Official Development Assistance (ODA)
Announcement of Japan's Initiative on Gender and Development through Official Development Assistance
March, 2005
In the occasion of the tenth year from the "Fourth World Conference on Women", the government of Japan announced the "Initiative on GAD (Gender and Development)" to support more effectively developing countries' own efforts to promote gender equality, at the 49th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (Feb. 28-Mar.11, in New York). (Full text of the Initiative on GAD)
Overview of the Initiative on GAD (Gender and Development)
1. Objectives
- Sectoral assistance policy under the ODA Charter and the Medium-term Policy on ODA
- The policy paper to integrate gender perspective into every phase of Japan's ODA implementation
- Support for efforts of developing countries' own for the achievement of gender equality
- To be announced on the occasion of Beijing+10, the 49th session of UN Commission on the Status of Women
2. Basic Principles
- Importance of paying due attention to gender-equality stated in the ODA Charter and the Mid-term Policy
- Revision of the "Initiative on WID", whose targets might be taken to be rather limited implication, as "only for women" or "only for the three priority areas: education, health and economic and social participation".
- Importance of the integration of gender perspective into planning of policies and measures that are not focusing on women's benefit as a main purpose.
- Importance of understanding differences between women and men in their condition of lives and needs, and considering them in the implementation of ODA
- Enforcing Japan's support for efforts of developing countries toward the promotion of gender equality and women's empowerment.
3. Basic Approaches to Gender Mainstreaming
For integrating gender perspective into every phase of Japan's ODA implementation
(1) Strengthening integration of gender equality perspective in ODA policies
- To reflect on Country Assistance Programs and policies for priority issues and specific sectors
- To share issues concerned with developing countries on occasions such as policy consultation
(2) Strengthening gender analysis and promoting women's participation
- To enhance ex-ante evaluation with gender perspective
- To support women's participation in decision-making processes of policy development and planning and implementation of projects
- Monitoring and evaluation of mid-term and ex-post stages of projects and their effective feedback
(3) Assistance for policies and institutions that promote gender equality
- To support efforts of developing countries such as capacity building of national machineries and development of laws and systems
(4) Strengthening cooperation with the international community and NGOs
- To enhance support for areas in which Japan's accumulation of knowledge and experience is not enough
- Information sharing about gender issues and statistics in the country
(5) Organizational and institutional capacity building
- To enhance gender training for officers and people engaged in projects
- System development to promote gender mainstreaming
4. Sector Specific Actions from Gender Equality Perspective
To present examples of specific actions to integrate gender perspective in Japan's assistance through multilateral and bilateral cooperation in four priority areas stipulated in the ODA Charter
(1) Poverty Reduction: education, health, rural development and agriculture
(2) Sustainable Growth: infrastructure, economy and labor
(3) Addressing Global Issues: environment, human rights and violence
(4) Peace-building: emergency humanitarian assistance, post-conflict reconstruction and development, and prevention of conflict and its recurrence