Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment Operational Plan, 2013-2020

Gender equity is one of the five drivers of change in the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Strategy 2020. ADB recognizes that without harnessing the talents, human capital, and economic potential of half the region's population - women and girls - the goal of a region free of poverty will not be realized. Gender equality is critical in its own right and essential for better development outcomes in terms of inclusive growth, faster poverty reduction, and achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

Despite the steady progress in narrowing gender gaps in Asia and the Pacific, gender disparities and inequalities remain, especially in girls' secondary education enrollment and completion, maternal and infant mortality, female under-nutrition, women's access to reproductive health, paid employment outside agriculture, wage parity, women's participation in decision-making, violence against women and reverse sex ratios at birth - even in some of the best-performing economies in the region.

The new operational plan for gender equality and women's empowerment sets out the strategic directions and the guiding framework for advancing the gender equality agenda and delivering better gender equality outcomes in Asia and the Pacific region by 2020. Under the new gender operational plan, ADB will intensify its efforts to ensure that gender equality remains at the front and center of its development efforts, and to accelerate progress on closing remaining gender gaps. The operational plan will serve as the roadmap for translating Strategy 2020's gender equity as driver of change into concrete and measurable operations to support gender equality outcomes. The outcome of the operational plan is improved gender equality results from ADB operations by 2020, and reflects the directions set in ADB's revised Corporate Results Framework of enhancing the focus on improving implementation to deliver better outcomes.