In November 2020, the EU published its Action Plan on Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment in External Action 2021–2025.
In its new plan to promote gender equality within its external activity (known as GAP III), the EU stated that at least 85 percent of all its development projects and programmes should have gender equality and women’s and girls’ empowerment as a “significant” or “principal” objective by 2025. This plan is an attempt to position the EU as a “global front-runner” when it comes to promoting gender equality worldwide.
But turning this into a reality will be no small task, given current EU development spending on gender equality sits at 35 percent.
In this blog, we lift the curtain on the EU’s development spending to promote gender equality over the last five years. The numbers clearly highlight the gulf between the current reality, and the EU’s lofty ambitions. They also reveal that the EU’s overall position is dragged down by the European Investment Bank, and its lack of transparency and reporting on its activities to promote gender equality.
What are the objectives of the EU’s latest gender action plan?
The EU’s GAP III, launched in November 2020—a quarter of a century after the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action—has two ambitions: To “accelerate progress on empowering women and girls”; and to safeguard progress made on gender equality so far.
The plan builds on the first two gender action plans (GAP 1, 2010-2015 and GAP II, 2016-2020). The second version of the plan focused on three thematic areas: the physical and psychological integrity of women and girls; the social and economic rights/empowerment of women and girls; and the strengthening of girls’ and women’s voices and participation. It also featured a horizontal component on shifting the EU’s institutional culture to deliver on commitments more effectively, that has been carried over into the latest plan.
GAP III now embraces five broad objectives:
- Making EU engagement on gender equality more effective as a cross-cutting priority, with a commitment of at least 85 percent of all new external action to have gender equality and women’s and girls’ empowerment as a significant or a principal objective by 2025.
- Promoting, together with EU Member States, strategic EU engagement at multilateral, regional and country level and jointly stepping up implementation of GAP III in each partner country and region.
- Focusing on key areas of engagement (for example, freedom from all sources of gender-based violence, promoting sexual and reproductive health, …).
- Leading by example, by establishing gender-responsive and gender-balanced leadership at top EU political and management levels.
- Reporting and communicating on results, putting in place a quantitative, qualitative, and inclusive monitoring system to increase public accountability, ensure transparency and access to information and achieve better EU outreach on the impact of its work worldwide.
The EU’s main development finance instrument—the Neighbourhood, Development, and International Cooperation Instrument in Global Europe—will be the main tool to implement the plan, incorporating the 85 percent target. It also adds a provision for at least 5 percent of the actions to have gender equality and women’s and girl’s rights empowerment as a ‘principal’ objective (primary objective, as opposed to an important objective), following the Development Assistance Committee’s (DAC) gender equality reporting system).
What has happened over the last five years in EU aid for gender equality?
Over the last five years, based on OECD data, bilateral official development assistance (ODA) from the EU institutions for gender equality as either a principal or significant objective increased from around 25 percent to 35 percent. This places the EU below the DAC average (41 percent) in 2019 and far behind Iceland (91 percent), Canada (89 percent) and Sweden (85 percent)—the latter two being pioneers in adopting a feminist foreign policy.
As illustrated in figure 1, the share of EU’s bilateral ODA marked as having gender equality as a principal objective only moderately increased from 1.79 percent in 2016 to 3.69 percent in 2020. Here again, the EU ranks below the DAC average (5 percent) at a significant distance from top performers in 2019, notably, Spain (24 percent) and Sweden (18 percent).
Figure 1: EU institutions’ bilateral ODA targeting gender equality, 2016-202
Source: OECD Credit Reporting System using “gender equality” marker
DAC donors report on their projects and assign a marker to define a specific objective of an activity. Figure 1 shows that there is a significant proportion of EU activities that appear as “not screened” in the years 2018, 2019, 2020, rendering it impossible to decipher whether these projects had a gender equality objective. Zooming in on the EU institutions reporting these results, Figure 2 shows that the European Investment Bank (EIB) was the main culprit of a lack of reporting on the nature and objective of its projects. The EIB disbursed more than USD 23 billion in ODA between 2016 and 2020, representing 26 percent of EU’s total ODA. But the absence of any gender screening of its activities has seriously hampered the overall assessment of the EU’s engagement in promoting gender equality. This is at odds with the EIB’s recent initiatives, inlcuding its own Gender Action Plan and its leading role in the X2 challenge, a global initiative to mobilize investment to support women’s economic empowerment. In contrast, the European Commission has consistently reported on its activities and has a significantly higher share of projects focused gender equality.
Figure 2: EU’s institutions bilateral allocable ODA targeting gender equality, by reporting institutions, 2016-2020
Source: OECD Credit Reporting System using “gender equality” marker
Regarding the sectoral distribution of the EU’s ODA for gender equality, the data shows a concentration of disbursement in a handful of sectors. Indeed, as illustrated in Figure 3, more than two-thirds of the EU’s assistance marked as having gender equality as a principal objective is concentrated in education, government and civil society and humanitarian aid. However, other less prominent sectors include health and agriculture.
Figure 3: EU’s institutions bilateral allocable ODA targeting gender equality, by sector, 2016-2020
Source: OECD Credit Reporting System using “gender equality” marker
Figure 4 shows a large difference in the share of projects focused on gender equality across regions. While we see a high share of projects in Oceania and Sub-Saharan Africa, the share of projects focused on gender equality is low in the EU’s neighbourhood. In the Middle East and North Africa, gender mainstreaming is not the norm, with almost half (48 percent) of the EU’s ODA between 2016 and 2020 lacking gender equality has a significant or principal objective and more than a fifth (21 percent) not screened for the gender equality marker.
Figure 4: EU’s institutions bilateral allocable ODA targeting gender equality, by region, 2016-2020
Source: OECD Credit Reporting System using “gender equality” marker
Disclaimer
CGD blog posts reflect the views of the authors, drawing on prior research and experience in their areas of expertise. CGD is a nonpartisan, independent organization and does not take institutional positions.
