Gender and Aid Effectiveness

As efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 intensify, developed and developing countries have agreed to new partnerships and aid modalities, designed to align aid to national priorities, channel diverse aid sources into national budgets, and ensure greater predictability in aid flows.

The 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness outlines five partnership commitments for greater aid effectiveness: ownership, alignment, harmonization, managing for results, and mutual accountability. In the context of discussions on financing for development and aid effectiveness, there has been growing recognition of the need to advance development effectiveness and gender equality goals in the new aid environment.

As the Paris Declaration is rolled out, however, countries face challenges in promoting gender equality under these principles, owing to weak participatory mechanisms, limited collaboration among stakeholders and insufficient capacity and resources. Without effective engagement in the political process there is a danger that the implementation of the underlying goal — development effectiveness — will be limited to administrative and financial procedures. To ensure this goal is not lost, gender equality advocates are engaging in a series of consultations in order to find ways to engage in technical and political processes at all levels. Such engagement will involve using existing gender action plans and strategies and broadening and deepening political participation and accountability.

UNIFEM in Action

Sex-disaggregated data for Aceh
Sex-disaggregated data is an essential element in the development of gender responsive evidence-based policies and programmes. Gender analysis of the varied needs and concerns of women and men in Aceh clarifies the gender dimensions of sectoral issues. This allows for effectively translating gender policies into practice.

Responding to the lack of sex-disaggregated data in Aceh, UNIFEM with support from CIDA, collaborated with UNORC, BRR and Insan Hitawasana Sejahtera to carry out the largest collection ever of sex-disaggregated data in Aceh.

The Sex Disaggregated Data and the Gender Profile for Aceh Province & Banda Aceh include 204 indicators in health, economy, land, politics, education, decision making & demography

The data highlights that for women and girls, access to education, reproductive health, and participation in decision making processes have improved:

• 92% of women and girls above 6 years of age have attended school. Literacy among women is 98%
• 79% of births in the last five years were attended by an antenatal care provider

But women are still lagging behind:

• 5.7% of parliamentarians in NAD are women
• 12% of political party officials in NAD are women
• 11% of women in the work force are unemployed as compared to 7% of men in the workforce
• 19.1% of households in Aceh are headed by women

Sex-disaggregated data and gender profile for NAD
Sex-disaggregated data and gender profile for Banda Aceh

Related Links

• Search: Aid Effectiveness on the UNIFEM website
• OECD - Aid Effectiveness
• OECD-DAC - Network on Gender Equality (GENDERNET)
• OECD-DAC - Gender Equality Policy Marker

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