Regional : Promoting Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment (Phase 2)

Multisector / ADB's corporate management, policy and strategy development

The Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment Operational Plan (the Gender OP) 2013-2020 of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Midterm Review of ADB's Strategy 2020 recognizes the need for targeted public policies on and direct investments in women and girls

- on top of effective gender mainstreaming - to narrow persistent gender disparities and entrenched gender inequalities in Asia and the Pacific. This technical assistance (TA) will help accelerate ADB-wide efforts in effectively implement the Gender OP through pilot innovations, gender diagnostics, capacity development and partnerships.

The Asia and Pacific region has made considerable progress over the last decade in narrowing gender gaps in education, health, employment and political participation. However, progress has been uneven across the region and within countries. Gender inequalities persist in girls' secondary completion, high maternal and infant mortality, access to paid employment, participation in politics and decision-making, and access to land, assets and financial services. Many women in the region, particularly in rural areas, still lack access to basic infrastructure and services such as water supply, sanitation, electricity and affordable transportation. Discriminatory gender norms and practices remain entrenched across the region, often manifesting in gender-based violence, reverse sex ratios at birth and early and child marriage. The region is home to the largest numbers of 'missing women globally; high rates of gender based violence, and early and child marriage (between 45%-65%) especially in South Asia . These cultural and social norms undermine and slow down progress on moving the gender equality agenda forward. Public policies and targeted programs are needed to close the remaining gender gaps and accelerate progress on delivering the unfinished gender equality agenda.

ADB's Gender OP provides the guiding framework and road map for ADB's gender operations to 2020. Both Gender OP and the Midterm Review of Strategy 2020 recognize that gender mainstreaming needs to be complemented with more targeted interventions to close the remaining gender gaps in the region. While gender mainstreaming has delivered good results, opportunities for direct investment in women and girls are needed in areas such as girls' secondary education and completion, access to productive assets, jobs, and income-earning opportunities, school-to-work transition and skills training for employment, business development services for women entrepreneurs, financial services and access to credit, labor-saving technology to reduce women's time poverty, policy and legal reforms to tackle gender based violence and gender inequalities, and giving women voice in decision making.

The TA builds on the successful experience and lessons learned from the Regional TA (RETA) 6143 Promoting Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment being closed in December 2014. RETA 6143 has served as an implementation facility of the Gender and Development Cooperation Fund (GDCF). RETA 6143 supported the two previous gender plans of action of ADB , leveraged the gender equality designs and results in 78 ADB loan projects and 12 country partnership strategies, and contributed to increasing the number of projects with gender mainstreaming and preparing country gender assessments and strategies. The RETA also sensitized executing and implementing agencies on key gender issues through flagship South-South lateral learning events in a range of sectors and themes, such as water, environment, energy, urban, transport, education, food security, and economic empowerment, some of which were conducted in partnerships with other development partners. The new TA will focus more explicitly on pilot innovations to identify potential approaches for addressing persistent and entranched gender inequalities, which could be expanded and replicated in lending operations.

Successful delivery of gender equality results in ADB operations in developing member countries (DMCs) improved

Identification and development of direct investments in women and girls in ADB lending operations increased

Gender equality designs and results in lending operations (informed by quality diagnostics) improved

Pilot initiatives with key lessons for scaling up implemented

Gender knowledge products and services in DMCs enhanced

Partnerships on gender equality strengthened

The RETA has been extended for completion on 10 December 2019 to utilize remaining funds for 2019 knowledge management activities. As of 15 March 2019, 96% of the total TA resources had been committed.

As of 31 December 2018, the TA has helped improve the capacity of monitoring and reviewing gender equality in the design and results of 355 loan/grant projects and contributed to increasing the number of projects with gender mainstreaming from 51% in 2017 to 64% in 2018.

Two (2) subprojects under the TA were completed in 2018. These subprojects (i) produced a publication that provided the first Sustainable Development Goal assessment of the situation of women and girls in Asia and the Pacific based on data from official sources entitled Gender Equality and the Sustainable Development Goals in Asia and the Pacific: Baseline and Pathways for Transformative Change by 2030; (ii) demonstrated viability of rural (township and village) road maintenance by women maintenance groups at sustainable investment levels to the county transport bureaus in PRC.

Piloting the Future Cities, Future Women Initiative (Phase 1) with a funding of $500,000 under TASF is the only remaining ongoing sub-project under the TA. The subproject is a gender-targeted initiative that supports key triggers that accelerate women's participation in urban governance and their productivity enhancement in Bandung, Mandalay and Tbilisi. In BANDUNG, the subproject will be integrating gender data and information into the e-Musrembang, which is an online participatory planning process used throughout Indonesia, that marks the priorities in different areas and maps them against disbursements, projects implemented, and key social statistical indicators e.g. population density, etc. The view is to increase gender responsiveness of e-Musrembang as a key tool for urban planning in Indonesia. In TBILISI, ADB has conducted a Conference on Gender in Urban Governance and Transport in April 2018. The conference fostered greater collaboration between ADB and Tbilisi City Hall on its Green City Action Plan with a view to integrating gender responsiveness and women's participation into the planning and design of public spaces in Tbilisi. A gender working group of Tbilisi City Hall staff was formed in November 2018 that will work on adapting a manual on gender mainstreaming into urban planning in Tbilisi, provide gender-sensitive inputs to the new code for urban development plans, and undertake capacity development of Tbilisi City Hall staff through a 'twinning initiative between Tbilisi and the City of Vienna. In MANDALAY, two field studies have been undertaken to document the role of women in solid waste management and recycling, study the market for handicrafts made of recycled products, assess the financial needs of women with small businesses, and survey financial service providers that are open to linking up with a future pilot project. A stakeholder workshop was organized on November 2017, where options were put forward for piloting activities including: (i) handicrafts development; and (ii) urban composting. Community stakeholders and potential partners for a pilot project then conducted a field visit to Yangon on 89 May 2018 to visit composting and urban farms, social enterprises, and marketing outlets to study successful business and financing models, marketing strategies, and available training and microfinancing options. A pilot formulation workshop followed on 1011 May 2018 to identify next steps for pilot project implementation, and to identify key concerns including skills training, networking, microfinancing, and community awareness raising. A Livelihood Specialist will be recruited to build on work done by designing specific income-generating projects/activities for women.

The TA also financed the Benchmark Publication on Gender Equality and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Asia and the Pacific done in partnership with UN Women. The report, Gender Equality and the Sustainable Development Goals in Asia and the Pacific: Baseline and Pathways for Transformative Change by 2030, is the first comprehensive review of the status of women and girls in Asia and the Pacific under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework, which highlights the remaining challenges facing women and girls and how improving their situation can help achieve the SDGs.