Guidance to Advance Gender Equality IN GEF PROJECTS AND PROGRAMS

GEF Council approved a new GEF Policy on Gender Equality (GEF, 2017c) in November 2017. The Policy marks GEF’s increased ambition to ensure gender equality and promote women’s empowerment across its operations. The new Policy responds to the recommendations of the Independent Evaluation Office’s Evaluation of Gender Mainstreaming in the GEF (GEF, 2017a), which was endorsed by GEF Council in May 2017, which found that “there has only been a limited increase in the percentage of projects rated gender sensitive or gender mainstreamed.” The Policy also responds to the increased attention to gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE) by the conferences of the parties to the Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEA) that the GEF serves. With the objective to support the effective implementation of the Policy, this guidance