Global gender equality aid is failing the women who need it most
The international system for funding gender equality is failing the world’s most vulnerable women and girls, and a wave of aid cuts is about to make it worse. New research from the Lowy Institute calls for a fundamental shift to redirect aid towards the core needs of those most at risk.
A new Policy Brief by Grace Stanhope, entitled Mainstreamed but sidelined: Global funding for gender equality, finds that just 2.3 per cent of total global foreign aid is spent principally on ensuring women's access to healthcare, education, nutrition, sanitation, shelter, safety and rights.
More than half of that is set to disappear amid sweeping cuts to foreign aid budgets.
Total foreign aid is projected to fall by 37 per cent by 2027, driven by contractions from the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Canada and several smaller European and Asian donors.
"The international system for funding gender equality is fractured," writes Stanhope. "Underinvestment in a global public good such as gender equality is not only a development failure but a profound foreign policy risk."
Stanhope shows that outcomes for women and girls have stagnated or regressed since the Covid-19 pandemic, with deterioration concentrated at the level of basic needs, essential services and personal safety.
The consequences are already visible. The United States has cancelled projects to address gender-based violence, maternal care needs and reproductive health across several developing countries.
Stanhope reveals that global spending on gender equality has grown but is often allocated indirectly through infrastructure and economic projects, with benefits for women designated as second-order impacts. Meanwhile, aid primarily for gender equality has plateaued for more than a decade at just 4 per cent of total spending, and is lower in the poorest and most fragile countries.
Stanhope calls for a strategic shift to ensure gender equality aid reaches core sectors where it is needed most — basic healthcare, sanitation, education, safety in conflict and disaster zones, and women's rights.
"There are strong policy and political cases for shifting resources upstream," writes Stanhope. "A tiered funding target, backed by a broad coalition of states, would entrench this rebalancing and provide accountability."
Stanhope says Australia and key European nations have strong policy commitments to gender equality and are well positioned to lead.
"These states need to strengthen their political will in order to rejuvenate international cooperation on gender equality in line with their own stated values and strategic interests."
KEY FINDINGS
- Basic rights and wellbeing outcomes for women and girls globally are regressing or stalling. Cuts to foreign aid and a growing hostility towards gender equality programs risk eroding hard-won gains and turning the trend into a crisis.
- Rising international aid for gender equality has disguised a stagnation of targeted funding for core issues such as healthcare, education, physical safety, and legal rights. This funding gap is widest in conflict zones and disaster-affected areas, where women and girls are often the most at risk and the least supported.
- The most effective solution is to “upstream” gender equality aid directly into international development funding of core sectors, rather than treating it as an add-on. Anchoring this approach with a clear funding commitment would help protect these programs and deliver better outcomes for the world’s most vulnerable women and girls.
MEDIA CONTACT
Andrew Griffits
Head of Media and Communications
media@lowyinstitute.org