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Results-Based Management Tip Sheet 4.1 - Gender Equality

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This tip sheet is a companion to the Results-Based Management for International Assistance Programming at Global Affairs Canada: A How-to Guide. It expands on the discussion of Gender Equality in the How-to Guide and provides practical tips on the development of gender sensitive outcomes, indicators, baseline data and targets.

Gender equality outcomes

Gender Equality (GE) outcomes are describable or measurable changes that explicitly address a reduction in gender inequality, or an improvement in gender equality between women and men, girls and boys. A result (or an outcome) is a describable or measurable change that is derived from an project's outputs or lower level outcomes.Note de bas de page 1  

Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy recognizes that supporting gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls is the best way to build a more peaceful, inclusive and prosperous world.

To most effectively champion gender equality and the global empowerment of women and girls, Canada will advocate for and support initiatives that:

The identification of gender equality results begins with a gender-based analysisNote de bas de page 2 of the context and logic of the project. The gender-based analysis serves to determine issues that the project needs to address regarding gender inequalities in access and control over resources, women`s participation in decision-making, and human rights of women and girls.  Gender analysis should reveal the gender equality issues and implications related to the intervention area.  This analysis is fundamental to the application of Global Affairs Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy as it serves to inform the development of a theory of change that is informed by a feminist lens, and through which outcomes are developed for the initiative. This facilitates developing outcomes that address complex issues and incorporate gender equality in a way that takes into account the guiding principles outlined in the Policy on Gender Equality , and in which those outcomes are fully supported by outputs and activities.

Examples of gender equality outcomesNote de bas de page 3

Gender-sensitive indicators in the performance measurement framework

Performance indicators are used in Results-based management to measure progress on expected outcomes. A gender-sensitive indicator can be defined as a quantitative or qualitative unit of measure to gauge changes (outcomes) in gender equality. Sex-disaggregated data is required for all indicators with measures that relate to people.  Data should also be disaggregated by age and other factors of identityNote de bas de page 4 such as class, race, caste, ethnicity, culture and abilities (where possible). Disaggregating data serves to expose hidden trends by rendering all people visible, particularly marginalized and vulnerable groups that are implicated by an initiative.

When developing gender-sensitive indicators:

Examples of gender-sensitive indicators

Note: The sex disaggregation of all data involving people (e.g. ethnicity, age group, socio-economic status and other categories relevant to the project) is vitally important.  For example, it is impossible to measure changes in women’s access to basic services if the data collected during project monitoring does not disaggregate by sex.  Similarly, a project that aims to improve the health of a specific marginalized ethnic group through remoe regional health centers would need those centers to collect patient information disaggregated by ethnicity and sex.

Sex-disaggregated baseline data and targets

Baseline data provides a specific value for an indicator at the outset of a project or program so that meaningful targets can be set within the scope of the project. Gender-sensitive and sex-disaggregated baseline data related to all indicators, not only those indicators that are directly linked to gender equality results, need to be collected early in the design of the project.

Set sex-disaggregated targets for each indicator and include other disaggregated factors as required.  For example, respondents to a satisfaction survey can be disaggregated by sex and age group and this will provide the necessary feedback related to the needs and interests of women, men, girls and boys, adolescent girls, adolescent boys, elderly women and elderly men. The various sex/age group targets would be based on a survey conducted at the beginning of the project. Targets would be set to incrementally increase the level of satisfaction by sex/age group.  Other diversity factors could also be included in the disaggregation. Sex-disaggregated targets need to be set high enough to aim for changes in gender equality within the scope and reach of the project for each indicator in the performance measurement framework.  Targets allow us to concretely describe how an initiative will improve the situation for women’s/girls’ empowerment and/or promote gender equality.


Updated: August 2017
These tools will be updated periodically as required. Enquiries or feedback on this tip sheet should be directed to:
Results-Based Management Centre of Excellence, Operational Direction and Coherence
International Assistance Operations Bureau
Global Affairs Canada
Email: gar.rbm@international.gc.ca

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