The Sahel and West Africa continue to face significant challenges in advancing towards gender equality and women’s empowerment. While much progress has been made in health and educational outcomes for women and girls in the region, much more has yet to be done. Official development assistance (ODA) can serve a crucial role in this respect, by mobilising support for gender equality. This paper aims to highlight the current financing for the gender equality landscape in the region. It points to a need to increase the share of ODA supporting gender equality objectives; to support local women’s organisations as key actors in reaching the most vulnerable women and girls; to invest in the evaluation of gender-sensitive programmes and learning around them; and to support the generation of gender-disaggregated data to identify where action can be most effective.
