The 2024 DAC Recommendation on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of All Women and Girls in Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Assistance provides a framework for promoting gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls in development co-operation and humanitarian assistance globally, throughout policy frameworks, design and planning, programming and financing, monitoring and evaluation, and in development partners’ own internal structures and systems. In addition, the Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women and Girls: DAC Guidance for Development Partners sets out practical guidance and good practice examples for doing so. In the Recommendation, DAC members have committed to striving “to increase financing for gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls through official development assistance (ODA) and other forms of finance”.

In that context, Development Finance for Gender Equality 2024 presents a fresh overview of international development finance globally and the extent to which it contributes to gender equality. In an effort to promote transparency and accountability, it presents and unpacks OECD data on development finance with gender equality objectives, exploring trends, analysing different actors’ efforts, uncovering new details, and suggesting areas where finance can be better used to advance gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls around the world. Findings aim to spur a culture where all development finance is spent in a way that advances, or at the very least is not harmful to, gender equality and where information about financial investments are reported and made publicly available.

This first, comprehensive report on Development Finance for Gender Equality comes at a time when progress towards the gender equality goal in the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development is stalling. OECD analysis shows a recent drop in the share of financing with a gender equality focus overall, with a particularly worrying trend within humanitarian assistance. Knowing where financing is going is essential for decision makers to steer progress and implement the DAC Recommendation on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of All Women and Girls. It is all the more crucial as the international community prepares for the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development in July 2025, and the Beijing Platform for Action celebrates its 30th Anniversary in 2025. The report also contributes to implementing broader OECD efforts, as set out in the 2023 “OECD’s contribution to promoting gender equality” report.

Chapter 1 of this report provides an overview of all international development finance for gender equality, including by DAC and non-DAC countries, multilateral organisations and banks, and private actors. Chapter 2 focuses on DAC members’ funding for gender equality and discusses its relative decline in the context of a global pushback against whole-of-society inclusion and gender equality. Chapter 3 sheds light on how gender equality is integrated across thematic areas which are either of key importance to strengthening women’s voices and achieving transformative change for gender equality, or provide opportunities for increased investments in gender equality: fragile- and conflict-affected states and humanitarian assistance; energy; women’s rights organisations and feminist movements; reproductive health and rights; and inequalities at the intersection of gender. Chapter 4 explores development finance for gender equality by development actors beyond the DAC. Chapter 5 closes with overarching conclusions and policy recommendations. Annex A provides methodological definitions and clarifications.