Abhatoo - Centre Nationale de Documentation

Governments from all regions of the world have placed a high priority on achieving gender equality and empowering women and girls as a central ambition of the post-2015 sustainable development agenda (Box 1). Ambitious financing will be needed to turn political aspirations into a reality. Investing in gender equality is one of the surest paths to poverty reduction, inclusive growth and prosperity. Gender is also a key dimension of vulnerability to poverty. For financing to be effective in reducing poverty and delivering sustainable development, it needs to benefit women and men equally and contribute to empowering women and building equitable societies. This needs to be specifically addressed by placing a high priority on gender equality in official development assistance (ODA), and ensuring that national budgets allocate sufficient resources towards achieving gender equality. This brief is a contribution to these debates. It provides an overview of OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) members’ aid to gender equality since the MDGs and identifies priorities for financing gender equality in the implementation of the post-2015 development agenda. The figures are based on DAC members’ aid that has been screened using the DAC gender equality policy marker – a statistical tool to measure whether aid activities target gender equality as a policy objective. At present, 92% of all bilateral “sector allocable” aid is screened against the gender marker.