The OECD measures progress toward gender equality and helps shape an international system that protects and advances girls’ and women’s rights. OECD findings and initiatives promote pay transparency, gender mainstreaming and budgeting. They also address gender-based violence and integrate gender equality into foreign direct investment. This work informs policy making around the world and influences decisions made by development co-operation providers.
Gender and development
Gender equality is not only a human right – it is a powerful lever for strong and inclusive economic development. Economies are more resilient and productive when they reduce gender inequalities, strengthen women’s rights, and support their equal participation in all spheres of life.
Key messages
Social institutions are the laws and social norms that govern social behaviour and establish what women and men are expected to do. Discrimination in these institutions is often invisible and creates disparities like the gender pay gap, and women’s under-representation in politics. The Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) measures the inequalities that legislation, attitudes and practices create between women and men. The SIGI is the official source for monitoring SDG indicator 5.1.1. – “whether or not legal frameworks are in place to promote, enforce and monitor equality and non-discrimination on the basis of sex” – together with UN Women and the World Bank. It is an essential input for policy makers aiming to roll back gender discrimination.
Official development assistance (ODA) is an important source of financing for countries seeking to promote gender equality. The OECD tracks and analyses financial flows to inform decision making and programmes across a range of sectors. Country providers and development partners – such as foundations, multilateral organisations and development finance institutions – also track gender support, enabling the OECD to publish comparable data across development actors and flows.
Gender-based violence, including sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment (SEAH), is a violation of human rights and destabilises social and economic systems. In development and humanitarian contexts, donors are increasing their efforts to prevent SEAH and ensure safe environments. This means examining their own institutions, addressing harmful gender norms and discriminatory practices, and ensuring gender balance in positions of power. The OECD supports donors and their partners on technical and political levels. It also promotes the implementation of the Development Assistance Committee’s (DAC) Recommendation to strengthen prevention and response, manage risk, and support and protect survivors and victims.
Development co-operation providers looking to tackle harmful gender norms and unequal power structures need detailed, reliable data and comprehensive strategies to support their developing partners, especially local feminist movements and women’s rights organisations. The OECD helps these providers improve the design and implementation of programmes to promote gender equality in partner countries, and integrate this collaborative approach into sectors such as health, energy, climate adaptation and governance.
Context
Finance supporting gender equality dropped in 2024
A decade-long trend of rising volumes of ODA to advance gender equality is coming to an end. From 2023 to 2024, bilateral allocable ODA with gender equality objectives dropped by 13%. This is the lowest volume since 2021. The share of aid integrating gender equality objectives also fell from 49% in 2023 to 47% in 2024.
Gender equality makes societies more resilient
Gender inequality is a root cause of fragility and a key indicator of development trajectories. Women and girls living in contexts facing higher levels of fragility are more exposed to health risks, including maternal mortality, female genital mutilation and early pregnancies. They tend to have lower educational outcomes, experience higher levels of gender discrimination, and have lower access to social protection. These inequalities impact the various interconnected dimensions of fragility.
Gaps in the legislative framework weaken women’s rights in the workplace
Southeast Asian countries exhibit extremely large differences between maternity and paternity leave. All of them mandate paid maternity leave and seven out of 11 comply with the minimum maternity leave period of 14 weeks recommended by the International Labor Organization (ILO). However, just five of them mandate the full payment of benefits for all 14 weeks. Yet, evidence from Viet Nam underscores that the extension of the duration of maternity leave in 2012 did not increase the gender employment gap, but helped narrow the gender gap in the formal sector for women of reproductive age. Moreover, four countries do not mandate any paid paternity or parental leave available to fathers. In countries that do, the legislation establishes leave periods for fathers that are significantly shorter than for mothers, ranging from less than seven days to two weeks in the best case.
