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Gender Equality and Womens Empowerment Operational Plan 2013-2020

2012 Gender Equity CoP Retreat 15 October 2012

Sonomi Tanaka Lead Social Development Specialist (GAD) Regional and Sustainable Development Department Asian Development Bank

Why Need a New Plan?

GAD Plan of Action 2008-2012 expires Persisting gender gaps and increasing challenges in the region Shift needed for ADB from at-entry design to gender equality results

Gender Inequalities in Asia & Pacific: Unfinished Agenda

Education
secondary completion

Health
maternal & infant mortality, reverse sex-ration at birth, under nutrition

Economic empowerment
gender segregation of the labor market, wage gaps, resource ownership

Decision-making & voice

representation at national parliament & subnational levels, gender-based violence

Gender Inequalities in Asia & Pacific: Other Challenges

Womens time-poverty
Limited access to basic infra & technology

Increasing vulnerability to risks and shocks

Climate change, natural disasters, food insecurity, fragility Need to build womens preventive and coping capacity

ADB Performance: 2008-2011

Outputs Performance Outcome Area 1: CPS and Lending Operations Country partnership strategies mixed Project gender mainstreaming at entry (# of GEN/EGM projects) good Project GAP quality mixed Project GAP implementation monitoring and reporting (during) poor Project completion report (GE results) poor Outcome Area 2: Policy Dialogue and Support to Developing Member Countries Policy support mixed Gender capacity development mixed Outcome Area 3: Organizational effectiveness Organizational commitment mixed Staff capacity development good Knowledge products mixed Partnerships good

Improved GE results in ADB operations

The Plan

Operational Priorities
On which areas should we focus operations?

Operational Approaches
How can we sharpen focus on results delivery?

Organizational Requirements
What business process and resources are needed?

Duration: 2013-2020 (RF 2013-2016)

Operational Priorities
The twin priorities Gender mainstreaming in S2020 sectors
Maintain at-entry 40%/50% GM targets

Going beyond mainstreaming to directly narrow persisting areas of gender gaps

Why Beyond Mainstreaming?

Public policies and targeted investments required to reduce glaring gender gaps and persistent "sticky" domains accelerating gender equality outcomes (this is not always possible in EGM) leveling the playing field (i.e., need to get women and girls to the stage where they can capitalize on EGM opportunities) responding to concern expressed by gender team that we are not doing enough to directly tackle the real gender issues and inequalities

Operational Priorities
The twin priorities Gender mainstreaming in S2020 sectors Going beyond mainstreaming to directly narrow persisting areas of gender gaps
More GEN projects Pilot innovation projects for future GEN Focus on reducing womens time poverty

Operational Approaches
Sharpen GE Results Focus

Quality at entry
Country gender strategies/CPS Project GAPs

Implementation and monitoring

GAP implementation monitoring & PCRs DMC capacity development

Capturing results at country level

Human development; economic empowerment; decision-making; resilience against shocks

Knowledge & partnerships

Interdepartmental Comments (1)

Principles supported: questions & suggestions

More GEN
How? Resources? Little evidence that GEN rather than EGM contributes to narrowing sticky gender inequalities

Pilot innovations: Who will do it? Resources? Time poverty: How? RSGS to provide project
support for designing

What about policy-based lending?

Interdepartmental Comments (2)

Quality at entry:
emphasize better DMF RSDD to provide better guidance for GAPs

Results focus:
agree but additional resources for monitoring & reporting Train no-GS to do gender work? CoP to provide list of staff who can help? Who will do country-level results consolidation?

Interdepartmental Comments (3)

Knowledge solutions:
Strongly support but topics need to reflect RD needs More toolkits and guidelines Impact assessments to guide operations Emphasize communication strategy for gender knowledge dissemination

Results framework:
Improve indicators for knowledge and partnership

Group Discussion (45 min)

Group 1&4: More GEN theme projects Group 2&5: Reducing womens time poverty Group 3&6: Vulnerability to shocks and risks (climate change, disaster, food) Questions on table 1 rapporteur (after lunch)