Gender and Development

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Projects Addressing Gender Concerns

Under its Policy on Gender and Development, ADB makes a commitment to design and support a larger number of projects that address gender equality and improvements in the economic and social status of women.

Since the adoption of the Policy, many ADB projects across a range of sectors have been developed to provide direct benefits to women. Some projects are designed to specifically target women and correct gender imbalances in education, health, or microfinance. Others have followed the path of mainstreaming gender by ensuring that design features promote and facilitate women's access to, and benefits from the project. For this purpose, a project is classified according to the gender categories.

Loans and Grants

Based on its Policy on Gender and Development, ADB addresses gender concerns through its loans and grants by (i) mainstreaming gender analysis and gender-responsive approaches in all ADB-financed projects and programs, and (ii) increasing the number of loans that directly address gender disparities.

View Loans and Grants addressing gender concerns.

Gender Action Plans

Loans and grants with a Gender and Development theme or Effective Gender Mainstreaming usually have a gender action plan included as an appendix to the project document.

Technical Assistance

Advisory and regional technical assistance support gender equality and women's empowerment primarily through:

• gender capacity development of sector ministries and national gender focal agencies
• development of sector gender strategies and action plans
• gender-responsive law reform
• gender performance audits in key sector ministries

Technical assistance are also a useful mechanism through which to address gender concerns where governments may not be willing to borrow for projects with a strong gender focus.

View Technical Assistance addressing gender concerns.

Case Studies

Read case studies on specific projects addressing gender concerns.