27 Gender equality and women's empowerment
in development 2010-15
| Committee's assessment
| Politically important |
| Committee's decision | Cleared from scrutiny; further information requested; drawn to the attention of the International Development Committee
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| Document details | Commission Staff Working Document on implementation of the EU Plan of Action on Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment in Development 2010-2015
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| Legal base | —
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| Department | International Development
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| Document numbers | (36645), 5732/15, SWD(15) 11
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Summary and Committee's conclusions
27.1 The antecedents of this report go back to a 2007 Commission
Communication, the overarching aim of which was to promote progress
in achieving: equal rights (political, civil, economic, employment,
social and cultural) for women and men, girls and boys; equal
access to, and control over, resources for women and men; and
equal opportunities to achieve political and economic influence
for women and men. The strategy envisaged a twin-tracked approach:
increasing the efficiency of gender mainstreaming and specific
actions for women's empowerment in partner countries. Priorities
included ensuring that gender equality issues formed part of the
regular political dialogue with partner countries; integrating
gender equality analysis and objectives into country strategies
and indicators for measuring performance and impact; and building
institutional capacity both within the EU and partner countries.
The strategy also noted the need to ensure that gender equality
issues were adequately addressed in budget support arrangements.
27.2 This was followed by the EU 2010-2015 Plan of
Action on Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment in Development
(GAP). The GAP contains nine objectives, 37 actions and 53 indicators
which the European Commission, the European External Action Services
(EEAS) and the 117 EU Delegations that have external cooperation
activities EU Delegations, and EU Member States, are committed
to implement and to report upon annually, to the deadlines agreed
for each indicator for which they are responsible.
27.3 The GAP annual report covers the period July
2013-June 2014 and finds that "overall, this report shows
some progress in areas such as political dialogue, coordination,
partnerships and on the post-2015 agenda. Disappointingly progress
remains very slow on issues such as gender analysis, monitoring
(indicators) and financial tracking". The authors say that
reports from EU Delegations "clarify that where change is
really occurring, it's because of management and political leadership
at the level of Delegation and Headquarters' middle- and top-management".
The EU has "clear and strong commitments on GEWE[65]";
however slow progress on the GAP in some countries, sectors or
Member States "may reflect a lack of ownership and commitment
at the middle management level, combined with a lack of understanding
about its implications and know-how on its implementation".
Thus, the Commission says:
"Setting
out a clear vision for GEWE and what is sought to be achieved
concretely (e.g. through the results framework, post 2015 agenda,
sector programmes, political dialogue) might help improve the
incentives, understanding and leadership needed for institutional
change in the longer term. The new GAP may wish to consider a
narrative that clearly states this and consider high level leadership
to raise its profile."
27.4 The Minister (Baroness Northover) underlines
the Government's commitment to putting girls and women at the
centre of international development, it being one of the six priorities
specified in the 2011-2015 Department for International Development's
(DFID) Business Plan. The UK has been a key member of the EU Gender
Experts Core Group since its inception, and is a member of the
Task Force to guide the drafting of a new "robust and ambitious"
successor to the GAP.
27.5 In the meantime, the Minister says that meeting
the targets set out in the current GAP and in its successor will
require "stronger, more visible support from EU senior management,
improved technical capacity, systematic use of robust gender analysis
and gender-disaggregated data, a stronger focus on results, and
greater and more consistent engagement with women and girls (beneficiaries)
at all stages of the programming cycle". Action needs to
be taken "both in Brussels and in EU Delegations to improve
coordination and commitment to delivering results on gender".
The Minister wants to see "faster and deeper progress than
has been evident so far" and has "made this clear to
the Commission including through Ministerial and senior DFID staff
visits to Brussels over the last three months, as well as through
active participation in the drafting of the successor to the GAP".
27.6 The Minister is accordingly pleased that:
"both the High Representative of the European
Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President
(HRVP) of the European Commission (Federica Mogherini) and the
European Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development
(Neven Mimica) have indicated that they will make gender a top
priority for their terms in office. This top level leadership
is something the UK pushed hard for in our early interactions
with the new Commission. We will continue to build on this through
further Ministerial engagement, as well as technical inputs via
the Task Force and bilateral engagement with Commission officials"
(see paragraphs 27.26 below for the Minister's detailed comments).
27.7 As we recall in the "Background"
section of our Report, the general thrust of the report is all
too familiar: slow progress in some countries, sectors or Member
States, which reflects a lack of ownership and commitment at the
middle management level, combined with a lack of understanding
about its implications and know-how on its implementation. That
is why we recommended a European Committee debate when we received
the 2013 GAP report.
27.8 This 2014 GAP report assumes a particular
importance because the position of the Union on the post-2015
agenda — which we consider elsewhere in this Report[66]
— gives a strong emphasis to gender equality as an objective
in itself and as a crosscutting issue. This is recognised in the
Council Conclusions of last May on the 2013 GAP report, which
called upon the EU and its Member States to "develop an ambitious
and robust successor to the current GAP, focused on results and
taking into account the post 2015 agenda".
27.9 The Council Conclusions on this 2014 GAP
report that will be adopted later this year, presumably at the
late-May "development" Foreign Affairs Council, likewise
assume a particular importance. The story thus far is of the Commission/European
External Action Service (EEAS) "talking the talk", but
failing to "walk the walk". It would be surprising if
the new HR and Development Commissioner did not make gender a
top priority; it was no doubt such with their predecessors. A
successor GAP should indeed focus on results. But before then
the Commission and EEAS need to focus on implementation of what
has been agreed thus far. We agree that top level leadership is
vital. We expect to see this sine qua non reflected in
the Council Conclusions. We accordingly ask the Minister to provide
the Committee with a copy of them in due course, and her (or her
successor's) assessment of how they take the vital issue of GEWE
forward in the right way and with genuine commitment.
27.10 In the meantime, we now clear this report
from scrutiny.
27.11 We also draw this chapter of our Report
to the attention of the International Development Committee.
Full
details of the documents:
Commission Staff Working Document: 2014 Report on the Implementation
of the EU Plan of Action on Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment
in Development 2010-2015: (36645), 5732/15, SWD(15) 11.
Background
27.12 Gender equality is one of the eight Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) that, in 2000, the UN set itself to achieve,
most by 2015 — the others being to eradicate extreme poverty
and hunger; achieve universal primary education; reduce child
mortality; improve maternal health; combat HIV/Aids, malaria and
other diseases; ensure environmental sustainability; develop a
partnership for development — each with associated targets
and benchmarks to measure progress.[67]
27.13 Adopted by the Council in 2010, the GAP contains
nine objectives, 37 actions and 53 indicators. All are time bound.
European Commission services and the European External Action
Services (EEAS) at Headquarters and Delegations level, as well
as EU Member States, are all committed to its implementation and
to report progress annually. Indicators are selected each year
for reporting, their selection depends on factors such as their
target date for completion. The indicators are all expected to
track actions that in turn feed into the 9 objectives deemed necessary
to strengthen the capacity of the European Union and EU Member
States to improve gender equality mainstreaming in and contribute
to women's empowerment through development cooperation. The indicators
deal with those areas considered essential ingredients of effective
mainstreaming, including: political dialogue, programme and project
design and implementation, measurement, peace and security etc.
27.14 A year ago, when submitting the third of these
GAP annual reports for scrutiny, the then Minister (Lynne Featherstone)
was pleased that, as in previous years, the report highlighted
not only the achievements made in promoting gender equality through
development cooperation, but also the persisting challenges and
areas where more work needed to be done. She described the report's
conclusion that, overall, progress was "extremely slow"
between July 2012 and June 2013 as very disappointing. Only nine
of 45 EU Delegations achieved the target of 75% of all new project
proposals scoring G-1 or G-2 on the OECD Gender Equality Policy
Marker scale (which are assigned to projects that include gender
equality as a "principal" or "significant"
objective, respectively). The main tools for achieving and monitoring
gender mainstreaming were not universally implemented by staff
in EU Delegations, despite being compulsory; this largely stemmed
from a lack of understanding of gender issues amongst EU Delegation
staff. On the positive side, the report noted that gender equality
were becoming a more established issue for dialogue with host
governments and civil society. Twelve EU Delegations had produced
Gender Country Profiles, which assessed the status of gender equality
in a partner country as a baseline to inform programming, and
13 others planned to do so. Gender equality was being included
in the assessment and monitoring of programmes in an increasing
number of sectors. The Minister also noted that the EU institutions
and a number of Member States remained highly committed to prioritising
gender equality in global negotiations, including as part of the
post 2015 development agenda: but also said that to "ensure
the credibility of the EU's position in these negotiations",
it was "very important that the EU delivers on its own commitments
to integrate gender equality in its development programmes".
27.15 The Minister went on to underline the Government's
commitment to putting girls and women at the centre of international
development (one of the six priorities in the DFID Business Plan
2011-2015) and noted that the UK had lobbied hard for the Commission
to create its GAP and been a key member of the EU Gender Experts
Core Group. Nonetheless, DFID's 2011Multilateral Aid Review (MAR)
identified the need to "strengthen gender mainstreaming in
practice and measurement of impact of gender work" as a reform
priority for the European Commission. She then said:
"Our recent update to the MAR, published in
December 2013,[68] finds
that, while around 50% of the GAP targets have been met, 'more
attention is needed, particularly by senior management'. In our
follow-up to this assessment, we will continue to press the EU
to step up to the mark and meet the targets set in the GAP. This
will require stronger, more visible support from EU senior management,
and improved technical capacity at a working level, particularly
producing and using gender-disaggregated data. Action needs to
be taken both in Brussels and in EU Delegations to improve coordination
and commitment to delivering results on gender. We want to see
faster and deeper progress than has been evident so far, and we
have made this clear to the Commission including through senior
DFID staff visits to Brussels over the last three months. In particular,
we will work with the EU institutions to strengthen action on
the issue of violence against women and girls, an area in which
the UK is a key player, including through my role as International
Violence Against Women Champion."
Our assessment
27.16 Three years on, this was, we felt, an unimpressive
picture: unsurprisingly, a mid-term review was nowhere to be
seen. We therefore recommended that, in order for the Minister's
hand to be strengthened, the Commission/EEAS performance thus
far should be debated in European Committee.[69]
That debate took place on 6 March 2014, at the conclusion of which
the European Committee resolved thus:
"That the Committee takes note of European Union
Document No. 17432/13, Commission Staff Working Paper: 2013 Report
on the Implementation of the EU Plan of Action on Gender Equality
and Women's Empowerment in Development 2010-2015; welcomes the
document as a frank assessment of the EU's implementation of its
Action Plan; and supports the Government's efforts in encouraging
the European Commission to address the weaknesses identified in
the Report in order to ensure further integration of gender equality
in EU development assistance."[70]
The 2014 GAP implementation report
27.17 This report covers the period July 2013 to
June 2014, and assesses progress against those indicators due
to be achieved in this period and/or whose progress was slow in
previous periods. It is informed by 78 EU Delegation Reports,
representing 82 countries, by 20 Member States Headquarter level
reports and by contributions from Commission services and the
EEAS.
27.18 The Commission says:
"Overall, this report shows some progress in
areas such political dialogue, coordination, partnerships and
on the post 2015 agenda. Disappointingly progress remains very
slow on issues such as gender analysis, monitoring (indicators)
and financial tracking."
27.19 The report summarises what the Commission sees
as 2013-14's achievements and challenges, and then looks at the
prospects for a successor thus:
"Acknowledging its limitations, the GAP remains
an important tool to promote and track gender mainstreaming. A
successor to the GAP has been requested by the Foreign Affairs
Council in its Conclusions on the 2013 Report on the Implementation
of the EU Plan of Action on Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment
2010-15 (adopted in May 2014).[71]
The Council calls upon the EU and its Member States to 'develop
an ambitious and robust successor to the current GAP, focused
on results and taking into account the post 2015 agenda'."
27.20 This fourth report, the Commission says, "comes
at an important time in the process of developing a new instrument
to improve gender equality and mainstreaming across EU development
cooperation". Its findings, combined with previous ones and
the ongoing evaluation, "have raised a number of interesting
and important issues to be considered in designing a new instrument".
The GAP successor could "potentially start on a sounder and
more robust footing than its predecessor". Reports from EU
Delegations "clarify that where change is really occurring,
it's because of management and political leadership at the level
of Delegation and Headquarters' middle- and top-management".
The EU has "clear and strong commitments on GEWE"; however
slow progress on the GAP in some countries, sectors or Member
States "may reflect a lack of ownership and commitment at
the middle management level, combined with a lack of understanding
about its implications and know-how on its implementation".
Thus, the Commission says:
"Setting
out a clear vision for GEWE and what is sought to be achieved
concretely (e.g. through the results framework, post 2015 agenda,
sector programmes, political dialogue) might help improve the
incentives, understanding and leadership needed for institutional
change in the longer term. The new GAP may wish to consider a
narrative that clearly states this and consider high level leadership
to raise its profile."
27.21 In her Explanatory Memorandum of 25 February
2015, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department
for International Development (Baroness Northover) welcomes the
publication of this fourth report and professes herself pleased
that, as in previous years, the report highlights not only the
achievements made in promoting gender equality through development
cooperation, but also the areas where more work needs to be done.
The Government's view
27.22 The Minister comments as follows:
"It is clear from the fourth report that there
needs to be significant improvement in the rate of implementation
of GAP priorities and more consistent performance across all of
the EU institutions. There are a number of areas where the UK
would like to see progress: firstly, EU Delegations must ensure
that 80% of all annual reviews[72]
include gender analysis — a target under the GAP; secondly,
while the number of EU Delegations with a gender country profile
has increased from 12 in 2013 to 22, it is imperative that all
EU Delegations complete a gender country profile — a requirement
under the current GAP."
27.23 She goes on to say that the Government believes
that the challenges faced by women and girls should be addressed
in all specific programming, including the new National Indicative
Programmes and Multiannual Indicative Programmes, and that they
should be underpinned by systematic and robust gender analysis:
"We believe that the EU must meet the targets
it has set itself, including ensuring that 75% of all new project
proposals scoring G-2 or G-1 on the Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development's (OECD) Gender Equality Policy Marker
(G-Marker) scale (which are assigned to projects that include
gender equality as a 'principal' or 'significant' objective, respectively);
this will require an improvement on current performance.[73]
To this end, staff in EU Delegations should ensure that the main
tools for achieving gender mainstreaming (the Gender Screening
Checklist for appraising the gender-sensitivity of projects; and
gender equality assessments in Results Oriented Monitoring (ROM))
are universally implemented."
27.24 The Minister also highlights the fact that
the report notes that the position of the Union on the post-2015
agenda gives a strong emphasis to gender equality as an objective
in itself and as a crosscutting issue:
"This is welcome given the United Kingdom's
strong pressure for gender equality to be at the heart of the
post-2015 framework. To ensure the credibility of the EU's position
in these negotiations, it is very important that the EU delivers
on its own commitments to integrate gender equality across all
of its instruments, programmes and projects."
27.25 On the question of the call in the May 2014
Council Conclusions for the EU and its Member States to "develop
an ambitious and robust successor to the current GAP, focused
on results and taking into account the post-2015 agenda",
the Minister says:
"It identifies the need for greater political
leadership, potentially including a focus around sectors where
the EC is well placed to implement programmes that can have transformational
effects on gender, such as violence against women and girls, female
genital mutilation, and/or girls' education. The report emphasises
the need for 'strong and robust' analysis as a prerequisite for
good programming that can really deliver results. EU Delegations
have reiterated that whilst compliance at design stage is important,
it is not enough and must go alongside good monitoring and evaluation.
Therefore the GAP must not be seen in isolation, but be completed
alongside other instruments such as the EC results framework,
National Indicative Programmes (NIPs) and Multiannual Indicative
Programmes (MIPs)".
27.26 The Minister continues her comments as follows:
"The UK Government is committed to putting girls
and women at the centre of international development, and has
made this one of the six priorities specified in the Department
for International Development's (DFID) Business Plan 2011-2015.
We believe that investing in girls and women has a transformative
impact on growth, poverty reduction and the MDGs. The UK lobbied
hard for the Commission to create its GAP in 2010 and DFID has
been a key member of the EU Gender Experts Core Group since its
inception. Moreover the UK has successfully lobbied for the creation
of a Task Force, including member states, to guide the drafting
of a new 'robust and ambitious' successor to the GAP. The UK sits
on this Task Force, and plays an active role in influencing its
direction.
"The update to the Multilateral Aid Review (MAR),
published in December 2013, found that, while around 50% of the
GAP targets have been met, 'more attention is needed, particularly
by [Commission and EEAS] senior management'. In our follow-up
to this assessment, we will continue to press the EU to ensure
that it meets the targets set out in the current GAP and in its
successor. This will require stronger, more visible support from
EU senior management, improved technical capacity, systematic
use of robust gender analysis and gender-disaggregated data, a
stronger focus on results, and greater and more consistent engagement
with women and girls (beneficiaries) at all stages of the programming
cycle. Action needs to be taken both in Brussels and in EU Delegations
to improve coordination and commitment to delivering results on
gender.
"We want to see faster and deeper progress than
has been evident so far, and we have made this clear to the Commission
including through Ministerial and senior DFID staff visits to
Brussels over the last three months, as well as through active
participation in the drafting of the successor to the GAP. We
are pleased that both the High Representative of the European
Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President
(HRVP) of the European Commission (Federica Mogherini) and the
European Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development
(Neven Mimica) have indicated that they will make gender a top
priority for their terms in office. This top level leadership
is something the UK pushed hard for in our early interactions
with the new Commission. We will continue to build on this through
further Ministerial engagement, as well as technical inputs via
the Task Force and bilateral engagement with Commission officials.
"GAP reporting covers progress by Member States
as well as in the EU institutions. 20 Member States provided information
for the current report, including the UK. DFID's Strategic
Vision for Girls and Women aims to unlock the potential of
girls and women, to stop poverty before it starts. It empowers
girls and women, enabling them to have voice, choice and control.
Achieving this requires an enabling environment of strong, open
and inclusive economies, societies and political institutions.
This includes addressing the social norms and relationships that
underpin how girls and women are valued in society, and which
influence the opportunities they can seize. Progress against four
interlinked 'game-changing' outcomes is critical: (i) girls' completion
of primary and secondary education; (ii) economic empowerment;
(iii) ability to live free from violence; and (iv) universal sexual
and reproductive health and rights".
27.27 Finally, the Minister says that discussions
on the report in the Council working group on development (CODEV)
are on-going, and that Council Conclusions will likely be drafted
in March 2015, for subsequent adoption by the Council.
Previous Committee Reports
None, but see (35635), 17432/13, SWD(13) 509:
Twenty-ninth Report HC 83-xxvi (2013-14), chapter 1 (8 January
2014).
65 Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment. Back
66
See (36644), 5902/15: Commission Communication: A Global
Partnership for Poverty Eradication and Sustainable Development
after 2015, at chapter 12 of this Report. Back
67
For a full discussion of Gender Equality and Women Empowerment,
see the April 2003 UN Millennium Project Background Paper of
the Task Force on Education and Gender Equality Promises to Keep:
Achieving Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. Back
68
Multilateral Aid Review Update 2013 Back
69
See (35635), 17432/13: Twenty-ninth Report HC 83-xxvi (2013-14),
chapter 1 (8 January 2014). Back
70
Gen Co Deb, European Committee B, 6 March 2015, cols. 3-24. Back
71
See full Council Conclusions. Back
72
The review of gender is to be included in the annual reviews carried
out by EU Delegations, including, but not limited to, the Joint
Annual Report, in the European Neighbourhood Policy Progress Reports,
in the Human Rights report, in Mid-Term reviews, evaluations of
cooperation, sectorial reviews (the Minister's footnote). Back
73
According to the 2014 OECD DAC statistics, only 28% of new project
proposals have at least G-1 (the Minister's footnote). Back
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