Why we need to know more about gender equality funding

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In 2015, all countries committed to achieving gender equality through the adoption of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5. They also pledged to significantly increase investments to address gender inequality. So how are they doing on these commitments?

Recent analysis by Development Initiatives found that Official Development Assistance (ODA) focusing primarily on promoting gender equality declined slightly between 2014 and 2019 from 5 per cent to 4.7 per cent. This was at a time when ODA largely flatlined (standing at US$154.5 billion in 2019). The analysis paints a more mixed picture from 2019 to 2020 but shows the proportion of aid and development projects with a primary focus on gender increased slightly.

However, a slight increase in funding to improve gender equality is unlikely to offset the disproportionately negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on women and girls. Economic and social inequalities have been exacerbated. The role of women in the health and social care workforce, in unpaid domestic and care work, their lack of access to social protection, secure employment and sexual and reproductive health services, as well as the increase in gender-based violence and female poverty, have all contributed to the widening gender equality gap.

This means it is more important than ever that efforts to build back stronger and better utilize a gender lens. This would not only improve gender equality and move us closer to achieving SDG 5, but it is also a crucial step to improve other development outcomes.

Many are calling on international donors to increase funding to tackle gender inequality. But if we want donors to do more, and to hold them to account to their gender commitments, we must know what funding is already being spent, where and with what results.

Transparency in gender financing

Publish What You Fund launched the Gender Financing Project in 2020 to help improve the transparency of gender equality financing. We believe that this is important to improve the co-ordination and allocation of funding to gender equality efforts, to determine if governments and international donors are meeting their gender commitments, and to track progress towards SDG 5.

Over the past year, we have been building a picture of the gender funding landscape in three case study countries: Guatemala, Kenya and Nepal. In addition to mapping national and international funding for gender equality in these countries using existing data, we have spoken to gender advocates in each country about their experience with gender financing and gender data.

Interviewees from local civil society organisations regularly told us that there is insufficient knowledge or capacity within their organisations to navigate and track gender financing. To meet this need, we produced a video tutorial series to assist anyone who would like to learn how to track aid and development funding for gender equality.

The main focus of the four videos is to help users track international donors’ funding to improve gender equality, using some of the most trusted and used data sources. We cover two of the largest: the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI). These sources – the basis for the Development Initiatives analysis mentioned above – provide a wealth of data on international donors’ aid and development flows.

Our videos are a great place to start if you are interested to know which donors are funding gender equality projects, in which countries, with what aims, and with what results. The videos are available with English closed captions, and French, Spanish, English and Nepali subtitles.

Our forthcoming publications on gender financing in Guatemala, Kenya and Nepal will map what information is available on gender equality spending at the country-level, whether this spending is aligned with national gender equality priorities, and offers key considerations for funders, policy makers and advocates to improve their publication and engagement around this information. Using this evidence, we will use our country studies as the basis to ultimately develop global recommendations for different stakeholder groups to increase the transparency of gender equality financing.

The Generation Equality Forum, UN Women’s global gathering for gender equality, has ambitious goals to deliver concrete, game-changing results across generations for girls and women. One of the aims of the initiative is to drive increased public and private investments into gender equality. Its draft actions, published ahead of its virtual conference from 29 to 31 March 2021, sums up why the focus on funding for gender equality and to empower women and girls is so critical:

“Gender equality is not just a goal: it is critical to the survival of the planet, the realization of the rights of all girls and women, and to building new economic and social systems that include, and work for, everyone.”

Transparency should be at the heart of the renewed efforts to address gender inequalities post Covid-19. With more transparent, usable and robust data, and better engagement around this data, we will be able to track progress against existing and new gender funding commitments, to (re)direct resources towards funding gaps and learn which initiatives are helping to make societies more equal.