Our work on gender and international cooperation
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Dossier – Last updated on 1 March 2024
The international community – from multilateral institutions and governments to civil society and the private sector – is increasingly paying attention to gender-related issues. The question has shifted from why gender matters to how gender is integrated into development and foreign policy and translated into concrete actions.
Incorporating gender across development and foreign policies and policies related to climate, food and energy, migration, security and governance, or trade, finance and technology is not only a matter of rights, but an essential condition for sustainable and inclusive development.
This is why, at ECDPM, we have invested in meaningfully integrating gender across our areas of work. For instance, what is the link between empowering girls and women and tackling climate change? And are policymakers taking gender into account when trying to prevent radicalisation and violent extremism?
In this dossier, we share our work on gender and try to answer these questions and more. We also explain how we aim to improve the extent to which – and how – gender is addressed throughout all our work.
Our work on gender and international cooperation
Addressing gender across our work
Gender marker
In September 2022, we launched an internal gender marker to improve the extent to which – and how – gender is addressed throughout our work. It promotes the use of a gender lens and helps our staff rank their research along five levels, ranging from gender blind to gender transformative. The target we set ourselves is that all our work should be at least gender sensitive.
Internal support
To ensure understanding and uptake of the marker, our gender coordinator, three cluster focal points, and the outreach and impact department provide guidance. Staff are encouraged to consider gender and use the gender marker when planning their work, and can rely on the support of our gender coordinator, focal points or associate throughout their research and analysis.
Since we introduced the marker and created our new organisational set-up for gender advice in 2022, we have seen a significant improvement in the attention our experts pay to gender in their research and in team meetings.
Get in touch
Would you like to know more about our work on gender? Get in touch with our gender team.
