Tip Sheet No. 1 - Understanding and Applying Gender Mainstreaming Categories

Abstract

The Policy on Gender and Development3 of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) adopts gender mainstreaming as a key strategy for promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment in all ADB operations. ADB’s Strategy 2020b includes gender equity as one of the five drivers of change, and the Corporate Results Framework includes gender targets: 45% of all operations and 55% of Asian Development Fund operations to be gender mainstreamed.c The gender categorization systemd was developed to define, clarify, and make the concept of gender mainstreaming more tangible, and to ensure ADB-wide consistency and uniformity in its application. The gender categorization system is a four-tier system to measure, count, and report on the extent to which gender equality issues are integrated into project design. It is a mechanism for reporting ADB “at entry” gender mainstreaming performance against the corporate results targets.