Catalog

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p. 1 of 20 BACK | NEXT Executive summary Introduction Gender and development issues in the Asian and Pacific region Overview of Bank policy and operations on WID (1985-1996) The need for a revised policy on gender and development The Bank’s revised policy on gender and development

Policy on Gender and Development

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Executive summary

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) first adopted a Policy on the Role of Women in Development (WID) in 1985. Like other development agencies, ADB’s approach to WID was to implement a range of activities within its regular operational program that emphasized women as a special target group. Since formulating its WID policy in 1985, ADB’s approach to dealing with WID issues has evolved from its cumulative experience along very similar lines to that of other development agencies. ADB has progressed from a WID to a gender and development (GAD) approach that allows gender to be seen as a crosscutting issue influencing all social and economic processes.

In 1992, ADB’s policy on WID gained reinforcement and added momentum by being included as one of ADB’s five strategic development objectives (SDOs) alongside economic growth, poverty reduction, human development including population planning, and sound management of natural resources and the environment. This elevated women into the mainstream of ADB’s development agenda. The new emphasis on women in ADB’s development agenda led to some refocusing of direction and shift in emphasis, from addressing women only in projects in the social sectors to considering gender implications in all aspects of ADB operations. A mainstreaming approach was developed and largely adopted.

In this respect, ADB’s policy on WID is now out of date, as the mainstreaming approach is not made explicit. Actual practices have moved beyond the policy. This policy on GAD, aside from the change in name, will codify and give formal recognition to existing ADB requirements and practices. It will also introduce new institutional mechanisms for increasing and improving ADB’s performance and activities directed at improving the status of women.

During the decade since ADB’s policy on WID was initially formulated and adopted, there have been significant changes in the Asia and Pacific region—in the field of women in development; in the issues and concerns of women; and in ADB itself. A revised policy is needed to (i) reflect the changing environment; (ii) codify ADB’s transition from WID to GAD; (iii) incorporate current thinking on gender and development issues; (iv) generate an increase in ADB activities directly benefiting women; (v) provide the appropriate policy framework for the new approaches and practices; and (vi) introduce the institutional mechanisms to operationalize ADB’s SDO of improving the status of women.

Bank policy on gender and development

ADB’s Policy on Gender and Development will adopt mainstreaming as a key strategy in promoting gender equity. Gender considerations will be mainstreamed into all ADB activities, including macroeconomic and sector work, and lending and technical assistance (TA) operations. The key elements of ADB’s policy will include gender sensitivity, gender analysis, gender planning, mainstreaming, and agenda setting. To operationalize the policy, ADB’s focus of activities will be to

1. provide assistance to its developing member countries (DMCs) in the areas of policy support, capacity building, GAD awareness, and formulation and implementation of policies and programs directed at improving the status of women

2. facilitate gender analysis of proposed projects, including program and sector loans, and ensure that gender issues are considered at all the appropriate stages of the project cycle, including identification, preparation, appraisal, implementation, and evaluation

3. promote increased GAD awareness within ADB through training workshops and seminars, development of suitable approaches, and staff guidelines to implement the policy on GAD

4. assist the DMCs in implementing commitments made at the Beijing World Conference on Women and

5. explore opportunities to directly address some of the new and emerging issues for women in the region.

Operational approaches

Macroeconomic and sector work

The inclusion of gender considerations in ADB’s macroeconomic work is seen as the key to ensuring that gender issues are systematically addressed in all ADB operations, as it is the country operational strategy that sets the stage for future ADB activities in a DMC. Hence, a country briefing paper (CBP) on women will be prepared as a background document to the country operational strategy study (COSS) to ensure mainstreaming of gender considerations. In addition, a separate strategy for women that clearly identifies and elaborates how ADB intends to operationalize the SDO of improving the status of women will be prepared and included as an appendix to the COSS.

The country assistance plans (CAPs) will specify the means by which ADB’s operational program will address and support the gender strategy. Policy dialogue on gender issues will be included in the general policy dialogue conducted by ADB with its DMCs. In both its policy-oriented and other sector work, ADB will increase its efforts to study the situation of women in the region with a view to addressing issues of gender equity.

Consistent with ADB’s redefined role as a broad-based development institution, greater emphasis will be given to institutional development, policy support, and regional cooperation activities. Policy reform and capacity building in GAD will be given particular focus and attention. ADB’s role as project financier will be integrated with that of a catalyst for addressing gender concerns and gender disparities.

Loans and technical assistance

Gender issues will be actively promoted in ADB’s loan and TA operations. ADB will promote the mainstreaming of gender considerations in projects at all stages of the project cycle from identification through postevaluation. In all ADB projects, including program and sector loans, gender considerations will be addressed as part of the initial social assessment (ISA) that is now required for all ADB projects. If the ISA identifies significant gender issues, these will be examined further through detailed gender analysis.

Special design features and strategies will be built into projects to facilitate and encourage women’s involvement and ensure tangible benefits to women. ADB will continue to devise stand-alone projects and initiatives that target women to address gender disparities. Efforts will be made to increase the number of projects with GAD either as a primary or secondary objective, especially projects in health, education, agriculture, employment, income-generating and financial services.

Institutional mechanisms

To fully operationalize ADB’s policy on GAD, and for accelerated progress in achieving the SDO relating to women, new institutional mechanisms are required together with some additional staff resources.

Gender and development plan of action

An ADB-wide GAD plan of action will be developed to operationalize ADB’s strategic objective and policy on GAD, and to enable periodic reviews of the implementation of the policy. The plan will include departmental GAD goals, related to planned activities over a 3-year period. It will be developed in a participatory manner by the Office of Environment and Social Development (OESD), in consultation with departments and offices, taking into account the specific sociocultural environments, the nature and character of individual sectors, and the different circumstances of the DMCs.

Increased in-house gender and development capacity

The limited number of technical gender specialists is a serious constraint within ADB to achieving a substantial increase in the activities directly addressing the improvement of the status of women. Hence, ADB will increase its current staff complement of gender specialists by two to assist in operationalizing the policy on GAD. The two additional gender specialists, one assigned to work on countries of Region East and one on countries of Region West, will primarily assist with the identification, advice, design, processing, and administering of projects either targeting women or mainstreaming gender concerns.

Enhancing gender capacity of executing agencies in selected DMCs

The review of some of ADB’s ongoing projects under the regional technical assistance (RETA) on Review of Performance of WID and Poverty Reduction Efforts in ADB-Financed Projects highlighted the need for strengthening the gender aspects of project implementation and administration. To address this issue, ADB will process a RETA on Enhancing Gender Capacity Building of DMCs’ Executing Agencies, to be carried out over a 3-year period in those DMCs where a large number of projects focusing on women are currently under implementation. Through the RETA, ADB will place local gender specialists in its DMCs to help executing agencies implement projects focusing on women, while simultaneously building and strengthening their institutional gender capacity.

Umbrella RETA for gender and development initiatives

Factors such as the average size of ADB loans; limited gender capacity in the DMCs to conceptualize, design, and implement projects targeted at women; and to some extent ADB’s own inexperience in addressing gender objectives contribute to the difficulties in achieving substantial increases, at least in the short term, in ADB’s program focusing on women. Combined with these factors, the nature and scale of ADB activities do not always lend themselves easily to supporting especially small initiatives directed at assisting women.

In light of these factors, ADB will establish an umbrella RETA through which small GAD initiatives of ADB, and those of governments and nongovernment organizations (NGOs), can be funded on a grant basis.

Database and manual on best practices in GAD

ADB is developing a database on GAD best practices for use in training of both ADB staff and DMC officials. A manual/handbook on GAD for use by ADB staff and consultants that provides guidelines for implementing the policy and designing projects addressing GAD is also under preparation.

External forum on gender

ADB will establish an External Forum on Gender to facilitate dialogue between ADB and external groups on gender issues. A group of approximately 10–15 key GAD experts from various fields (governments, NGOs, academia, civil society) from ADB’s member countries will be convened periodically to enable ADB to maintain dialogue with external groups on its GAD policy and activities.

Aid coordination on gender

ADB will actively seek opportunities to cooperate with other development agencies on projects aimed at increasing gender equity, through mechanisms such as cofinancing and information sharing.

Policy review and evaluation

An overall review and evaluation of the policy on GAD will be conducted 5 years after its adoption to assess implementation experience and overall impacts. A Board information paper summarizing the results will be prepared. An interim report on status of implementation and progress will also be prepared for the Board 2 years after the adoption of the policy.

Responsibility for GAD

The responsibility for implementing ADB’s policy on GAD rests with the Programs and Projects Departments and OESD. Assistance with implementation of the policy will be provided by the Resource Team on GAD. Overall responsibility for coordinating and monitoring ADB-wide GAD activities will rest with OESD, whose views and guidance will be solicited on the coverage of GAD aspects in all ADB activities.

Bankwide resource implications of the policy

The resource implications of the policy on GAD are moderate as ADB has, to a large extent, already made the transition from WID to GAD. However, to substantially increase ADB’s GAD activities, two additional gender technical specialists are required.

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