Women and girls make up the majority of the world’s poorest. They are under-represented in governments and decision-making bodies, have fewer opportunities within labour and financial markets and can be exposed to gender-based violence. The EU recognises that gender equality and women’s empowerment are essential for sustainable development and crucial to meeting international agreed goals. The EU seeks to take stock of progress in implementing the EU’s Gender Action Plan at its mid-point and draw lessons to strengthen implementation in the remaining years. The evaluation looks at both the performance of EU Member States and European Commission aid to developing countries.
The evaluation
A team of 22 international and national consultants are carrying out the assignment, with expertise in evaluation, gender equality and women’s empowerment and EU aid delivery methods. It involves a desk review of wide-ranging literature on country strategies, programmes and projects to generate evaluation hypotheses, which are then tested through key informant interviews, web surveys, an institutional review and 11 country case studies. Through this process, Itad expects to document the results in promoting gender equality from the work to date and present recommendations on how further successes can be achieved.
Image © Burkina Faso, Sebba- October 2012 Photo credit: European Commission