coordinated European approach for the promotion of gender equality and women's empowerment that reinforces the twin-track approach of gender mainstreaming and gender-specific actions. The Communication provides guidelines on how to make gender mainstreaming more efficient, and strengthens the role of gender-specific actions by providing a list of proposed actions in different domains. Furthermore, it describes the different ways of promoting gender equality through the new aid modalities, namely through budget support and sector-wide approaches, that become an increasingly preferred mechanism for aid allocation, as opposed to support to individual projects.

The communication promotes

equal rights (political, civil, economic, social and cultural) for women and men, girls and boys;
equal access to, and control of, resources for women and men;
equal opportunities to achieve political and economic influence for women and men.

On the basis of the Commission's Communication the General Affairs and External Relations Council of 14-15 May 2007 adopted the Council Conclusions on Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment in Development Cooperation.

See also:

Policy implementation
The Thematic Programme “Investing in People” contains a separate financial envelope for the period 2007-2013 for funding EC actions in the area of promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women. The available funding of € 57 M is almost three times higher than in the previous three years (when € 3 M were directly spent on gender specific actions on annual average). The funds available are allocated through calls for proposals from eligible organisations and by direct agreements with selected partners. Priority areas include the implementation of international commitments at country level; capacity building of women's NGOs; and strengthening the statistical capacity of governments in order to use gender disaggregated indicators and data. Gender equality has been also mainstreamed into other sections of Investing in People, and into other Thematic Programmes.

Regarding the 10^th EDF programming process, the Commission is seeking to ensure that the gender dimension is duly integrated into the programming exercise. DG DEV has developed programming guidelines to provide information to delegations and geographical desks on how to address gender equality in country programming, based on the policy framework underpinning the Commission’s approach to gender equality in development cooperation. During the drafting process of the country strategies extensive quality support was provided regarding the proper inclusion of gender into the strategy papers.

To improve visibility and information on the EC policy towards gender mainstreaming, a brochure on “ Gender equality in development cooperation” has been produced in 2004. It illustrates good and best practice examples, highlights the challenges that the EC faces, and encourages ongoing initiatives and efforts to put policies into practice in partner countries. This is also the theme of a study commissioned by the EC to assist in establishing methods to bridge the gender gap between policy and practice in development co-operation.

Partnerships
The collaboration with the EU Member States’ gender experts and also with the DAC/OECD gender network provides fora for exchange of information, best practice and policy on gender mainstreaming to further increase aid effectiveness.

The EC is working in partnership with and supports women's organisations, NGOs advocating and lobbying for gender equality and women’s empowerment at international, national and regional level in particular One World Action, Aprodev, WIDE and BRIDGE

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