CONCORD AidWatch Report: Gender is the Key to Achieving the MDGs

By Susanna Jussila

There is no secret to achieving goals; you just need to follow the basic rules of success: commitment, action and accountability. CONCORD´s AidWatch Report 2010: ´Penalty Against Poverty. More and better EU aid can score Millennium Development Goals´ is pushing the EU to maximise its contribution to the MDGs, reminding it that there is still time left to shape up before the UN MDG Review Summit to be held in September.

In the report, CONCORD lists a set of guidelines that the EU needs to stick to in order to achieve better aid effectiveness, among them: agreeing to binding timetables of year-on-year aid increases; speeding up implementation of the Accra Agenda for Action (AAA) and the Paris Declaration (PD); ending inflation of aid budgets; promoting the concept of democratic ownership by ensuring that the voices of citizens are heard; and making sure that EU policies are coherent with development objectives.

"Poverty can only be eradicated through gender- sensitive development policies."

The CONCORD report states that gender equality is a key factor in fighting against poverty and fostering sustainable development. On the other hand, gender inequality perpetuates poverty by preventing social and economic empowerment of millions of households worldwide. To give an example from the report, it has been calculated that agricultural productivity in sub-Saharan Africa could rise by 20% if women had equal access to land, seed and fertilizer. Yet, while women produce up to 80% of basic foodstuffs in sub-Saharan Africa at the moment, they own only 1% of the land in Africa.

Despite the broad knowledge about the benefits of a gender-based development approach, CONCORD points out that gender remains a marginal issue in official aid effectiveness processes, "with only three references in the PD and AAA". Unfortunately, gender equality is still seen as a by-product of good development processes, rather than an instrument to improve people´s lives.

The EU Gender Strategy ­ a wake-up call for placing gender equality on the development agenda

The progress around gender and development cooperation among EU Member States has been disappointing in the past few years. Many countries are still lacking a gender strategy for development cooperation, and even countries with a gender strategy in place still need to draw up an action plan to put it into practice. The use of gender-based indicators in development programmes remains far away, and gender budgeting and earmarked funds are also lagging behind in many EU countries.

The new EU Plan for Action on Gender Equality and Women´s Empowerment in Development 2010­2015, designed to harmonise and coordinate European efforts on gender and development, will hopefully address many of these problems and contribute to placing gender equality on the development agenda. However, CONCORD points out that many specific objectives and actions ­ for example, in the areas of trade, agriculture, employment and health ­ were dropped from the final version of the plan, which makes the whole framework weaker.

In the light of the coming MDG Summit in September, CONCORD urges European countries to implement the objectives of the Beijing Platform and to work on a global policy framework on gender equality and women´s empowerment.

"The fight to achieve the MDGs is not yet lost and can still be won through mobilising sufficient political will and coordinated action over the next five years."

Find out more about the CONCORD AidWatch Report 2010 here.