Projects

Short Description:

Overall goal

The overall objective is to improve the rights and well-being of women and girls in Africa and to advance gender equality through the elimination of gender-based discrimination in social institutions and engagement of men and boys (SDG 5).

Expected results

The expected results of this project are

1. to build a robust evidence base on gender equality in Africa;

2. to improve knowledge sharing to strengthen regional capacity in three African sub-regions;

3. to foster policy dialogue and to integrate the evidence into future policies targeting gender equality in three African sub-regions by applying a social norms lens to women’s and men’s behaviours.

Target group / Beneficiaries

The immediate target group of the project will be around 120 African policy-makers, members of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and Regional Institutions as well as researchers, development cooperation and development practitioners. The ultimate and long-term beneficiaries of this project will be women and girls, men and boys of Africa, who will benefit from improved and informed policymaking on gender equality.

Activities

The purpose of the project is to identify and close knowledge gaps concerning reasons that slow the progress of African countries’ fulfillment of commitments towards gender equality. The project will specifically focus on discriminatory laws, social norms and practices that restrict women’s rights and reinforce “toxic masculinities“, and notably damage women’s physical integrity, including Violence Against Women (VAW), Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and restrictions on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR). The project will produce one SIGI regional report on Africa, three SIGI sub-regional policy briefs, and one scoping paper on multiple masculinities. The report, brief and paper will build the basis for regional knowledge sharing and strengthening of regional capacity through four regional policy dialogues with relevant stakeholders.

Context

The OECD Development Centre’s gender programme is producing data and evidence-based analysis to feed policy dialogue on the root causes of gender inequality. It focuses on discriminatory social institutions, i.e. formal and informal laws, social norms and practices that exclude women and girls and consequently curtail their empowerment opportunities, in line with Agenda 2030. The OECD Development Centre’s research, analysis and policy dialogue tools have significantly contributed to shaping global understandings of the structural barriers to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment. Through its unique cross-country measure of discriminatory social institutions, the Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI), the OECD Development Centre has provided vital new evidence and perspectives on emerging topics on gender and development, including migration, unpaid care work and gender data collection and analysis. To date, the OECD Development Centre’s data and analysis on gender equality is widely used by the international development community, researchers and policymakers in support of women’s and girls’ empowerment. The SIGI’s impact includes greater awareness and integration of social norms within development strategies, notably the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and stronger partnerships between civil society, governments and the development community.