Schiavo-Campo, S

This paper, by the United Nations Fund for Women (UNIFEM), suggests that the new aid effectiveness agenda, set out in the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, can be harnessed to speed up implementation of gender equality commitments. While gender equality is central to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the importance of gender equality to development effectiveness is not acknowledged through impact assessments or other measures. National development plans and poverty reduction strategies can fail to incorporate gender equality goals adequately. Assessments of the quality of national ownership that fail to determine the extent to which women’s priorities are reflected in national development plans will result in a gender-biased measure of ownership. New indicators of aid effectiveness do not measure the flow of resources to local levels. Such indicators should include assessments of how effectively local government spending addresses women’s needs. There are few examples of public sector reform and good governance efforts that fully integrate a gender equality perspective. The stress placed on national ownership provides an opportunity to ensure that women play a role in articulating women’s needs and seeking responses from policy-makers. Women’s ownership of national development processes requires investment in their analytical capacity, in policymaker’s gender analysis skills and in terms of donor support. Ultimately, gender equality outcomes will be important signs of the effectiveness of the new approach to aid delivery and partnership. The cross-cutting nature of gender equality priorities can be a challenge to monitor, but this can be addressed by finding indicators that link different national commitments.