Not one country is on track to achieve gender equality by 2030. If current trends continue, global gender equality won’t be achieved until the 22nd century.
And without gender equality, 74% of the SDG targets won't be achieved [1].
However, many programmes aimed at addressing gender inequality are being shut down globally, while funding is being slashed.
In 2023, Start Fund conducted a review of past projects to assess the extent to which gender considerations had been incorporated in the Start Fund’s project cycle by Start Network member agencies and their partners.
The study aimed to identify the barriers and enablers to implementing gender-sensitive programming in rapid-response humanitarian programming. Key highlights include:
- Majority of the projects reviewed were found to be gender unaware, i.e., they demonstrated limited consideration of the different roles, needs or capacities of different genders and they demonstrated no analysis of specific gender-related vulnerabilities.
- Less than a third of projects had limited gender sensitivity. There was recognition of different needs and capacities, but without a more comprehensive analysis of gender power imbalances.
- Only 11% of alerts were considered gender sensitive. There was acknowledgement of different needs, roles and capacities and how the crises impacted people differently. Activities were adapted to reflect these differences.
These findings raised the question of how short-term interventions, which are often limited by time and resources, can effectively contribute to gender equality. To address this, we hosted a Start Fund learning event to explore the topic.
Given the challenges faced by our member agencies in conducting rapid, yet comprehensive, gender analyses in 45-60 day Start-funded projects, we invited an external gender training provider to lead a practical session on how to gather data for rapid gender analysis and embed the findings in Start Fund alert notes and project proposals. The importance of gathering secondary data in the areas where organisations normally operate before a crisis strikes was highlighted: World Bank country profiles, Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS), gender information held by Clusters, along with project reports produced by NGOs operated in the area of interest, were all referenced as valuable, available resources that could be consulted quickly before the start of a project. Primary data collection can then focus only on the gaps identified by the secondary data. Examples of good alert notes were shared with participants. These referenced in detail specific needs and abilities of different groups, different access to assets and services as well as gaps in government provisions for specific segments of the population. Good project proposal examples providing gender-sensitive activities and budgets were also discussed with participants.
Fidaa Alaraj, Gender Advisor from the Oxfam office in the Occupied Palestinian Territories shared a presentation to show how to translate the findings of a gender analysis into project activities. The long-term programme that was described, offered an example of how to translate the findings of the gender analysis into disaggregated indicators. A finding of the gender analysis, showing women’s suboptimal access to financial assets, led to the inclusion of a new indicator tracking the number of women achieving a greater degree of financial stability following participation into the financial training offered by the project.
Additionally, this programme contributed to shifting community perspectives and beliefs by placing billboards in public spaces, featuring widely recognised proverbs that perpetuate discrimination against women and girls, alongside lesser-known proverbs that promote equality.
Angelina Nyajima Simon, Director of Hope Restoration, a local organisation based in South Sudan that recently joined Start Network, shared her experience. By providing holistic support— including health, psychosocial, legal, and financial services, this organisation not only helps to decrease GBV rates but also increases access to family planning services. By engaging both female and male caseworkers as well as victim’s male family members proved key to reducing stigma against victims. Financial literacy training empowered women to establish small businesses, boosting their livelihoods and independence.
But how are these findings applicable to Start Fund short-term projects? Participant discussion led to the following key takeaways:
- Start small, think big: though we cannot shift gender norms in the short span of Start Fund interventions, even short- term projects can and should be designed with a long-term horizon in mind, sowing the seeds to tackle harmful gender norms and stereotypes by linking up to longer term programming or local action.
- A holistic approach: along with addressing immediate needs, short-term projects can include activities that start to address underlying vulnerabilities, such as combining health and psychosocial support to victims of GBV with sensitisation activities with both men and women on the importance of women’s participation and inclusion in decision-making or combining cash transfer interventions with financial literacy training to help women improve their livelihoods.
- Promote women focused national and local organisations: national and local organizations with a long-term presence in the area and who established trust with communities should not only be included in Start Fund implementation consortia but also be referred to after a project ends to continue the work started through Start-funded initiatives. Top enable this, all agencies carrying out Start Fund projects should develop an exit strategy that identifies and maps out relevant national and local organisations in the area, including those focused on women’s issues.
At Start Fund, we strive to achieve systemic change. It focuses on ‘shifting the power’ and ensuring accountability to populations affected by crises. Given all this, the short duration of a project should not prevent us from playing our part in challenging harmful gender power dynamics wherever possible.
Several Start Fund projects have shown to go beyond gender mainstreaming by challenging traditional roles and power dynamics. Projects in Zimbabwe, India and South Africa, show that giving women decision-making roles, whether in school reconstruction committees, procurement or relief distributions, can start to challenge traditional gender roles and promote more inclusive practices.
What’s next?
We are exploring ways to develop more tools and resources to help agencies better integrate gender equity principles into the entire project cycle - from alert to implementation. We’ll start to involve member agencies in co-designing training solutions specifically tailored to the unique challenges of short-term humanitarian interventions.
Gender is about power. It is time to investigate together what we can do better, more smartly and innovatively to maximise the time and funding available to challenge the hidden vulnerabilities affecting the lives of the people we work with.
[1] Equal Measures 2023, Findings from the 2024 SDG Gender Index. A gender equal future in crisis?