For decades, International Financial Institutions (IFIs) have supported projects addressing gender gaps, and made efforts to mainstream gender in their operations, and put in place tools to enhance results and measure progress. Many evaluations have been published and provide evidence-based findings and lessons that can help IFIs learn from this experience.
From this wealth of information, what can we learn about how IFIs can best support gender and equality of opportunity? What have we learned about how to do this work, how to mainstream it, how to plan and prioritise it, and how to monitor and learn from it?
This paper scanned 12 independent evaluation reports, as well as corresponding strategies, corporate scorecards, and diagnostics where available, from 8 IFIs. The report extracted six key lessons for effective gender mainstreaming, looking at both facilitators and barriers.