Guide To Strengthening Gender Integration in Climate Finance Projects

Guide to
strengthening gender
integration in climate
finance projects
Nov 2021
About the author
This guide was written by Tara Daniel, Senior Program Manager at the Women’s Environment and
Development Organization (WEDO).
Acknowledgements
The contributions of the following people were instrumental in bringing accuracy, clarity and coherence
to this work: Bridget Burns (WEDO), Mairi Dupar (Climate and Development Knowledge Network),
Margaux Granat (EnGen Collaborative), Erika Lennon (Center for International Environmental Law), Lisa
McNamara (Climate and Development Knowledge Network), and Liane Schalatek (Heinrich Böll Stiftung
Washington, DC). Special thanks to Kamleshan Pillay and Shanice Mohanlal at SouthSouthNorth who
shepherded this project from conception to completion.
This guide would not exist without the candid, thoughtful, incisive and enthusiastic reflections, ideas,
and recommendations shared by the persons interviewed. Each interviewee contributed to make this
a more comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the challenges and possibilities in the work of
integrating gender in climate finance. Unfortunately, not all of these ideas could be conveyed within this
guide, and any faults in collating, framing and sharing this collective wisdom are the author’s.
List of abbreviations
ADB Asian Development Bank
AF Adaptation Fund
BRT Bus Rapid Transit
CIFs Climate Investment Funds
ECOSOC UN Economic and Social Council
GCCG Gender and Climate Change Group
GCF Green Climate Fund
GEF Global Environment Facility
MDB Multilateral Development Bank
MSMEs Micro, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprises
NAP National Adaptation Plan
NDA National Designated Authority
NDC Nationally Determined Contribution
UNDP United Nations Development Programme
UNEP United Nations Environment Programme
UNFCCC United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
Front cover image: Fruit seller in Siem Reap, Cambodia. © Chris Ellinger
Guide to strengthening gender integration in climate finance projects
Contents
Executive summary........................................................................................................................................ 1
I. Introduction................................................................................................................................................. 4
The purpose of this guide.........................................................................................................................................................4
Who should read this guide.....................................................................................................................................................4
Implementing entities and their partners..........................................................................................................................................4
Government focal points..........................................................................................................................................................................4
Methodology................................................................................................................................................................................................5
Framing and reflections............................................................................................................................................................7
How are the funds approaching gender integration?........................................................................................................7
Understanding gender expertise.........................................................................................................................................10
Types of gender expertise......................................................................................................................................................................10
Examples of “strengthening gender capacity”..............................................................................................................................10
How to engage different types of gender experts ......................................................................................................................11
II. A framework for strengthening gender integration......................................................................... 13
Introduction..............................................................................................................................................................................13
Recommendations...................................................................................................................................................................14
Lead with local gender expertise........................................................................................................................................................14
Leverage local women’s groups and national gender institutions.........................................................................................16
Collect the right data from the start...................................................................................................................................................17
Integrate gender specialists within the team.................................................................................................................................19
Ensure continuity between design and implementation..........................................................................................................21
Pursue team-wide capacity-building opportunities................................................................................................................... 25
Enabling factors.......................................................................................................................................................................27
Advocates for gender equality.............................................................................................................................................................27
Existing gender experience and expertise..................................................................................................................................... 28
National-level planning and policies................................................................................................................................................ 28
Fund-level requirements....................................................................................................................................................................... 30
Considerations for the climate funds...................................................................................................................................30
Work directly with gender experts.................................................................................................................................................... 30
Cultivate integrated platforms for sharing experiences.............................................................................................................32
III. Integrating gender in climate finance projects: A closer look........................................................ 33
Introduction..............................................................................................................................................................................33
Direct grant and loan projects..............................................................................................................................................33
Project example 1: A Small Grants Facility for enabling local-level responses to climate change..............................33
Project example 2: An integrated approach to physical adaptation and community resilience in Antigua and
Barbuda’s northwest McKinnon’s watershed................................................................................................................................ 34
Project example 3: MSME business loan programme in Mongolia for GHG emission reduction............................... 34
Sector-based projects.............................................................................................................................................................35
Project example 4: Green BRT Karachi, Pakistan............................................................................................................................35
Project example 5: Promotion of climate-friendly cooking, Kenya and Senegal............................................................. 36
IV. Key resources........................................................................................................................................... 37
IV. Conclusion................................................................................................................................................ 41
iii
Endnotes........................................................................................................................................................ 42
Annex I: Interviewees.................................................................................................................................. 43
Annex II: Review of projects....................................................................................................................... 44
Adaptation Fund projects......................................................................................................................................................45
Taking adaptation to the ground: A Small Grants Facility for enabling local-level responses to climate change in
South Africa.................................................................................................................................................................................................45
Enhancing adaptive capacity and increasing resilience of small and marginal farmers in Purulia and Bankura
Districts of West Bengal......................................................................................................................................................................... 46
An integrated approach to physical adaptation and community resilience in Antigua and Barbuda’s Northwest
McKinnon’s Watershed............................................................................................................................................................................47
Enhancing the climate resilience of vulnerable island communities in Federated States of Micronesia................ 48
Global Environment Facility projects...................................................................................................................................49
Mitigation of climate change through sustainable forest management and capacity-building in the southern
states of Mexico (Campeche, Chiapas and Oaxaca)......................................................................................................................49
Reducing vulnerability and increasing adaptive capacity to respond to impacts of climate change and
variability for sustainable livelihoods in agriculture sector in Nepal.................................................................................... 50
Leapfrogging Tunisia’s lighting market to high-efficiency technologies.............................................................................52
Climate Investment Funds projects......................................................................................................................................53
Coastal climate resilience infrastructure project, Bangladesh.................................................................................................53
Dedicated Grant Mechanism for indigenous peoples and local communities in Burkina Faso/Local Forest
Communities Support Programme................................................................................................................................................... 54
DPSP III: Financial instruments for Brazil Energy Efficient Cities (FinBRAZEEC)..................................................................55
Green Climate Fund projects.................................................................................................................................................57
Priming financial and land-use planning instruments to reduce emissions from deforestation, Ecuador...................57
MSME business loan programme for GHG emission reduction, Mongolia......................................................................... 58
Enhancing adaptive capacities of coastal communities, especially women, to cope with climate change
induced salinity in Bangladesh............................................................................................................................................................59
Green BRT Karachi, Pakistan................................................................................................................................................................. 60
Promotion of climate-friendly cooking: Kenya and Senegal.....................................................................................................62
Programme on Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA): Financing climate-resilient
agricultural practices in Ghana.............................................................................................................................................................63
List of figures and tables

Figure 1: Framework for strengthening gender integration............................................................................................................. 13
Table 1: How to engage different types of gender experts............................................................................................................... 11
Table 2: General guidance to inform project development and design....................................................................................... 37
Table 3: Guidance on gender........................................................................................................................................................................38
Table 4: Select case studies on gender..................................................................................................................................................... 39
iv
Executive summary
Aim
This guide presents a framework of recommendations for strengthening gender integration in climate
finance projects, with concrete examples and resources to show how it can be done. The guide
also shares broader enabling factors and recommendations to inform advocacy and action beyond
individual projects, at the climate fund level.
Who should read this guide

This guide is designed for project teams preparing, designing, implementing and monitoring climate
finance projects in developing countries under the four primary multilateral climate funds – the
Adaptation Fund (AF), Climate Investment Funds (CIFs), Global Environment Facility (GEF) and Green
Climate Fund (GCF) – as well as for those overseeing the approaches of project teams:
• Implementing entities: National, regional and international entities responsible for the design,
implementation and monitoring of climate finance projects in developing countries, often working
through individual project teams.
• Country focal points: Developing country government actors who have key roles in project
development, prioritisation and oversight.
Framework for strengthening gender integration

The guide’s set of recommendations provides a simple framework for thinking about direct and
powerful complementary opportunities for advancing gender equality. The recommendations stem
from interviews with key stakeholders engaged in project development, design and implementation.
The recommendations highlight important opportunities within the project cycle for strengthening
gender integration. The framework also suggests enabling factors and Fund-level recommendations to
enhance the gender responsiveness of climate action: these can inform work at the portfolio level.
Recommendations: Project teams may use the following recommendations as core building blocks for
integrating gender equality. Implementers may also examine, add to and codify these recommendations
for their respective institutions and country and/or project contexts – to create more comprehensive,
tailored frameworks.
• Lead with local gender expertise: Prioritise working with gender experts who originate from
and have in-depth experience within the project’s geographical area. Complement their expertise
and analysis with feedback from gender specialists from the entities and climate funds, where
appropriate.
• Leverage local women’s groups and national gender institutions: Insist that in-country gender
expertise and processes inform analyses and understandings of gendered dynamics. Include direct,
meaningful engagement with local organisations focussed on women’s rights and gender equality,
as well as gender-related institutions (e.g., the national government bodies working on gender
equality and women’s issues, such as the ministry or department of gender equality, women’s or
social affairs).
• Collect the right gender data from the start: Ensure that baseline data on gender-differentiated
roles, relationships and impacts is gathered to inform project design. These data should move
beyond simple measures of participation rates and beneficiary statistics to understanding nuanced
and dynamic issues, such as access to resources, allocation of time and labour, and status and
adherence to laws and policies that create or impede greater equality. Continued analysis and data
collection can facilitate adaptive management by informing subsequent implementation.
1
• Integrate gender specialists within the team: Formulate project team roles for gender specialists
and provide them with the resources, access and authority to contribute to overarching project
design so that gender is neither siloed nor secondary. Embedding these roles in project teams,
especially in decision-making positions, leads to informed input, increases team capacity on gender
integration, and advances equality in outcomes.
• Ensure continuity between design and implementation: Create intentional processes for sharing
data between the project design team and the implementation team. Include explicit explanations
of how the project team made complex decisions and highlight underlying assumptions, so that the
multifaceted elements of the design process are efficiently translated into implementation.
• Pursue team-wide capacity-building opportunities: Identify and require capacity-building

exercises that demonstrate links between gender and climate across teams so that advancing gender
equality throughout the project is appreciated and fostered. Developing broad appreciation for
gender strengthens the capacity and resources for, and likelihood of, integrating gender expertise
throughout the project.
Enabling factors
While the above recommendations relate to processes within individual projects, interviewees also
identified enabling factors that exist beyond the bounds of a single project. These factors reflect
institutional variables and elements among the implementing entities or within climate funds, or even
country-level dynamics. Leveraging these enabling factors can greatly improve the ability and/or
willingness of project teams to implement the above recommendations.
• Advocates for gender equality: Individuals with the knowledge and passion to drive forward
institution-level advancement within implementing entities and partner organisations can serve as
gender equality champions. These advocates, often in leadership roles within institutions, can help
to emphasise the many reinforcing benefits of advancing gender equality in combatting the climate
crisis.
• Existing gender experience and expertise: A foundation of gender expertise and formalised
processes for gender-related assessments within institutions increases the likelihood that gender will
be strongly integrated in projects. Lessons from those experiences and structures can guide further
capacity-building.
• National-level planning and policies: Having gender-responsive processes already integrated into
national frameworks and policy instruments on climate and development contributes to the political
will, capacity and guidance to design and implement projects with strong gender dimensions.
• Fund-level requirements: The Funds’ recent improvements to various templates, procedures and
resources with updated gender-related policies is pushing the bar higher throughout the project
cycle and across projects, as well as creating increased accountability for gender equality. Applying
learning and procedures across projects – those implemented prior to new standards and those
under other climate funds – can raise the quality of the overall climate-finance portfolio.
Considerations for the funds

The study has revealed two areas best addressed by the climate funds themselves to better recognise
the significance and speciality of gender and climate change expertise.
• Work directly with project-level gender experts: Rather than focusing primarily on institutions
and entities, the funds should recognise the role of individuals with expertise at the nexus of
gender and climate in enhancing gender-responsive approaches toward transformative gender-
2
equality outcomes. Direct engagement with a pool of gender and climate experts can facilitate their
connections to entities and promote higher quality analysis, design and implementation.
• Cultivate integrated platforms for sharing experiences: By realising the value of sharing
experiences and knowledge across funds as well as implementing entities, spaces for inclusively and
transparently examining processes and outcomes can be created, enhanced and supported over
time.
Integrating gender in climate finance projects: A closer look

This guide includes examples of how climate projects from different scales and sectors have attempted
to advance gender equality, in alignment with the framework above. It uses examples from projects
in developing countries across the four major funds. Lessons are drawn from both the presence and
absence of key approaches.
These project examples demonstrate the importance of ensuring a human rights-based approach in
all climate action, which recognises the agency of women and girls in all their diversity and ensures
opportunities for their participation and leadership. Even within projects in sectors where gender
considerations are more widely understood (e.g., agricultural resilience projects), it is imperative to
create mechanisms for gender analyses and accountability for applying gender-responsive approaches.
The examples also highlight that integrating gender equality concepts and practices into climate finance
projects remains a complex and ongoing challenge, requiring adequately tailored approaches and
financial and technical resources for each project and its context.
Key resources
The guide also provides links to key resources for the climate funds so readers can examine existing
manuals and guidelines for gender mainstreaming and refer to these when developing proposals.
Valuable examples and many relevant resources already exist to guide team efforts, particularly in
climate projects in developing countries.
Modjadji Women’s Climate Smart Agriculture project, South Africa. © Farai Hove, CHoiCE Trust
3
i. Introduction
I. Introduction
The purpose of this guide
It is widely acknowledged that a gender lens should be integrated into climate finance projects
to achieve transformative gender outcomes, as well as effective climate action and sustainable
development.1,2 Advancing gender equality through climate action is needed to achieve
international gender-related goals and commitments as envisioned in Agenda 2030. However,
successfully integrating gender is also recognised as positively contributing to increased climate
ambition, generating more effective climate action and facilitating a just transition for developing
and developed countries alike.3
This guide introduces recommendations and offers promising examples for integrating gender
equality concepts and practices into climate finance projects, with a focus on the four primary
climate funds: the Adaptation Fund (AF), Climate Investment Funds (CIFs), Global Environmental
Facility (GEF) and Green Climate Fund (GCF). It brings together project-level learning from these
four climate funds and offers evidence and tools for key actors engaged in projects, whose support
is vital to the success of efforts to integrate gender. The findings here should be used to:
• assess and reflect upon approaches to integrate gender in climate finance projects;
• identify key strategic activities and entry points to advance the integration of gender; and
• connect to resources, such as a guide to gender integration under a specific climate fund, to
facilitate those activities.
Who should read this guide

IMPLEMENTING ENTITIES AND THEIR PARTNERS
This guide is designed for the entities that develop and implement climate finance projects as
well as other institutional actors that support this work. Referred to as ‘implementing entities’
in this publication, they include multilateral, regional or national implementing entities under
the AF; the 18 partner agencies for the GEF; accredited entities within the GCF; and the five
multilateral development banks that work with the CIFs. These entities have similar functions and
responsibilities, including in terms of their interactions with governmental focal points as well as
their roles in project design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation.
This guide is also intended for those contracted by these funds to consult on designing proposals,
engaging with various levels of the funding apparatus, or helping develop country focal points and
other stakeholders in-country or externally.
This guide is also designed to be useful in different ways to entities with different capacities for
gender integration, recognising the range of entities that implement projects under the four
funds. For national entities and direct access entities, the considerations outlined in this guide may
catalyse institutional-level changes and/or the development of new processes and procedures
to promote more robust integration of gender. For multilateral entities with considerable gender
equality expertise and infrastructure, these recommendations may prompt reflection and
discussion, particularly at the project level.
GOVERNMENT FOCAL POINTS

A second audience for these insights is the governmental focal points working with each of
the climate funds, i.e., the designated authorities within the AF, the focal points for the CIFs and
4
i. Introduction
GEF, and the National Designated Authorities for the GCF. These individuals are in a position to
demonstrate significant leadership on comprehensively integrating (or spearheading projects
that integrate) a gender lens. They often play an important role in setting expectations that can
contribute to, or detract from, the effort and resources directed toward gender integration as well
as the quality of outcomes. In addition, their engagement in mobilising and directing resources for
capacity-building can also help support the adoption of approaches that advance gender equality.
METHODOLOGY
This guide collates the insights of over 20 stakeholders with gender-related experiences with at
least one fund. The vast majority of interviewees have experience across more than one fund and
across multiple projects. These interviewees were selected based on their experience with the full
cycle of project design and implementation. Among these interviewees were gender staff at each
of the climate funds, staff at various regional and international entities who lead project design and
implementation (including consulting firms), and individual consultants who have managed the
gender work on various projects.
Interviewees also included people who had evaluated climate finance projects from a gender
perspective; and local gender and climate change specialists who were involved in country
processes. (See Annex I for the list of interviewees.)
These semi-structured interviews were designed to uncover interviewees’ knowledge and perspectives,
drawing from their individual experiences over the years across what is estimated to be thousands
of projects. As narratives and hypotheses offered by interviewees were shared anonymously with
subsequent interviewees, where relevant and appropriate, the process created a sense of conversation
about these topics. This led to the emergence of grounded and cautious, yet robust, recommendations
on how to frame the need to increase and scale-up the integration of gender.
Desktop evaluations were also conducted for 16 projects across the four funds. Given this small
project sample size no specific trends are emphasised, as these projects cannot inform any larger
assessment of the climate funds. Instead, these individual projects – selected to encompass a variety
of types, sizes, sectors, geographies and other variables – are used to highlight examples of strong
gender integration, alongside missed opportunities, based on the documents reviewed. These
examples ultimately ensure the framework in Section 2 is contextualised and grounded for readers
who may have questions about the integration of gender and goals of the recommendations. Several
of the projects assessed were proposed by the interviewees to ensure the best chance of being useful
for readers of this guide. (See Annex II for the list of projects.)
Intersectional approaches to gender

and social inclusion are encouraged
that consider the strengths and
vulnerabilities of women, men, girls and
boys while considering age, ethnicity,
education, disability and other identities
and characteristics that affect people's
access to opportunities and resources,
and shape inequalities. This guide
focuses on gender integration generally
and contributes to a foundational
understanding of the importance of
intersectional gender expertise that
future work can further explore with
regard to the intersectional approaches Women and Gender Constituency being interviewed at
that all climate finance projects merit. COP24. © Annabelle Avril, Women Engage for a Common
Future (WECF)
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i. Introduction
BOX 1: RESEARCH QUESTIONS GUIDING INTERVIEWS
How do the climate funds’ gender policies and other policy frameworks influence focal points
and implementing entities in terms of gender-related procedural practices as well as normative
expectations?
What processes and procedures prior to or during project design enable or constrain effective gender
mainstreaming? What role may be played by gender capacity-building or technical assistance? Who
are the key actors in these processes?
What are the key moments in designing or implementing a project with strong gender
mainstreaming? How do the type, scope, sector and other aspects of a project influence the project’s
openness to, and integration of, gender mainstreaming?
What project conditions and internal processes translate strong design into strong implementation,
and which ones hinder them?
What evidence and arguments are most persuasive to both individual and institutional actors
resistant to gender mainstreaming?
BOX 2: WHAT THIS GUIDE IS NOT
This guide is not a how-to manual for gender mainstreaming. Guidance to that effect exists
within each fund as well as in other resources (see Key resources), which contain comprehensive and
detailed approaches to conducting gender analyses and assessments, designing gender-responsive
activities and monitoring frameworks, and implementing projects that advance gender equality.
This guide is not a checklist to ensure a better project. This guide presents a framework for
improving the integration of gender that should be adapted to the specific context. It may not be
appropriate for each project to adopt every single recommendation.
This guide is not an analysis or a comparison of gender approaches across the funds. The
funds’ various histories and gender-related policies and procedures are well-explored in other
resources (see Boxes 4-7). While some higher-level recommendations have emerged from the
research for the funds to consider, the goal of this work is for institutional actors to improve their
integration of gender into climate finance projects. This guide, therefore, does not outline how to
achieve a specific fund’s standard of gender integration, such as gender mainstreaming, but rather
aims to provide useful insights across the climate finance landscape.
BOX 3: A NOTE ON GENDER MAINSTREAMING
While this document does not set forth a standard such as gender mainstreaming, the term is often
used generally. The definition of gender mainstreaming, drawn from the 1997 agreed conclusions
of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), is: “The process of assessing the implications for
women and men of any planned action, including legislation, policies or programmes, in all areas and
at all levels. It is a strategy for making women’s as well as men’s concerns and experiences an integral
dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes in
all political, economic and societal spheres so that women and men benefit equally and inequality is
not perpetuated. The ultimate goal is to achieve gender equality.”4
6
i. Introduction
Framing and reflections

Here are a few notes on the framing and choice of terms used in this guide.
The interviewees – whose lived experience designing, implementing and assessing gender in
climate finance projects makes them the foremost experts on this subject – were not comfortable
with identifying their observations, ideas and insights as “best practices”. Their perceptions and
experiences focus on the struggle rather than the success of integrating gender equality concepts
and practices into climate projects.
Despite the attention to gender and climate finance in recent years, this work is nascent, complex
and ongoing. While some projects are better equipped or have had better results than others, there
are no shining, golden examples of perfection achieved: indeed, good practices exist that promise
the best is yet to come. Even widespread replication of elements of some currently remarkable
projects would not be enough to fully address the concerns of inadequate attention to gender
in climate finance. Moreover, suggesting that the top performers of today are the standard to be
reached could potentially limit the possibilities for truly transformative work on gender.
Gender and climate change work is still largely conducted by individuals or groups with niche
experience and by international consultants who have more experience linking gender within the
funds. Local-level expertise has yet to be broadly integrated in climate financing and projects in
developing countries. Therefore, the guide aims to:
• capture a better understanding of what this expertise could look like (see “Understanding
gender expertise” on page 10;
• enable international consultants to communicate the imperative of this approach; and
• voice suggestions from local-level experts on their inclusion and engagement.
This proposed shift in framing is not only about locating appropriate expertise, but also drawing
attention to how the short-term, individual gender consultant model is dominating the landscape
and is not best suited to the task.
Furthermore, the climate funds have only recently put into place some of the most robust work in
terms of requirements and reporting. The limited information on actual implementation of projects
under the funds’ most updated – and advanced – gender policies and practices hinders a thorough
assessment of what has been working well.
How are the funds approaching gender integration?

In its opening words, the Paris Agreement recognises gender equality and women’s empowerment
as an element of effective climate action.5 The climate funds charged with allocating and
implementing climate projects had been integrating gender-equality considerations to some
degree into their operations and programming prior to the Paris Agreement, although the nature
and scope of gender considerations and obligations within the climate funds has evolved.
Gender capacity, approaches and requirements have developed in different ways for each of the
four funds; however, the general trend over the past decade has been to design and subsequently
update gender policies while establishing the gender capacity of staff and assigning roles
dedicated to advancing gender equality. More details on the funds’ gender policies and their
relevance to implementing entities are provided below.
See the latest edition of the Climate Funds Update: Gender and Climate Finance for a brief but
contextualised overview of the funds’ approaches to gender.
7
i. Introduction
BOX 4: ADAPTATION FUND
Key gender moments

• The Environmental and Social Policy, first adopted in 2013, includes a specific principle on gender
equality and women’s empowerment.
• In 2016, the AF adopted a Gender Policy and Gender Action Plan (2017-2019).
• In 2021, the Fund updated its Gender Policy and Gender Action Plan.
Current gender requirements
The AF’s Gender Policy and Gender Action Plan are applicable to all Fund projects and programmes
regardless of implementing entity. Gender capacity, commitment and having a gender-related grievance
handling mechanism are requirements for implementing entities to be accredited and re-accredited.
BOX 5: CLIMATE INVESTMENT FUNDS
Key gender moments

• The CIF undertook an Environment, Social and Gender Assessment in 2011 and a Gender Review in 2013.
• In 2014, the CIF recruited a senior advisor on gender and social issues.
• The CIF Gender Action Plan – Phase 1 (FY 15-16) was adopted in 2014, followed by the CIF Gender Action
Plan – Phase 2 (FY 17-20) in 2016, and the CIF Gender Action Plan – Phase 3 (FY 21-24) in 2020.
• The CIF Gender Policy was adopted in 2018.
The CIF Gender Policy governs gender equality efforts across all CIF activities. However, the policy does not
supersede any gender policies and requirements of the multilateral development banks that the CIF work
with, as those continue to hold primacy at the project level. The CIF Gender Action Plan – Phase 3, jointly
implemented by the CIF and Multilateral Development Banks, orients greater focus toward gender-related
technical support to country systems.
BOX 6: GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL FACILITY
Key gender moments

• The GEF approved a Policy on Gender Mainstreaming in 2011 and developed a Gender Equality Action
Plan in 2014.
• In 2017, the GEF’s Independent Evaluation Office conducted an Evaluation of Gender Mainstreaming in
the GEF.
• The GEF adopted the GEF Policy on Gender Equality to replace the Policy on Gender Mainstreaming
and the GEF Gender Implementation Strategy in 2018.
• A progress report on the GEF Gender Implementation Strategy is compiled and published annually;
the third progress report (June 2021) includes feedback on how lessons learned may inform the next
cycle of GEF programming.
Current status of gender requirements
The GEF’s Policy on Gender Equality, effective in 2018, applies to all GEF Partner Agencies, while the
Gender Implementation Strategy guides the implementation of the policy with a focus on four priority
areas, including increasing partner agencies’ capacity and tracking gender-equality results.
8
i. Introduction
BOX 7: GREEN CLIMATE FUND
Key gender moments

• The Governing Instrument for the Green Climate Fund (2011) embedded gender, the first climate fund to
recognise gender from the start.
• The GCF adopted its first Gender Policy in 2015 with an updated GCF Gender Policy and Gender Action
Plan of the GCF 2020-2023 following in 2019.
The updated GCF Gender Policy outlines responsibilities for accredited entities and project-level
requirements. The accompanying Gender Action Plan primarily outlines GCF Secretariat activities, but
reinforces that it is the accredited entity’s responsibility to budget for gender support at the project level.
Women and children riding the Lahore Bus Rapid Transit service in Pakistan. © Asian Development Bank
9
i. Introduction
Understanding gender expertise

What does a “gender expert” or “gender-related capacity-building” look like? This question is
fundamental to ensuring that attempts to integrate gender equality concepts and practices in
climate finance projects are not limited to a sprinkling of gender-related words or intermittent
references to women in project proposals and documentation.
This guide’s expert insights and recommendations are underpinned by understanding the need
for contextualised “gender and climate expertise”, the engagement of “gender experts” and the
strengthening of “gender capacity”. As terms, these can mean different things in different contexts.
For example, the level of gender integration in a project often has less to do with whether gender
experts (often external, international consultants) were engaged, but why and when they were
engaged, and how their expertise was integrated into projects.
Implementing entities and project teams may find it helpful to develop a portfolio of gender
experts with sector-specific skills and identify strategies to engage them collectively in project
design. This should include ensuring equal recognition of time and effort (e.g., compensating a
representative from a local community group for participating in a consultation in the same way as
you would pay for an outside expert’s time).
TYPES OF GENDER EXPERTISE

• Knowledge of legal and policy frameworks as entry points for integrating gender equality in
project development.
• Knowledge of local and national gender contexts – i.e., social and cultural norms and practices,
statistics and policies, such as those related to labour and skills.
• Knowledge of methods for data collection, analysis and assessment, including impact measures
that move beyond counting the numbers of women to measures that capture issues of rights,
resources and voice.
• Knowledge of, and connection to, women’s rights, social justice and feminist movements as well
as an understanding of the models they use and the ways in which they operate, and how to
work with them.
• Understanding key concepts in relation to gender equality, i.e., sex versus gender, social
reproduction and care, gender-responsive budgeting, intersectionality (the intersection or
overlap of gender, race, class and other systems of discrimination and oppression that result in
particular inequalities).
• Specific knowledge of gendered issues and gender dynamics and opportunities within a sector,
such as energy, agriculture, health, infrastructure or transportation.
• Ability to manage and monitor gender-relevant activities, such as overseeing the

operationalisation of a gender action plan, when projects are implemented.
EXAMPLES OF “STRENGTHENING GENDER CAPACITY”

• Requiring “Gender 101” training of all staff on key concepts in gender equality as well as aspects
of gender mainstreaming, particularly linked to specific climate-relevant sectors or projects (and
more broadly for a systems-thinking approach).
• Conducting specific training on collecting intersectional, sex-disaggregated data, carrying out

gender analyses and monitoring gender equity during implementation phases.
• Holding workshops with the entire project team at the start of project development to
introduce the panel of gender experts and discuss how they will be engaged.
10
i. Introduction
• Developing a matrix of women and community groups, organisations and gender experts
engaged in a project’s local context and encouraging project implementers to connect with
their work, writing and research.
TABLE 1: How to engage different types of gender experts

These are some indicative ways you could engage different types of gender experts to contribute
these skills to a project team:
LOCAL ORGANISATION OR WOMEN’S GROUP

Example: Mongolian Women’s Fund (MONES) or GenderCC Southern Africa
Why To develop effective, demand- driven projects that understand local gendered dynamics
engage: and relationships; to enable cooperative models of programme design; and to connect
with key beneficiaries and centre them in decision-making.
How to • Provide support to local women’s groups to engage in programming and readiness
engage: activities for climate finance. Invite them to contribute to gendered strategies,
approaches and assessments, starting from project conceptualisation through to
design and implementation, and remunerate them for their time.
• Ask for their guidance to connect with local-level stakeholders and communities for
participating in the design and implementation of the project (e.g., partner with them
to conduct stakeholder engagement workshops).
• Partner with them in the project monitoring and evaluation process to carry out
assessments and make recommendations as appropriate, depending on their role in
the project implementation process.
• Collaborate to share local gender and climate change knowledge and practices with
all project stakeholders.
NATIONAL COORDINATING MECHANISM

Example: Sudan’s national Gender and Climate Change Group (GCCG) or a country’s National
Gender and Climate Change Focal Point under the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
Why To ensure alignment with national priorities; to gain access to national data indexes
engage: and identify gaps into which projects can feed; and to connect with key partners and
stakeholders who can contribute to project conceptualisation, design, implementation
and monitoring.
How to • Work with national coordinators to access relevant gender data and information to
engage: inform gender analysis and planning.
• Reach out to them for their direct input into project conceptualisation and planning.
Ask for assistance to invite other gender specialists in the country or region to
specifically participate in a project (i.e., conducting a gender analysis, scoping of gender
in climate projects in the country and/or region, drafting gender mainstreaming
strategies, developing monitoring and evaluation frameworks inclusive of gender and
social considerations, etc.).
• Collaborate to share gender and climate change knowledge and practices with all
project stakeholders.
• Contribute to national-level planning that is gender-responsive, such GCF country
programmes and CIF investment plans, and will influence projects across the portfolio.
11
i. Introduction
GLOBAL ALLIANCE OR ORGANISATION

Example: Women and Gender Constituency (observer group of the UNFCCC); National Adaptation
Plan (NAP) Global Network
Why To connect with other examples of projects and/or solutions that are working; to gain
engage: access to general data and identify gaps into which projects can feed; to connect with
key partners and stakeholders who can contribute to project conceptualisation, design,
implementation and monitoring.
How to • Request their general advice on project documents as they are developed and
engage: engage them in project implementation.
• Ask for connections to other gender experts in the country or region to specifically
participate in a project.
• Collaborate to share high-level gender and climate change knowledge, frameworks,
practices and expectations with project stakeholders.
INDEPENDENT CONSULTANT
Example: Specialist or group of consultants, with some of the specific knowledge outlined in Types
of gender expertise
Why To connect with other examples of projects and programmes to share technical guidance
engage: and solutions that are feasible in the context of the project; to develop effective,
demand-driven projects that recognise gendered dynamics and relationships.
How to • Directly contract to develop strategies, approaches and analysis for specific projects.
engage:
• Contract advice on project documents as they are developed and engage them in
providing inputs to guide project implementation.
• Bring them onto the project team to lead project implementation and monitoring.
• Collaborate to share examples and lessons from other relevant projects.
A member of the Women and Gender Constituency participating at COP24. © Annabelle Avril, WECF
12
II. A framework for strengthening gender integration

Introduction
From the consultations across a range of stakeholders and actors with varied experience integrating
gender equality in climate projects, trends emerged regarding concerns, challenges and entry points
for ensuring gender-equality outcomes. There was general consensus and high-level agreement
among stakeholders, as interviews built on one another. Statements from previous interviewees were
introduced to test, provoke or complement statements by current interviewees. This helped to gauge
ii. Framework
shared experiences, perspectives or analyses, as well as consider more accurate language for these
ideas. The recommendations made here attempt to grapple with the complexities of interviewees’
responses by offering caveats and insights into divergent experiences and views.
Six recommendations surfaced that can steer project-level approaches and inform the expectations
of those overseeing and commissioning projects. They are grounded in the belief that strengthening
gender integration in financing climate change projects can be achieved, in part, by choosing
certain approaches and activities that are often under-valued, under-resourced and/or simply not
contemplated. Additionally, three key considerations of context also emerged that are relevant at
higher levels of decision-making and capacity-building. These enabling factors are presented with
some short guidance for applicability so that these insights are not couched solely as observations.
Lastly, considerations for the climate funds are presented.
FIGURE 1: Framework for strengthening gender integration
Recommendations
Enabling factors
Framework for
strengthening
• Lead with local gender
gender • Advocates for gender
expertise
integration equality
• Leverage local women’s
groups and national gender • Existing gender
institutions experience and expertise
• Collect the right data from • National-level planning

the start and policies
• Integrate gender specialists Considerations • Fund-level requirements

within the team for the climate
funds • Work directly with
• Ensure continuity between gender experts
design and implementation
• Cultivate integrated
• Pursue team-wide capacity- platforms for
building opportunities sharing experiences
13
Recommendations
These recommendations are key considerations for project teams that highlight the key chances
and missed opportunities for mainstreaming gender-oriented decision-making, which can make the
most difference to a project. The framework also outlines potential challenges and barriers for
implementing the recommendations. Additionally, each recommendation carries at least one note
of caution for when such an approach may be inadequate or misguided.
LEAD WITH LOCAL GENDER EXPERTISE
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What is the context? At the heart of being able to mainstream gender within a climate project is
understanding how the norms, perceptions, experiences, risks and access to resources within the
communities targeted by the project are gendered. Gender consultants are often employed to
contribute to the vital task of researching, assessing and analysing these dynamics. These aspects
should typically be captured within various project documents (including environmental and social
assessments) in the design and implementation phases. They are also included in environmental
and social safeguards, which are policies designed to set out requirements that projects must meet
to eliminate or minimise risk of harm and promote positive benefits. However, it is the selection
of individual experts – and the connections they have to community knowledge – that is critical
for comprehensive and accurate assessments. Local gender experts not only help to ensure
appropriate project activities and approaches, but also provide insight into gender dynamics in the
scope and context of the project.
What is the recommendation? Prioritise appointing gender specialists from the local area who
possess local knowledge to lead the gender work within a project. The implementing entity should
recruit and then support these local gender specialists to deliver comprehensive assessments
and plans for gender integration within the
project. Gender experts from the country where
the project is based add value, but considering
and engaging experts from the particular sub-
region of a country, with requisite cultural/ethnic
background and language capability, is also See recommendation Collect the
important. Methodologies grounded in in-person right data from the start to consider
stakeholder engagement and often tied to parallel how local expertise can contribute to
environmental and social safeguard processes are robust data collection.
encouraged, as opposed to desktop-developed
strategies based on secondary data.
What are the benefits? Interviewees asserted that local gender experts’ experience of gender
dynamics typically leads to better methodologies and outcomes. This is in contrast to the sole
reliance on international consultants who may have fund and/or sector expertise, but are less
familiar with the project’s geographic area and the local social and cultural dynamics. Knowledge of
local languages, customs and behaviours enables a deeper level of engagement with community
members and other stakeholders and, therefore, a better understanding of key concerns, practices
and patterns.
What are the challenges for implementing this recommendation? The typical project cycle
as well as the availability of gender consultants and capacity limitations related to linking gender
with climate change impede the timely recruitment of talented local experts. Indeed, even the
inclination to conceptualise gender expertise as residing in a single individual, often a consultant,
poses challenges to capturing local knowledge. The following practices contribute to limiting the
pool of eligible candidates available for the contract: tight timelines for proposal design, short
timeframes for circulating opportunities to potential experts, a lack of awareness of the existence
of national and/or local gender consultants and, once identified, the short timeframes for gender
consultants to conduct their work.
14
Gender experts with solid environmental and

climate qualifications are perceived to be rare,
though some interviewees felt their area did
have a strong pool. A member of one project
team reported that it had taken years to See recommendation Integrate gender
create a roster of good potential consultants specialists within the team to consider
for their project areas. Limited resources for balancing the challenges of finding the
proposal development can also contribute to a right expert(s) on a short timeline and
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preference for a desk-based gender assessment, ensuring an integrated approach to
which can bias projects toward published
the proposal.
and/or academic experts as opposed to local
expertise, which may be more based on lived/
practical experience.
BOX 8: THE SIGNIFICANCE OF GENDER SPECIALISTS
Other research on climate finance and gender has also highlighted the value of gender specialists:
“Supporting projects with a gender specialist, or even a gender focal point, has been intermittent,
limiting expert knowledge on gender dynamics, or provision of advice on gender-responsive
practices or sufficient integration in projects. This could have resulted in a fragmented,
compartmentalised and scattered vision to project implementation for a thoroughly gender-
responsive approach. This in turn could have limited comprehensive and effective gender equality
outcomes beyond women as project participants, or economic beneficiaries.” Issue identified in AF
report, Assessing Progress: Integrating Gender in Adaptation Fund Projects and Programmes.6
“Most of the reviewed projects appeared to have access to some gender expertise, but it was
limited in both person-months and time allocated. To achieve expected gender results and sustain
the commitment to mainstreaming gender, greater investments need to be made in hiring human
resources with specific expertise in gender and climate change.” Recommendation in the Asian
Development Bank (ADB) report, Building Gender into Climate Finance, ADB Experience with the CIFs.7
What are the caveats to this recommendation? Specialists bring different kinds of knowledge,
experience and skills to a project. While some experts will be critically important to understanding
the local context, others may be needed to provide insights into the requirements of a specific
entity and/or fund. It is important to acknowledge the value of various types of expertise and
deploy specialists appropriately. National and local expertise is not synonymous and can bring
different perspectives depending on the country context. Particularly for large countries and
countries with high ethnic, cultural and social diversity, a national gender expert may have
critical knowledge of national policies and frameworks that is important to inform the national
implementing entity’s work. However, a local gender expert, steeped in the language, culture and
custom of the specific locality where the project will take place, may be needed to round out the
project’s perspectives and actions – and make them more effective.
A system of support and cooperation among gender staff, both within the implementing entity and
the firms contracted to contribute to design and implementation, can help combine different types
of expertise. Reviewing formal methodologies and assessments as a team can help leverage the
experience of the local expert(s) to ensure that some outputs are framed to meet the expectations
of the entity and fulfil the fund’s requirements. To achieve this, project documents need to be
developed collaboratively over time, rather than reviewed by gender experts at a single instance.
15
LEVERAGE LOCAL WOMEN’S GROUPS AND NATIONAL GENDER INSTITUTIONS

What is the context? Effective project design requires data, assessments and understanding of the
project landscape, including gender dynamics; all of which necessitate the engagement of local
communities. National government bodies working on gender equality and women’s issues – for
example, the ministry or department of gender equality, women’s or social affairs – are also sources
of data, information and connection to stakeholders. Ensuring projects include diverse perspectives
and levels of engagement leads to appropriate contributions and design, which shapes effective
project implementation. The participation of and leadership by women and women’s groups
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improve the effectiveness and efficiency of development and climate funding.8,9,10
What is the recommendation? Connect with

women’s rights and gender-related groups, from
the local to the national level, to enrich and enhance
project design and implementation, ensuring
effective approaches are tailored to the project See recommendation Lead with local
and community context. National governments’ gender expertise to understand the
gender institutions can be engaged in the process of
significance of including those who
proposal development to support gender analyses
have local and/or regional origins
and assessments alongside local women’s rights
organisations. They can also help in identifying
and knowledge.
national/local consultants to engage in this work.
What are the benefits? National gender institutions hold vital information and expertise for
collecting and compiling data as well as understanding the national and sub-regional contexts of
law, policy and practice. Access to their data (and knowledge of policy and programming generally)
can help avoid duplicating efforts so that resources can be better directed toward primary data
collection, for example. They can also share insights from their experiences that can inform the
assessment methodology as well as suggest the most appropriate activities and approaches to
for the project design. Furthermore, national institutions can facilitate introductions of the project
team to appropriate stakeholders in the project area, such as women’s rights organisations. These
local groups may be grassroots civil society organisations based in the area, or local chapters of
national federations of women’s groups, but directly engaging these organisations also helps make
interventions more appropriate and effective.
The Bungule Women's Group in Kenya producing arts and crafts. © Geoff Livingston
16
What are the challenges to implementing this recommendation? National gender institutions
may be poorly resourced, and the advantages of connecting with them will vary from country to
country. Many offices and ministries are also less conversant in gender-climate linkages than they
are in traditional development approaches. While collaborating to build a shared understanding of
how their work applies to climate projects may be worthwhile, the short time frames for proposal
development are ubiquitous, and working with governmental bureaucracies can often pose
challenges for timelines.
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Building trust and collaboration with local women’s groups may also take time and dedicated
processes. The traditional under-resourcing of women’s organisations must be considered in the
context of ensuring project activities are not increasing the labour and drudgery of women’s
workloads. Correspondingly, to encourage the engagement of under-capacitated women’s
organisations that have not been working directly on climate issues, project teams may need to
explain gender-climate linkages, particularly risks and opportunities, within the project context.
Dedication to collaboratively working with women’s organisations may, thus, require a solid
commitment to pursuing partnerships and flexibility in considering their priorities, needs and ways
of working.
What are the caveats to this recommendation? National gender institutions will vary in their
systems and context by country, and recognising the specific resource and political constraints
is critical before creating any connections. Sometimes women’s ministries and departments are
politically marginalised, and they may also be disconnected from the departments and focal
points where climate finance projects are developed, potentially hindering the endorsement of the
gender-responsive activities within the project plan. Resource limitations may also mean datasets
are out-dated and so assessments should not overly rely on them. Project teams should consider
the advantages of connecting with each identified national institution on a case-by-case basis.
BOX 9: TIMING OF ASSESSMENTS
The critical nature of a robust gender assessment is undeniable, but some interviewees suggested
that comprehensive work might be best performed at project inception rather than during the
proposal process. Starting the project with an assessment can ensure more resources are available
and that relevant data is captured and then applied to project activities. However, this approach
should only be pursued when technical and financial resources are secured to ensure gender-
related assessments, stakeholder engagement and other preparatory work is, indeed, conducted
at the beginning of the project timeline. Such a caveat is necessary given the potential difficulty
of securing gender and climate expertise and examples where gender elements of projects have
been delayed due to the gender team not being in place (see Box 13). Furthermore, there is the risk
that this sequence of activities would lead to gender-responsive project activities being identified
only after implementation budgets are approved. In other words, a gender-responsive budgeting
approach would have to be retrofitted to an existing budget and if resources were insufficient, then
the gender-responsive and transformative aspects of the work may not be taken forward.
COLLECT THE RIGHT DATA FROM THE START

What is the context? Gender analyses and assessments require extensive data and understanding
of the gendered dynamics within an area. Pertinent information includes national and local law
and policy frameworks, traditional and customary practices, and patterns and opportunities in
all applicable sectors. Information, both quantitative and qualitative, may be gathered through
desktop assessments of secondary data, primary data collection, or, usually, a combination of both.
The initial data gathered provides the baseline that contributes to understanding project progress
and impact.
17
What is the recommendation? Ensure baseline data of gendered roles, relationships and impacts
is researched and defined – moving beyond measures based on participation and beneficiary data.
Gathering data and information for a baseline should include understanding issues of: a) access
to resources, b) time and labour allocation, and c) status and adherence to laws and policies that
create greater equality. Surveying and understanding official laws as well as customary laws and
practices, which may vary regionally, would be an example of vital data that often informs gender-
differentiated roles, access to resources and participation in decision-making. Project design should
capture and integrate quantitative and qualitative data relevant to the project’s thematic and
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geographical scope and set the stage for continued data collection throughout implementation.
Collecting the right data from the start can help ensure that sex- and gender-disaggregated data
on climate risks and climate project benefits (and unintended positive or negative consequences of
project implementation) is regularly collected and discussed, with projects managed adaptively in
response.
BOX 10: MODELS OF DATA COLLECTION
W+
Time
Income
Leadership
& Assets
https://www.wplus.org/
W+
Food
Security
Knowledge &
Education
Each of the six domains of the W+ Standard™ − 1) Time, 2) Health, 3)
Health
Knowledge & Education, 4) Food Security, 5) Income & Assets, and 6)
Leadership − is associated with a questionnaire and method to capture
project outcomes and their impact on women’s lives.
2x challenge: Financing for women
https://www.2xchallenge.org/criteria
Achieving one direct criterion − outlined for entrepreneurship, leadership, employment, and
consumption − makes an investment two times more eligible.
Data2x
https://data2x.org/what-is-gender-data/
This initiative analyses gender data, including identifying gaps in data, across six key areas of
development: economic opportunities, education, environment, health, human security and public
participation.
What are the benefits? Robust data are important to project design and gender responsive
targeting and delivery throughout the project cycle. Sex-disaggregated baseline data and gender
analysis that is relevant to the climate change adaptation and/or mitigation goals of the project
should drive appropriate activities and their implementation. Data and analysis should drive, for
example, the project objectives and key performance indicators (measures of success) over the
life of the project. They should also underpin monitoring, evaluation and redesign. In addition,
a broad range of data is necessary to capture gender dynamics in the project scope to ensure
implementation is far-reaching when it comes to advancing gender equality. Projects often embed
the assumption that all gender-related activities are positive contributions. For example, if 0%
participation can be reported as a “baseline” because no community meetings about this project
have taken place, then some/any increased percentage of women’s participation is assumed a
notable achievement.
18
Comprehensive data about participation in community decision-making, access to resources, time

allocation, and laws and norms ensures the right information is tracked over time. This knowledge
protects against gender inequality being unintentionally exacerbated and forces the project to
design activities that will improve equality in a substantive way. Correspondingly, data points can
unlock opportunities for intervention and leverage as well as identify potential risks.
What are the challenges to implementing this recommendation? Barriers to gathering

relevant baseline data include inadequate resources and timelines for project preparation as
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well as inadequate resources and infrastructure for monitoring and evaluation once project
implementation begins. In addition,
project teams need to reframe their
expectations and demand more and
better gender-related data. The lack of
sex-disaggregated data and knowledge of
methods for its collection has been long- This recommendation connects to the
recognised, and so the expectation for recommendation Lead with local gender
robust data is often weak. However, this expertise and Leverage local women’s
can lead to blind spots in the design of groups and national gender institutions
data methodologies, including erroneously whose substantive inputs are not limited
assuming that existing, secondary datasets to project and programme design, but can
are adequate and appropriate to new
also extend to assisting in data collection
projects, emphasising quantitative data
and monitoring.
over qualitative, or focussing only on the
direct results of project activities.
What are the caveats to this recommendation? With a greater scope and depth of data
collected, more positive indicators of progress may be revealed during implementation, pointing
to the imperative of understanding connections between the project and the data. While data
should be collected comprehensively to understand both risks and opportunities, beginning with
key data during project design to shape project activities and provide a baseline, a robust theory
of change is essential to ensure data are applied appropriately. During implementation, datasets
that include broad changes across the country or region should not necessarily be associated
with project impacts, as the project may be only one contributor to that change. Tracking gender-
inclusion in regional planning processes for various related sectors, for example, may reveal
greater recognition of gendered dynamics in these processes over time, and merit tracking from
the project’s beginning, but improvements should not be attributed to the project without a clear
logframe underpinning those connections. Likewise, an over-reliance on qualitative self-reporting
can obscure real project results. Data collection must be embedded within a strong monitoring and
evaluation framework to ensure it is applied appropriately to understanding project impact.
INTEGRATE GENDER SPECIALISTS WITHIN THE TEAM

What is the context? Gender elements of a climate finance proposal are often separated for
visibility. For example, the gender assessment and Gender Action Plan of a GCF proposal are
submitted and available as annexes – rather than being integrated into the body of the proposal
and its logframe. One interviewee asserted that the annexed nature of the GCF projects’
assessment and action plan is fundamentally indicative of a lack of mainstreaming: to effectively
mainstream gender would require its inclusion in the primary proposal design. An alternate
argument could be made that less attention is given to gender when there is not a categorical
focus, which these separate, complementary documents allow.
The gender specialists solicited to conduct this work are, likewise, often separated from the
overall proposal or implementing teams. Correspondingly, gender experts may be brought on
as supplemental consultants for short periods of time – as “add-ons” to the project team – to
complete specific research and documents that contribute to the overall funding proposal.
19
BOX 11: THE EXPERIENCE OF GENDER SPECIALISTS
Often relegated as an additional or ad hoc support person, gender experts say their skills are
sometimes perceived as so-called “soft science”, in contrast to team members with specialisms
in physical or natural science disciplines, infrastructure design, planning or engineering. Gender
experts who are not valued within their teams are seen as having limited knowledge of the larger
climate change implications of actions, or policies and processes. These perceptions can contribute
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to their marginalisation within a team or process. Other technical experts may seek to discredit or
disregard gender experts’ ideas or input to the broader project.
I feel like I’m the social person, and the others are more technical [because they couch
‘technical’ expertise in far narrower terms]. So, the people used to take sides, and
whenever you think which is more important, or which one is the one that is
going to pay [for] this project, it’s going to be renewable energy, it’s not going
to be gender.
– Independent gender specialist
What is the recommendation? Gender experts should participate and serve the project team
for the same duration and be valued in the same way as other technical experts on the team,
contributing their knowledge to the overall project design. Terms of reference should outline the
ways in which the gender expert should contribute and interact with the team, and adequately
account for the time and resources needed to integrate a cross-cutting and gender-responsive
human rights-based approach across all project activities and outputs. Gender specialists can also
serve in authoritative, decision-making capacities within teams. At a broader level, gender expertise
– not only that provided by an individual consultant or team – should influence the project
assumptions, approaches and goals from the start.
What are the benefits? The benefits are not only pragmatic but also give a signal to the project
team. Gender cannot be mainstreamed if it is considered separate, and the physical and time-related
separation of gender experts from other proposal team members naturally leads to the consideration
of the gender elements of the project as secondary to the primary project activities. First, when a draft
gender assessment and/or action plan is delivered after the proposal has largely been conceptualised,
for instance, there is little chance the proposal will be informed by that work except in superficial
ways. This practice raises doubts about whether the implementation phase will be informed by data
in the gender analysis or use a gender-responsive approach. Second, ensuring that gender experts
who are brought on are recognised as experts alongside other technical experts indicates the
recognition of gender equality, demonstrating that a comprehensive approach to gender is a priority
and contributing to other team members’ support for gender mainstreaming. An expert brought
in later in the project cycle faces challenges in asserting equal voice and authority and efficiently
contributing their experience and expertise into the overall framework.
What are the challenges to implementing this recommendation? Reconceptualising the

gender expert role may require changes to standard contracting and consulting practices that
are becoming out-dated and inefficient. To ensure gender experts engage throughout the
project design process, the terms of reference should focus on these inputs rather than restricting
20
deliverables to solely producing gender-related documentation, e.g., a gender assessment and

Gender Action Plan. Additionally, depending on the proposal development process, it is likely
some engagement will be full-time (e.g., conducting a gender assessment) and some part-time
(e.g., taking place over a longer time frame and expanding beyond the initial work of developing
the major deliverable). For instance, a gender expert would need to be as involved and engaged
as others on a project team when feedback is received from first-level proposal reviews. Ensuring
equal prominence to gender experts may have budgetary implications. On a practical level, too, it
may be difficult to recruit gender experts on the same timeline as other experts, especially if there is
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limited local expertise. One response would be to initiate earlier outreach to potential consultants,
depending on the constraints of the development timeline. Another option would be to partner
with organisations to build the capacity of gender experts.
What are the caveats to this

recommendation? Given the challenges of
identifying local expertise, trade-offs need to
be considered: waiting for a local expert to be
available may mean that she or he is separated
This recommendation must be
from the project team, while adhering to the
original timeline may result in a less qualified considered within the context of the
expert being brought in or relying on an Lead with local gender expertise
international consultant focused on desk recommendation.
research and less contextual knowledge.
ENSURE CONTINUITY BETWEEN DESIGN AND

IMPLEMENTATION
What makes strong implementation
is sound identification of social What is the context? From a gender perspective, the
purpose of effective design is to ensure the project
impacts and risks in the design
theory of change and activities integrate appropriate
phase…. If there is an apparent
gender considerations and aim to generate outcomes
risk with gender, gender equality that advance gender equality. This process is
and gender empowerment, [the] underpinned by gender data and information,
plans should describe very well starting with the baseline assessment stage. Gender
the role and responsibilities of the consultants may design and conduct primary data
[implementing] entities. collection in addition to analyses of secondary data.
Assumptions and analyses used regarding gender
– Climate fund staff member may fundamentally shape the approach to gender in
the project proposal, and thus outcomes.
Interviewees consistently reiterated that the strength of initial gender assessments is highly
correlated with the strength of gender integration in any given project. It is obvious that without
an accurate understanding of gendered dimensions and planning of appropriate activities,
gender mainstreaming cannot be successful. Yet, the project teams responsible for design and
implementation are often separate, even housed within different institutions and geographical
locations. There are also time lags between design and implementation due to the proposal
feedback and approval processes. Additionally, fund-level requirements for demonstrating a
commitment to gender-responsive project elements may be inconsistent across the project cycle.
There’s often an over-emphasis on gender in preparatory materials, such as Gender Action Plans,
which embeds the assumption that including planning documents assures implementation.
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BOX 12: DIVERGENT PERSPECTIVES ON PERSONNEL CONTINUITY VERSUS

INTEGRITY
Having distinct project teams and a lack of personnel continuity is a feature for many entities;
however, individuals closer to projects (design and implementation) are more likely to perceive it as
a failing.
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Concerned about experts effectively creating future work for themselves through the design of
activities and roles they are best suited and poised to perform, entities such as the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP) and ADB require that proposal writers cannot implement
activities, in order to guard against such conflicts of interest.
Those engaged with designing a project’s gender activities, however, are more likely to perceive this
lack of continuity as a missed opportunity, particularly given the dearth of similarly competent and
experienced gender experts and the importance of the foundational knowledge established through
the design process.
For a representative of a local women’s organisation, the imperative for continuity seemed obvious:
“Absolutely, it’s important that organisations, like ourselves, have total control from planning
to implementation.” This organisation felt that they “had been used as a token” when asked to
contribute their expertise to a planning process for a specific climate fund project, but then not
meaningfully engaged in implementation. As models of leveraging the expertise of women’s groups
emerge, new frameworks for thinking about continuity should emerge as well. Evolving from an
individual-as-gender-expert approach to intentionally integrating more local gender expertise will
require flexibility and a model rooted in partnership.
What is the recommendation? Ensuring continuity between design and implementation requires
an intentional process for project design teams to share experiences, information, data, appraisals
and assumptions that inform the design of the proposal and its gender elements. Simply sharing
the final documents associated with the proposal, or other key internal documents outlining
project plans resulting from the design team’s process, may not provide an adequate roadmap of
what is needed and expected between personnel. Surfacing and exploring the context and history
of decisions – and appreciating the approach taken as the result of these decisions – can be critical
when different staff are brought on to implement the designed activities. One example of how
to share this knowledge is the “note to file” written directly from the gender lead to the incoming
implementation team, as has been observed in UNDP practice. Another gender specialist recounted
her method of adding an “explanation” column to a plan, where she could highlight terms she
felt would not be understood by fellow team members, such as an environmental engineer and
economist. These two processes emphasise the importance of and help enable full team buy-in
from conception to ultimate implementation.
What are the benefits? Institutionalising such intentional transition processes, and adequately
resourcing them, reinforces to all stakeholders that the proposal is not an accomplishment in and
of itself, where access to funding is seen as the achievement. Rather, the proposal is acknowledged
as a means to the end of enacting climate action that integrates gender effectively. Additionally,
putting into place these processes can improve team morale and bolster associated productivity
benefits, as working on a plan that one fears or suspects will not be implemented as envisioned can
be frustrating and demoralising. Likewise, receiving a plan that is not supported with explanatory
details is challenging in its own right.
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BOX 13: SECURING GENDER EXPERTISE IN PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION
While one critical moment for securing gender expertise is during project design, implementation
also requires gender expertise and this lagged in several projects reviewed (for example, see the
project Enhancing adaptive capacities of coastal communities, especially women, to cope with
climate change induced salinity on page 59). Interviewees reflected on the challenges of securing
gender experts for this phase of work, which can be hindered by the political context. These
ii. Framework
projects and their associated selection processes sometimes need to bridge various institutions and
departments, which can complicate the selection of gender experts and their choices of roles.
While suggesting approaches to resolving these tensions is outside the scope of this work, it is
imperative not to delay the selection and appointment of key personnel. Efforts focussed on
integrating gender into project design will be invalidated if the activities are launched and gain
momentum with only cursory attention given to gender dimensions. Bringing in gender expertise
later in the project can reinforce the false idea that assessment after the fact – such as evaluating
sex-disaggregated data about project beneficiaries – is the key gender activity and that gender is a
separate stream of work.
This process provides an explicit space

for individuals to share implementation
insights and recommendations that were
not included in design documentation.
Furthermore, intentional transition ensures This recommendation connects to the
primary data, for example, is not lost, and recommendation to Integrate gender
the context and assumptions informing and experts within teams: forcing a reframing
shaping the planned activities are clear. As that sees required gender documents
conditions may change over time, especially
not as hoops to jump through to receive
considering time lags between initial concept
funding, but as the foundational work to
and project inception, successfully managing
projects and being able to re-calibrate inform more robust implementation and
based on new data or the evolving context is monitoring.
predicated on having this information.
BOX 14: THE CHALLENGE OF A PROGRAMMATIC APPROACH
Some fund staff said that problems can arise related to different review processes and timelines for
programmes with sub-projects that were not fully identified at the time of approval. This complicates
the connection and timeline between design, approval and implementation of projects, and also
disrupts continuity of personnel and institutional memory.
Civil society often sees unidentified sub-projects as a challenge that risks undermining climate funds’
gender requirements, since it is more difficult to understand how an unknown future subproject can
fulfil the programmatic Gender Action Plan, as well as have accountability for the gender planning for
that subproject. For example, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Green
Cities programme under the GCF was approved in 2018 as a programme that encompasses many
subprojects. As those subprojects have been announced over time, civil society observers have called
out the lack of disclosure of the individual gender assessments for subprojects as a major risk for project
implementation and effectiveness in line with the Gender Action Plan for the approved programme.
23
What are the challenges to implementing this recommendation? Planning continuity requires
building this transition process into the terms of reference for gender consultants engaged in
design. Transition responsibilities must take into account time and resource constraints and reflect
approaches that provide an appropriate amount of information, without detracting from the depth
of work required to prepare the proposal and/or planning documents. Uncertainty regarding
when projects may be implemented, as the timeline may be years, means the most feasible option
is ensuring adequate written documentation about the project baseline, assessment of activity
options and rationale for key project objectives and targets.
ii. Framework
The different institutions and firms that may be involved can also hamper the coordination of
an effective transition from design to implementation. This again makes the most likely default
scenario a series of notes rather than more interactive and dynamic processes. Uncertainty
regarding the skill set and knowledge of the yet-to-be-identified new implementation team
members can make the task of preparing handover
notes particularly onerous. Models for transition
and continuity should be developed as projects
Whenever you are writing something,
reflect on key learnings, but interrogating gaps and
false assumptions in implementation is unlikely people are going to have translation,
to involve design teams as well, since design and another interpretation of the action
implementation teams are often different for the plan that you make.
reasons outlined above.
– Independent gender specialist
What are the caveats to this recommendation?
Capturing data, critical information and recommendations from gender experts engaged in design
is not a replacement for securing gender specialists to provide expertise for project implementation
and monitoring. Gender expertise is required throughout project lifecycles and should be
adequately budgeted for and supported accordingly, without the onus being placed entirely on
a short-term design assignment and a team member later tasked with carrying out the blueprint.
Active participation of gender experts in delivery is important, as it enriches the substance of
the work. Furthermore, appropriate and continual monitoring of project activities may lead to
discoveries that challenge original assumptions or provide data that point to new opportunities.
Updated gender assessments may be needed as a result of changing conditions or further funding.
Participatory process for developing Peru's gender and climate change action plan, 2015. © Peru's
Ministry of Environment (MINAM)
24
PURSUE TEAM-WIDE CAPACITY-BUILDING OPPORTUNITIES

What is the context? The challenges of recognising and integrating a gender perspective into
environmental and climate projects are long documented, with the relatively recent emergence
of climate funds’ gender policies and the GCF, the newest fund, being the first to embed gender in
its founding documents. Calls to integrate gender are often matched by calls for the data detailing
gender-climate linkages. Expertise in this arena is often emerging or limited to a select few people
in the area who could be potential team members. In some cases, team member(s) who have had
some exposure and inclination toward questions of gender equality may be assigned to conduct
ii. Framework
gender assessments and advise on gender elements and approaches for a project, without having
sufficient preparation and support.
BOX 15: CAPACITY-BUILDING AND FUND GENDER POLICIES
The secretariat staff at the various climate funds tended to agree that there is a strong, positive
correlation between knowledge of gender-climate linkages and support for gender mainstreaming
in climate finance. This assumption is not surprising since several climate fund gender policies
support capacity-building of implementing entities, and secretariat staff are often tasked with
delivering this capacity-building. One secretariat staff member interviewee highlighted a positive
experience of building support for gender integration with in-person training for other secretariat
staff, which included an explanation of the climate fund gender requirements, an exploration
of gender mainstreaming in climate projects, and discussion of how to better integrate gender
considerations throughout each part of the fund’s operations and approaches. While the training
experiences within a climate fund secretariat and within a project team will have differences,
this experience demonstrates that in-person training can serve as a space for rich discussion and
identifying improvements.
What is the recommendation? Provide and

require capacity-building on gender and climate
for entire teams. Modalities and content may
vary, from specific training modules such as
the GEF’s Gender and Environment course This recommendation connects to the
(see Box 16), which is being deployed as a staff recommendation to Integrate gender
training requirement in some settings, to in- specialists within the team. Processes
house learning opportunities led by gender of sharing data and discussing
advocates and experts, based on examples approaches within a team can be
from shared projects and rooted in discussion- structured as learning opportunities as
based learning. (Interviewees provided several well as a vital team undertaking.
examples of this type of learning working to
enhance capacity of teams.)
What are the benefits? Improving everyone’s baseline understanding contributes to an

appreciation of gender mainstreaming and gender expertise, as well as strengthening project
outcomes. Such capacity-building, alongside a culture where gender experts are equally regarded
within the team, can improve team buy-in and support for gender integration. Likewise, such
efforts to build capacity across the team may help counter the noteworthy tendency to assign
“gender work” to an interested and somewhat knowledgeable team member who may not actually
be trained. Exploring the complexity of gender-climate inter-linkages and the role of gender
expertise can lead to an evaluation of what actual expertise exists and a recognition of gaps. Lastly,
with improved understanding, team members may be able to better contribute to identifying,
developing and deploying appropriate activities to advance gender equality in their own respective
areas of expertise, for a more comprehensive approach with enhanced results.
25
What are the challenges to implementing this recommendation? The design and duration
of capacity-building, coupled with the frequency and depth of opportunities to deploy new skills
and perspectives, influence the efficacy of capacity-building initiatives. Coordination with existing
capacity-building opportunities and trainers and the development of in-house materials requires
time and resources. Project teams also have competing priorities. In addition, it may be difficult
to motivate for allocating already-constrained time and resources to capacity-building on gender
when expertise has already been secured. Despite the professed positive outcomes, circumstances
may arise where individuals’ improved understanding may not be correlated with greater
ii. Framework
motivation to support gender equality.
What are the caveats to this recommendation?

Capacity-building is not a guaranteed path to
better outcomes, and one-off capacity-building Gender [experts] need to change
sessions such as a lunchtime presentation, for the messaging we are working
example, do not make one a gender expert. These
with: [where] people are feeling like
activities are not a substitute for gender expertise.
[integrating] gender [equals] more
Rather, capacity-building should be understood
paperwork to do. They are not seeing
as a longer-term process, often requiring a series
of engagements, events and trainings over a this as an opportunity, and we need
significant period of time. Ensuring well-resourced to show gender [integration] is an
and intentional capacity-building opportunities opportunity to get more benefits, to
also takes time. The implicit expectation that get more people included, to close
gender consultants also serve as gender trainers the gender gaps.
must be addressed by either including such
activities within remunerated job responsibilities – Independent gender specialist
or arranging other pathways for capacity-building.
BOX 16: OPEN ONLINE

COURSE ON GENDER AND
ENVIRONMENT
In 2018, the GEF, in partnership

with several of its partner agencies,
debuted a free, web-based course
with six modules, including
one focused on climate change.
This course, available in English,
French and Spanish, has attracted
over 10,000 users. The UN: CC
Learn Platform hosts access and
issues certificates for completion.
Interviewees engaged with course
development highlighted that
it helps participants to improve
their understanding of gender and
environment inter-linkages and
responds to the demand for more
data and training on these topics. Members of the Women and Gender Constituency
participating at COP24. © Annabelle Avril, WECF
26
Enabling factors
Stand-alone recommendations cannot independently enhance the integration of gender in climate
finance projects; they are intertwined and mutually reinforcing. Enabling factors also affect this
integration. Four key enabling factors that influence project-level integration of gender arose
throughout the interviews. These enabling conditions are not an exhaustive list of the many
enabling circumstances that may contribute to gender integration, but rather reflect the themes
that interviewees shared most often. Under each enabling factor, an example is provided as well as
some key implications for its application.
ii. Framework
ADVOCATES FOR GENDER EQUALITY
Gender champions can play key roles in advancing new developments and innovations. This is
particularly the case within the current system, which often relies on individual gender experts’
inputs into proposals, alongside teams that may remain resistant to gender mainstreaming, more
likely through ignorance or misperception than hostility. These individuals – especially those in
leadership roles – can use their position to advocate for greater recognition, prioritisation and
uptake of gender equality and can shape individual projects as well as institutional policies. Gender
expertise is not a requirement for being a gender-equality advocate: appreciating the linkages
between gender and climate change and being dedicated to advancing gender equality are the
fundamental criteria. This enabling factor speaks to the powerful role of individuals in influencing
project and departmental orientation.
Example: A project leader who has a personal passion for gender equality, women’s
participation and women’s leadership – largely based on their own background and
experiences – ensures a local gender expert is recruited, well-resourced and supported
by everyone on the team. This project, in turn, becomes an example of strong gender
mainstreaming, but this project leader’s history of support for gender equality was not
actually considered in her recruitment. Her position of authority and influence over the
project is a matter of chance, even while her advocacy for gender equality in the project has
substantially raised the bar for the actors involved.
Implications: Because these gender champions arise in an ad-hoc fashion, the question
is less how to make more of them, but rather how to leverage their ideas and enthusiasm
across the board and support their position on gender equality with action, results and
sharing of the process for other leaders. Entities should consider:
• Who are our advocates for gender equality?
• What authority, resources and platforms can we give our gender equality advocates to
speak to their peers and advise our leadership?
• What are the common practices of our gender-equality advocates and can we build
procedures around those practices?
• Who are advocates for gender equality that could benefit from more support and
leadership, or ownership for taking this on?
• How can this advocacy be recognised in performance reviews, and how can commitment
to gender equality be prioritised as a selection criterion as people move into more senior
positions?
27
EXISTING GENDER EXPERIENCE AND EXPERTISE

Implementing entities vary in their capacity for and experience with gender integration. Larger,
more established entities may have gender capacities and in-house procedures that can fulfil and
even exceed climate fund requirements. (The correlation between capacity and quality is not
definitive, however. Smaller entities have demonstrated gender mainstreaming of great quality,
while large multilateral development banks have displayed gaps and weaknesses in specific
projects as well as across portfolios.)
ii. Framework
Example: A consulting firm often contracted for proposal development has only one full-
time staff member dedicated to gender (and gender may not be his sole responsibility),
while a multilateral development bank has a department and in-house system for evaluating
gender within all projects.
Implications: Conversations are emerging as to how international entities can support the
development of national and regional entities’ capacities on gender linkages and how to
better integrate gender in the project cycle. Within the GCF, for example, supporting capacity
development is a formal requirement of all international accredited entities with respect to
direct access entities within countries, although the reports on this work are not publicly
available. Entities with more limited capacities should consider:
• How can we generally build capacity on gender within our team? (See Key resources)
• How can the capacity of specific climate project teams be built on gender linkages,
considerations and opportunities for integration?
• What mechanisms and relationships

do we have to access support and
resources for capacity-building?
• What are the models in place elsewhere,

and are they applicable?
NATIONAL-LEVEL PLANNING AND POLICIES

Some interviewees highlighted national planning
and processes both within and outside the
climate finance arena as central to guiding the
development of climate finance projects, and
the prioritisation of gender within them. These
include investment programmes through the
CIFs,11 national adaptation plans (NAPs), nationally
determined contributions (NDCs) under the
United Nations Framework Convention Climate
Change (UNFCCC), as well as domestic poverty,
sustainable development and gender equality
frameworks. The gender-responsiveness
of climate-related domestic processes can
contribute to both the orientation and capacity
for project-level gender mainstreaming. In
addition, strong national planning and budgeting
on social elements can provide impetus for Women protest peacefully outside the UN
robust gender expectations and standards within climate talks in 2015. © Christine Irvine,
individual projects. Survival Media Agency
28
Example: A country’s gender-responsive NAP process, supported by the GCF readiness

programme and the participation of the NAP Global Network, builds momentum within
the GCF National Designated Authority (NDA) for gender-responsive processes. In turn,
these processes that integrate gender create further connections with key stakeholders,
raising their awareness on gender in climate activities/projects, enabling these stakeholders
to better contribute to project design and implementation, including national gender
institutions and women’s rights organisations.
ii. Framework
Implications: Country focal points and entities are expected and often mandated to be
familiar with existing relevant protocols and policies. Project development and design
phases also highlight key guidance and mandates, such as recognising relevant legislation
in gender and related social assessments. In addition to this assessment of the existing
landscape, country focal points and entities should consider:
• What ongoing national processes are occurring on what timelines, and how may those
intersect and influence our project portfolios? Are there opportunities for engagement,
capacity-building, or resources associated with these processes?
• How can we leverage or re-convene key actors and stakeholders from these processes in
project development and implementation?
• How can we create mechanisms as well as accountability for ensuring alignment with
appropriate processes and policies, and uptake of recommendations?
The importance of gender in [this country’s] poverty strategy…gave a mandate politically

to go forward.
– Climate fund staff member
A woman with her roadside broom stand in Ahmedabad, India. © Paula Bronstein
29
FUND-LEVEL REQUIREMENTS
The expectations for climate projects are set forth by the climate funds. Fund staff repeatedly
cited the requirements these funds make – via gender policies, project-cycle processes, and
templates – as a critical variable in whether improvements in gender integration were made over
time. Requirements, as well as the expectations they help cultivate, drive higher standards and
innovation. The climate funds have moved forward several key measures recently, so the full picture
of how these changes are catalysing progress is not yet available for public scrutiny.
ii. Framework
Example: The AF has been iterating and enhancing the integration of gender elements
within their project performance report template. By asking project teams for more detailed
information beyond general lessons learned and data on beneficiaries, the new template will
better track implementation progress on gender-responsive elements and identify capacity
gaps.
Implications: Project teams are required to understand and fulfil the specific requirements
of the climate fund under which they are working. However, with implementing entities
often working across multiple funds, and project teams working across multiple projects
over several years, there are many opportunities for cross-learning. Implementing entities
can reflect on the following questions to generate improvements across their portfolio:
• What processes and procedures were put into place to meet the (new/fund-specific)
requirement? Which ones worked best, and could they benefit other projects under
different or previous requirements?
• What did this (new/fund-specific) process reveal about strengths or blind spots?
• What lessons about this approach to gender in design, implementation and monitoring
and evaluation can strengthen other parts of the project cycle?
Considerations for the climate funds

While the research for this guide was intentionally orientated away from analyses of the climate
funds, interviewees indicated certain aspects where funds are best positioned to lead. These
considerations may inform and influence stakeholder advocacy related to the climate funds.
WORK DIRECTLY WITH GENDER EXPERTS

Fund-level work to date has emphasised entity and country-level processes, such as accreditation
(or limited rosters of partner entities in the case of the GEF and the CIFs) and readiness of
countries to receive climate finance. Capacity-building efforts have also focused on these
national implementing or accredited entities. Given the significant role of gender experts
throughout the life cycle of projects, however, allocating greater attention to their individual
circumstances, backgrounds, and capacity may be merited. Accomplishing the gender equality
aims of funds is ultimately determined by the capacity and actions of these individuals. New
fund-level interventions may play a role in assuring appropriate capacity, given the efficiencies
introduced through organising and coordinating at the fund level. This is especially the case since
smaller implementing entities tend to lack resources and capacity. Interviewees highlighted two
worthwhile endeavours for this engagement:
1. Developing a specialist/consultant platform for identifying and recruiting gender experts; and
2. Providing capacity-building for gender experts on climate-relevant sectors, issues and policies.
30
As identifying gender consultants with local, national and regional knowledge and networks within
given timelines is challenging yet critical, facilitating connections between potential consultants
with the right capacity and project experience would be both efficient and effective. Such an effort
would respond to the recommendations that gender experts be integrated into project teams
and would propel efforts that firms engaged in implementation are making to build capacity.
One interviewee, for example, recounted delaying the timeline for a project’s gender consultation
because none of the known gender experts were available. Another interviewee explained how
developing a decent roster of trusted gender specialists in the region had taken a number of years.
ii. Framework
An AF initiative shows promise for coordinating efforts to identify and organise consultants
with technical capacity in gender and climate analyses. The AF Gender Action Plan, adopted in
2016, mandated the “development of a roster of gender expert consultants”. Unfortunately, the
Secretariat encountered challenges with operationalising that roster, including legal considerations
of how potential individuals are identified and selected to be included. The AF is now working to
host the list with the UNFCCC gender team and partner organisations, such as the GEF and the
Climate Technology Centre and Network.
While questions of both inclusion and access are complex, and some remain to be answered, any
effort to identify this pool of individuals will not only be immediately practical in improving the
ability to match consultants with projects, but could also catalyse knowledge-sharing and capacity-
building at various levels. Addressing the issue of consultant identification is about quantity – the
ability to recognise how many potential consultants may be available – and quality. Quality criteria
need to consider a number of trade-offs that weigh understanding of the local context, gender
and sector expertise, accessibility and climate/sectoral capability. Without a robust approach to
ensuring inclusion of different types of gender expertise and the full representation of local and
regional experts, such an effort could backfire and limit rather than expand the perceived pool of
specialists.
In addition to establishing a roster or other coordination system, the funds could play a direct
role in providing training opportunities for gender experts. A capacity-building programme
could address gaps in gender and/or climate expertise as well as clarify fund processes and set
expectations for advancing gender equality through fund activities. Introducing a coordination
system for identifying consultants can incentivise demand and participation in any training and
capacity-building opportunities, whether or not they are directly coupled with certification or
standards for inclusion.
Member of the Women and Gender Constituency speaking at COP24. © Annabelle Avril, WECF
31
National entities with the mandate, authority and resources to drive gender equality forward within
their respective projects must support individual consultants. These approaches to individual
cadres, however, must be complemented by continued entity-level capacity-building.
CULTIVATE INTEGRATED PLATFORMS FOR SHARING EXPERIENCES

Interviewees enjoyed the process of reflecting on their experiences, and a few expressed the desire
for more opportunities to share learning and ideas. The role of gender staff within the climate funds
and implementing entities is equally as vital as individual gender experts contracted at the project
ii. Framework
level. These in-house gender specialists are exposed to a multiplicity of projects and approaches
across diverse sectors and regions. Harnessing their insights in a collective and collaborative fashion
could be a powerful mechanism to advance the expectation and practice of gender responsiveness
in climate finance.
Forums to bring together gender staff could be spaces to share practical tools, such as templates for
gender consultancies, as well as to learn from other processes. Sharing case studies and reflecting
on procedures and practices provide an opportunity for reflection and learning. Creating visible
platforms for communication and collaboration can help staff to identify as part of a group focused
iii. Integrating gender in climate

on similar goals. Firms contracted by implementing entities to design proposals, for example, are not
a transparent part of the process, hindering the ability to identify who has designed an innovative
finance projects
approach. Bringing these firms and their staff into these spaces will deepen knowledge exchange,
ensuring those most directly engaged in this work are able to share their reflections and insights.
One existing model of cross-agency learning is the Gender Partnership of the GEF. Focused on the
18 partner agencies of the GEF, the Gender Partnership facilitates discussion among senior gender
consultants and other key gender stakeholders, such as the UNFCCC Gender Focal Point, and provides
opportunities for feedback on GEF processes and documents. Creating similar inclusive spaces
for entities with comparatively less capacity could also facilitate fruitful exchange. Such long-term
initiatives focused on gender and made available for various institutions could advance work often
highlighted only briefly during conferences and meetings, such as the GCF’s Structured Dialogues.
A platform to catalyse individual learning across entities could also facilitate collaborative processes
for system-wide assessment. While reviews have been conducted to assess projects’ gendered
dimensions, efforts at highlighting case studies are currently ad hoc and fund-specific. A collective
system to highlight and celebrate strong examples across the funds could uncover best practices
over time and, at the least, ensure recognition of flagship projects and capture lessons learned
more broadly. A shared platform could also contribute to the coordination of approaches that
engage civil society and academia in these efforts.
Creating a community of
practice can be pursued at
any level or scale, such as
country-level or regional-level
learning exchanges. These
endeavours, though, require
resources to design and host,
and determining which actors
have the appropriate capacity
must be considered. Climate
readiness funding through the
GCF, for example, could perhaps
support such platforms.
Women from the Keyo pottery women’s group produce
cookstoves in Kenya. © Peter Kapusciniski, World Bank
32
III. Integrating gender in climate finance projects:

A closer look
Introduction
The structure and format for the gender assessment process and integration of gender equality
concepts and practices varies with fund requirements, entities, project teams and consultants. This
research attempted to question interviewees about how these processes were best conducted
without specifying an approach or aim – gender-sensitivity, responsiveness, mainstreaming or
transformation, for example. Likewise, examples gleaned from various projects highlight admirable
elements as well as missed opportunities or misguided approaches, without measuring against
a specific standard. This focus is the most flexible given the variation of approaches across funds
as well as interviewees’ opinions and differences. The overall goal is to provide a resource that
can support project teams to strengthen their approaches to gender integration, whatever their
starting point.

Regardless of the approach to presenting gender within climate finance proposals, the integration
finance projects
of gender equality considerations must be comprehensively reflected across all aspects of
the project cycle and across the entire scope of the project activities to align with the highest
expectations.
The following brief review of five projects

highlights key examples of how gender can be
well-integrated into a project, as well as noting
There is a disconnect between what
when there are missed opportunities for advancing
technical projects are doing and what
gender equality outcomes. (See Annex II for the 16
projects reviewed.) beneficiary communities need, and
that disconnect is in the gender and
social space.
Direct grant and loan projects
– Climate and development practitioner
PROJECT EXAMPLE 1: A SMALL GRANTS FACILITY
FOR ENABLING LOCAL-LEVEL RESPONSES TO
CLIMATE CHANGE
Adaptation Fund
The lesson: Providing services and activities that may benefit rural women is not synonymous with
advancing gender equality. Sex-disaggregated data on beneficiaries should serve as the starting point of
exploring different gendered experiences within a project, not the last word.
This project in South Africa is often referenced as an exemplary model of providing enhanced direct
access to climate finance within the AF and as a potential model for scaling in the GCF. This project
is designed as a Small Grants Facility, a modality long promoted by gender advocates. Ensuring
grant-based support directly to locally-led activities is a key strategy to redirect funds away from
top-down, market-based mechanisms with consistent histories of tokenistic engagement of
women. However, the modality does not guarantee strong gender outcomes.
Project reporting consistently highlights the number of women as project beneficiaries among the
small grants recipients as a sufficient measure of gender equality. One project performance report
asserted that “gender equity and female empowerment remain at the forefront, owing to the fact
that rural women are most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Therefore, small grants
recipients continue to disaggregate their beneficiary data by gender and report on it quarterly.”12
33
Providing services and activities that may benefit women does not necessarily advance gender
equality. The impact on gender equality cannot be observed through this basic reporting of sex-
disaggregated data. The failure to capture better information on the gendered impacts of the
project may obscure real gains. Without evaluation, impact assessment and reporting in greater
depth, the outcomes are unknown. Tracking the number of men and women beneficiaries is not a
substitute for more robust data collection on the qualitative experiences of beneficiaries, nor does
it allow for the intentional assessment of actual vulnerabilities to climate change.
PROJECT EXAMPLE 2: AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO PHYSICAL ADAPTATION AND COMMUNITY

RESILIENCE IN ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA’S NORTHWEST MCKINNON’S WATERSHED
Adaptation Fund and Global Environmental Facility (co-finance)
The lesson: Looking at who is engaged in governance and decision-making is as valid and significant
for advancing gender equality as considering the gender balance of project beneficiaries.
This watershed management project has three key components, one of which is a revolving loan
fund for homeowners to improve the climate resilience of their homes. The project has focused

not only on sex-disaggregation of loan recipients (48% of loan applicants are women), but has
also identified the gender imbalance within and across two different committees: the Financial
finance projects
Evaluation Committee (0% women) and the Technical Evaluation Committee (20% men). Both
committees play important roles in reviewing and approving a loan. The 2017-2018 project
performance report reflects on these gender composition differences and draws attention to
the various dimensions of gender inequality. This shift in emphasis demonstrates how looking
at beneficiaries/end-users alone can obscure important considerations of gender imbalances in
participation and leadership and, therefore, in decision-making power and authority.
The original proposal for this project also refers to the importance of considering gender in the
design of waterway restoration, highlighting the importance of gender-responsive consultations.
This project shows that the existence of one gender-responsive element in a project, such as a
financial service benefitting women, does not mean gender considerations must not be integrated
across all other project elements. This understanding is at the heart of gender mainstreaming.
PROJECT EXAMPLE 3: MSME13 BUSINESS LOAN PROGRAMME IN MONGOLIA FOR GHG EMISSION
REDUCTION
Green Climate Fund
The lesson: Achieving gender balance targets may include working over time to build the capacity or
pool of potentially eligible beneficiaries, and not simply ensuring and promoting access to women.
This Mongolian project involves granting a greater level of loan concessionality to women-led
businesses pursuing energy efficiency and transitioning to renewable energy, as well as building
capacity for financial intermediaries to address gender biases in lending. While the programme is
labelled as “women-centred”, the target for 50% of loans distributed to women-led businesses is
simply equality of beneficiaries (and unlikely to be equivalently labelled “male-centred”). Although
this focus on women-led businesses acknowledges the historic difficulty of women’s access to
loans, the definitions of women-led businesses call into question what is being emphasised. Beyond
the to-be-expected, “51% or more ownership by women” definition, two other criteria qualify as
women-led in this project’s definitions: “at least 30% women on the Board of Directors or in senior
management positions,” or “at least 40% women employment”.
34
While setting ambitious targets such as 50% of loans distributed to women-led businesses is
appreciated, reaching for the appearance of gender equality in ways that obscure ongoing power
imbalances, such as redefining women-led businesses as not being majority-led by women, is a
disservice. Better approaches include designing appropriate measures to build women’s ownership
or setting progressive targets over time to ultimately advance toward 50%, rather than solely
redefining, through targets, what it means to be women-led. If this project's inaccurate redefinition
of ownership by women reflects concern about the capacity of businesses actually led by women to
access these funds, then capacity-building should be a stronger focus of the project. The purpose
of a gender assessment, for example, is to identify points of leverage that could be expanded upon
within project activities.
Across these projects, the funding modality of direct grants and loans matters
for overall gender-responsiveness, but is not a substitute for specific attention to
gendered dynamics or careful consideration of an ecosystem of supportive measures.

Sector-based projects
PROJECT EXAMPLE 4: GREEN BRT KARACHI, PAKISTAN
finance projects
Green Climate Fund
The lesson: All sectors, including transportation, and all interventions, including mitigation projects,
can embed meaningful gender-related activities that improve the experiences of project beneficiaries,
while also considering gender dynamics within power structures.
Several interviewees praised this project’s Gender Action Plan for being a strong example of
gender mainstreaming. Looking beyond the number of beneficiaries/users of the new bus rapid
transit (BRT) system, the plan outlined qualitative processes to capture user experiences of safety,
convenience and comfort, with programmes to improve those experiences over the course of
the project. In addition to sex-disaggregated data, other variables such as age, ability, ethnicity,
employment and economic situation were considered across various activities and targets.
The connection between the gender assessment and Gender Action Plan, and how the first
informed the second, was clear. In addition to evaluating country-level dynamics around women’s
education and participation in the labour force (including the study of mobility and transport
dynamics and barriers specifically), the project included data from a Rapid Assessment of Sexual
Harassment in Public Transport and Connected Spaces in Karachi. This 2014 data may not have been
originally collected for this GCF gender assessment, but it was directly relevant to the Gender
Action Plan, which outlined not only preventive safety measures (lighting, visible CCTV cameras,
awareness campaigns), but also established mechanisms to report harassment.
Many interviewees highlighted the importance of dedicating significant resources to gender

mainstreaming, and this was the largest project reviewed. While all projects should meet the
gender requirements set forth by their respective funds, projects with greater resources and
capacity may have more opportunity – and longer timelines given their development process –
to create robust plans. To act upon any opportunity where resources are available, though, first
requires attention to gender equality concepts and practices. The attention given within this
project’s planning phase highlights how large-scale infrastructure projects to achieve mitigation,
all-too-often considered gender-neutral, can, in fact, hold great potential for meaningful and
comprehensive gender integration.
35
With those [water] projects I think there are immediate and inherent ways one
can ensure the project mainstreams gender considerations. Women are the
primary users of water at a household or entry level, [so it is] obvious that you
will be benefiting women. [However,] we have seen a risk of stopping at that
point, accepting the inherent benefits, assuming that you have done enough.
– Project consultant at firm contracted for GCF and GEF projects
PROJECT EXAMPLE 5: PROMOTION OF CLIMATE-FRIENDLY COOKING, KENYA AND SENEGAL

Green Climate Fund
The lesson: Focusing on women’s roles and labour as the end goals of a project must be complemented
by considering gender equality in the project methodology and processes.
A clean cookstove project, also under the GCF, highlights a nearly opposite lesson to the fourth
project example. In the Karachi BRT project, many interviewees noted how effectively a project in

a sector often not associated with gender (transportation) was able to integrate gender equality
concepts and practices. By contrast, this project on a topic long-associated with gender relevance
finance projects
(clean cookstoves) neglected to recognise additional opportunities for considering gender beyond
its focus on women as primary users of cookstoves.
Similar to loan or grant programmes focused on women beneficiaries, certain projects may fail
to consider gender-responsiveness across the entire project because of the assumption that the
type of project – here, clean cookstoves – automatically benefits women (as the primary cookstove
users). The emphasis on women as the end-users may contribute to limited consideration of women
in other roles related to the project, such as business owners.
Women and women’s groups were considered vital to distributing improved cookstoves, and
integrating 8,000 local women’s groups was explicitly tied to achieving the project’s distribution goals.
However, the project provided less information on the sex-disaggregation of cookstove producers.
The financial model of the project is predicated on supporting the expansion of artisanal cookstove
producers via support packages and technical assistance. The gender dynamics associated with
these producers – patterns of ownership, leadership and employment across different types of
producers – were not fully explored by the available data, which only indicated differences in
employment and participation by type of stove and potential profit.
The project planning suggested awareness of the potential risk of the project given these
differences. Strengthening the economic position of existing male producers to transform the
clean cookstove market could entrench discrimination and biases, making it even more difficult for
women entrepreneurs to enter this space. Accordingly, the Gender Action Plan set a target for 60%
of the participants in trainings, including training on entrepreneurship and business skills, to be
women. The project, however, absolved itself from targeting the gender balance of those ultimately
employed or in positions of leadership and ownership in production, citing a “lack of control”
rather than committing to understanding and addressing barriers that may exist between receiving
training and then transitioning to working in production.
These two sector-based examples highlight that while some types of projects lend
themselves to more visible gender integration, all projects should capture the
specific opportunities for advancing gender equality across project activities and
explore all available dimensions within their project scope, sector and approach.
36
IV. Key resources

The climate funds and other institutions have produced a suite of resources to support project
development and gender integration as well as to summarise and analyse the gender approaches
of select projects. These resources provide a starting point for learning more after reading this
report.
TABLE 2: General guidance to inform project development and design
TITLE DATE HYPERLINK DESCRIPTION

Designing for October https://publications. This comprehensive toolkit includes a section
transformation: 2019 iadb.org/en/ on gender inclusion frameworks that covers
A practice- designing- multi-level perspectives and approaches for
oriented toolkit for transformation- recognising how gender can and should play
mainstreaming practice- a role in achieving transformational change.
transformational oriented-toolkit- It was commissioned by the CIF’s Evaluation
change in mainstreaming- and Learning (E&L) Initiative and guided by
programme and transformational- the ADB and the IDB Group (comprised of the
project preparation change-program Inter-American Development Bank, IDB Invest
processes and IDB Lab).
GCF proposal toolkit June https://cdkn.org/ This Acclimatise CDKN toolkit recognises that
2020: Toolkit to 2020 resource/guide- for a GCF project to be “good”, it must engage
develop a project green-climate- in “actively promoting gender equality”. It
proposal for the GCF fund-gcf-proposal- examines the Gender Policy and Gender
toolkit-2020 Action Plan as key design elements of a good
project and focuses on the production of
the gender assessment and Gender Action
iv. Key resources

Plan. This report/toolkit should be read in
conjunction with other guidance (see above
and below) on the importance of including
gender objectives, targets and activities in a
project’s theory of change and logframe.
GCF programming July 2020 https://www. This is the official GCF guide to developing
manual: An greenclimate. proposals. The manual focuses on gender
introduction to fund/sites/default/ documentation as part of due diligence in
the GCF project files/document/ completing the proposal and, in doing so,
cycle and project gcf-programming- outlines the various levels and points in the
development tools manual.pdf project cycle where attention to gender is
for full-size projects mandated.
37
TABLE 3: Guidance on gender
TITLE HYPERLINK DESCRIPTION

Mainstreaming gender in https://www.greenclimate. This GCF publication, emerging from
GCF projects fund/sites/default/files/ a workshop with UN Women, looks at
document/guidelines-gcf- readiness (see Enabling factor: National-
toolkit-mainstreaming- level planning and policies) as well as the
gender_0.pdf project cycle, providing basic guidance on
appropriate activities as well as GCF-specific
insights, such as mapping GCF results areas
to gendered vulnerabilities, capacities and
gender-responsive indicators.
GEF guidance to advance https://www.thegef. This GEF document walks through GEF-
gender equity org/publications/gef- specific decision-points, requirements
guidance-gender-equality and approaches, such as GEF gender
tagging, while providing general checklists
and templates for ensuring gender
mainstreaming within projects.
Guidance document for https://www.adaptation- Similar to the other Fund-specific guidance

implementing entities on fund.org/document/ publications, the AF walks through the
compliance with the AF guidance-document- project cycle and the requirements at each
gender policy implementing-entities- stage, providing tools and tips that highlight
compliance-adaptation- how compliance – and stronger gender
fund-gender-policy-2/ outcomes – can be achieved.
Gender and renewable https://www. Though focused on renewable energy, this

energy: Entry points for greengrowthknowledge. CIF publication is a complement to the other
women’s livelihoods and org/research/gender- Fund documents outlining opportunities
iv. Key resources

employment and-renewable-energy- and providing tools for gender integration
entry-points-womens- along the project cycle.
livelihoods-and-
employment
Guidelines or other tools https://unfccc.int/ This UNFCCC technical paper outlines
for integrating gender resource/docs/2016/tp/02. approaches and resources for various steps
considerations into climate pdf across the project cycle, including gender-
change related activities responsive budgeting.
under the Convention
Gender toolkit: Micro, small, https://www.adb.org/ Though not climate specific, this ADB toolkit
and medium-sized enterprise documents/gender-tool- provides guidance on outputs, activities,
finance and development kit-micro-small-and- inputs, indicators and targets to inform
medium-sized-enterprise- project conception and design, recognising
finance-and-development the interplay between ADB staff and project
consultants across these activities.
Toolkit for mainstreaming https://publications.iadb. Though not climate specific, this manual is
gender in Multilateral org/publications/english/ a straightforward look at how to integrate
Investment Fund projects document/Toolkit-for- gender in the Multilateral Investment Fund
Mainstreaming-Gender- (IDB) projects, and its clarity of definitions
in-MIF-Projects.pdf and frameworks make it a more universal
introductory tool.
38
The CIF and AF have published case studies relating to gender and climate finance from their
portfolio, while information on GCF and GEF projects is contained in other compendiums.
TABLE 4: Select case studies on gender
TITLE HYPERLINK DESCRIPTION

How private https://www. This CIF guidance note explores the gender-responsive
sector climateinvestmentfunds. elements across the project cycles of three projects under
investment can org/sites/cif_enc/ the Tajikistan Pilot Programme for Climate Resilience
support gender- files/knowledge- (PPCR), each under a different implementing entity. The
responsive, documents/gender_ EBRD’s Tajikistan Climate Resilience Financing Facility
climate-resilient guidance_note_web_ CLIMADAPT (European Bank for Reconstruction and
development in september2019final.pdf Development) built capacity for targeting financial
Tajikistan products such as loans to women. The World Bank’s
Environmental Land Management and Rural Livelihoods
Project ensured women’s participation in community-
led programming through the use of facilitating
organisations, local women’s councils, and women
leaders. The ADB’s Enhancing Climate Resilience in the
Pyanj River Basin promoted women’s engagement in
water user groups as well as the percentage of loans
going to women.
Using these projects, the guidance note presents the

business case for gender mainstreaming, demonstrates
the integration of gender issues across the project cycle,
and presents a selection of output-, outcome- and
impact-level indicators that are gender-sensitive. Serving
as a complement to the gender guidance provided above,
iv. Key resources

this publication provides insights and resources for
conducting gender analyses and engaging stakeholders,
with good practices outlined for financial services,
capacity-building and communications, among others.
While using case studies from Tajikistan, many of the
tools and resources are universally applicable.
Building gender https://www. The nine projects reviewed in this study cut across
into climate climateinvestmentfunds. several of the CIFs and qualified under the ADB as either
finance, ABD org/cif_enc/sites/ “effective gender mainstreaming” or “gender equality
experience with cif_enc/files/knowledge- as a theme”. The study focuses on examining both
the CIFs documents/gender- mitigation and adaptation, identifying “standard gender
climate-finance.pdf equality design elements”.
Engagement https://www. This study, including a review of 15 countries across

of women climateinvestmentfunds. various regions and in-country consultations for
and gender- org/sites/cif_enc/ Jamaica and Bangladesh, examined the engagement of
related groups files/knowledge- women and gender-related groups in both investment
in the CIFs: An documents/wedo_final_ programme development and individual project planning
assessment report_7april2020.pdf and implementation. In addition to the key learnings on
this engagement and its influence on programmes and
projects, the information on the enabling environment
for each country provides useful examples of information
to be considered.
39
Empowering https://www. This study focuses on the use of Traditional Knowledge

Indigenous climateinvestmentfunds. and Technology (TKT) by Indigenous Peoples and Local
women to org/sites/cif_enc/files/ Communities women to build climate resilience, noting
integrate knowledge-documents/ the ways in which Indigenous women have shared their
traditional empowering_ knowledge, the challenges they face, and good practices
knowledge and indigenous_women_ for gender-responsive TKT in climate action. It concludes
practices in summary.pdf with operational and policy recommendations for
climate action supporting gender-responsive TKT.
Voices of https://www. Each of these case studies reviews the Dedicated Grant
women in the climateinvestmentfunds. Mechanism in their respective country, recognising
Burkina Faso org/sites/cif_enc/files/ emerging themes among women-led groups that
Dedicated Grant knowledge-documents/ received sub-project or micro-project grants. While
Mechanism: burkinafaso_voice_of_ sharing vignettes of these small projects, the publications
Evidence and women.pdf consider themes including dynamics of decision-making
experiences and benefit-sharing, how technical capacity changed
time and labour allocation, patterns of improved income,
and language barriers to participation. In Burkina Faso,
Voices of women https://www. the authors recognised that project limitations and
in the Brazil climateinvestmentfunds. challenges included “provision of services such as water
Dedicated Grant org/sites/cif_enc/files/ and electricity, rather than only strategic gender interests
Mechanism: knowledge-documents/ such as leadership development and access to finance”. In
Evidence and voices_of_women_in_ Brazil, unchanged land tenure rights remain a key barrier
experiences the_brazil_dedicated_ to achieving transformative change.
grant_mechanism_
en.pdf
Assessing https://www.adaptation- These five case studies – based on projects in Mongolia,

progress: fund.org/wp-content/ Morocco, Ecuador, Rwanda and the Seychelles – are
iv. Key resources

Integrating uploads/2020/03/ reviewed to capture AF learning on mainstreaming
gender in AF AF-Integrating-Gender- gender throughout a project lifecycle. The case studies
projects and 2020-web.pdf point to common elements of successful gender
programmes mainstreaming.
From words to http:// This selection of case studies focuses on the GEF and
action: Projects americalatinagenera. includes seven projects, one co-financed by the GCF.
with innovative org/newsite/images/ Each project, all Latin American and receiving technical
solutions to cdr-documents/2020/06/ assistance from UNDP, United Nations Environment
promote nature ONU_PANAMA_EN_ Programme (UNEP), or UN Women, is evaluated against
conservation, WEB.pdf the GEF gender policy requirements in its planning and
climate action implementation. The benefits of gender mainstreaming
and gender and the recommendations for activities to advance
equality gender equality are also delineated within each project,
with attention to the project context.
40
IV. Conclusion
This guide highlights the importance of how project teams, and specific individuals within those
teams, can contribute to gender mainstreaming in climate finance. However, individuals are not
solely responsible, either. Climate fund and implementing entity policies, procedures and processes
also play vital roles, but their roles do not directly answer the question of how to influence a specific
project to better integrate gender.
It is with this understanding that a set of recommendations that capture promising practices are
presented in this report. The focus is on the project level, while also recognising the connections
with other levels of decision-making and standard setting. These aspects are explored in the
broader framework where enabling factors are discussed.
Promising practices often reside in decisions made within the project cycle that enable projects
to integrate gender meaningfully, and this is what contributes to substantive progress on gender
equality. At the project level, these decisions begin with choosing who leads (local gender
specialists) and who contributes (local women’s groups to national gender institutions) in creating
a baseline and methodology for gathering the appropriate data to identify opportunities, mitigate
risks and track real progress toward gender equality. As project teams bring their projects to life,
they need to have the correct processes in place to ensure gender expertise is part and parcel of
project development and implementation, that decisions and their rationales are captured for
future team members, and that everyone builds their capacity to understand and recognise the role
of gender equality in climate action.
These recommendations for strengthening gender integration, therefore, represent decisions

that can be made at this moment, in any project. Resources and planning are necessary, but
these recommendations are directly implementable. Each recommendation also reinforces the
significance of integrating gender throughout the project cycle. Starting right is good, but a good
gender assessment and Gender Action Plan is not enough – what matters is:
• Recruiting lead gender specialists who understand what is (and is not) happening on the
ground;
• Working with women’s organisations that can keep project design, implementation and
monitoring on track;
• Employing monitoring frameworks that set high expectations and track progress;
• Supporting team members who encourage input and collaboration relating to gender as well
as being attuned to and appreciative of gender mainstreaming; and
v. Conclusion
• Insisting on the expectation that insights must be carried forward into future work.
It is vital to share knowledge and expertise within and across projects, as well as within and across
all entities and institutions engaged in climate finance. Lessons should be gleaned and shared
across projects and portfolios to raise the capacity of every actor, so that, ultimately, every project
is at the very least gender-responsive. While there are many existing tools and templates to assist
in this work, the value of local expertise in shaping community-based approaches is unparalleled.
Resources and choices must align for each project to fulfil its opportunity to successfully integrate
gender.
41
Endnotes
1 GCF. (2019). Updated gender policy and gender action plan 2020-2023. GCF Board document
GCF/B.24/15. Incheon, South Korea: GCF. Retrieved from: https://www.greenclimate.fund/sites/
default/files/document/gcf-b24-15.pdf
2 AF. (2021). The updated gender policy and gender action plan. Decision B.35-36/25. Retrieved
from: https://www.adaptation-fund.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Decision-B.35-36.25_
updated-GP-and-GAP.pdf
3 UNFCCC. (2019). Decision 3/CP.25. 'Enhanced Lima work programme on gender and its gender
action plan.' Madrid: UNFCCC. Retrieved from: https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/
cp2019_13a01E.pdf#page=6
4 United Nations. (2000). Gender mainstreaming: Extract from report of the Economic and
Social Council for 1997. A/52/3, 18 September 1997. Retrieved from https://www.un.org/
womenwatch/daw/csw/GMS.PDF
5 “Acknowledging that climate change is a common concern of humankind, Parties should,
when taking action to address climate change, respect, promote and consider their respective
obligations on human rights, the right to health, the rights of indigenous peoples, local
communities, migrants, children, persons with disabilities and people in vulnerable situations
and the right to development, as well as gender equality, empowerment of women and
intergenerational equity.” (Dec. 1/CP.21, 2015)
6 AF. (2020). Assessing progress: Integrating gender in Adaptation Fund projects and programmes.
Retrieved from: https://www.adaptation-fund.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/AF-
Integrating-Gender-2020-web.pdf
7 ADB. (2016). Building gender into climate finance: ABD experience with the Climate Investment
Funds. Retrieved from: https://www.climateinvestmentfunds.org/sites/cif_enc/files/
knowledge-documents/gender-climate-finance.pdf
8 Adams, L., Zusman, E., Sorkin, L. & Harms, N. (2014). Efficient, effective and equitable: Making
climate finance work for women. Retrieved from https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/
publication/42881/climate-finance-work-women.pdf
9 Schalatek, L. (2020). Climate funds update: Gender and climate finance. Retrieved from https://
climatefundsupdate.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/CFF10-ENG-2020-Digital.pdf
10 Wong, S. (2016). ‘Can climate finance contribute to gender equity in developing countries?’
Journal of International Development, 28 (3): 428-444. Retrieved from: https://onlinelibrary.
wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jid.3212
11 No interviewee mentioned the GCF country programmes in this context, but these are a much
newer set of documents, not yet developed for many countries engaging in the GCF, and any
oversight may be incidental rather than demonstrative.
12 Project Performance Report (PPR) for October 1, 2017-September 30, 2018. ‘Taking Adaptation
to the Ground: A Small Grants Facility for Enabling Local Level Responses to Climate Change’.
AF/SANBI.
13 This project uses MSME in its title, an acronym denoting micro, small, and medium enterprises.
This terminology is often used to refer to a variety of small businesses. Women entrepreneurs
are disproportionately represented within this segment of business, and the smallest
businesses on the spectrum are the most underserved financially. MSME-focused work,
particularly that oriented toward micro and small businesses, is thus quite gender-relevant.
14 The AF does not require co-financing and so information about whether projects are co-
financed or how is not readily available and, therefore, not included here.
15 GEF projects include project preparation costs in their funding amount.
Annex II
42
Annex I: Interviewees
1. Kavya Arora, Development Professional and Sustainability Advocate Manager, Policy and Planning at
Development Alternatives, India
2. Faustina Boakye, Independent Consultant, Ghana
3. Ciara Daniels, Policy Specialist, Gender and Environmental Finance, UNDP
4. Angie Daze, International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) Associate
5. Cristina Dengel, Knowledge Management Officer, AF
6. Martina Dorigo, Programme Analyst, AF
7. Sara Frazee, Herding for Health Climate Project Director, Conservation International
8. Margaux Granat, Independent Consultant, EnGen Collaborative
9. Emma Jones-Phillipson, Climate Change and Environmental Consultant, C4 EcoSolutions
10. David Kerkhofs, Programme Coordinator for Climate Change Adaptation, Humana People to People
11. Anne Kuriakose, Senior Social Development Specialist, CIFs
12. Young Lee Hee, Governance Specialist, AF
13. Winifred Masiko, National Gender and Climate Change Focal Point, Uganda
14. Ndivile Mokoena, GenderCC-South Africa
15. Karl Morrison, Chief Conservation Programme Officer, Planet Women and Gender Consultant to the GCF
16. Sharmind Neelormi, Gender Consultant
17. Seblewongel Negussie, Gender and Social Specialist, GCF
18. Imelda Phadtare, Senior Consultant, E Co
19. Kalyani Raj, Independent Consultant and non-profit organisation professional with specific focus on
climate and gender, India
20. Saraswati Rodriguez, Independent Consultant on gender and the environment, Ecuador
21. Gabriella Richardson Temm, Senior Gender Specialist, GEF
22. Liane Schalatek, Associate Director, Heinrich Böll Foundation, Washington, D.C.
23. Shaila Shahid, Gender and Climate Change Expert, Bangladesh
24. Caroline Solik, Engagement Manager, Pegasys
25. Kame Westerman, Gender and Conservation Advisor, Conservation International
26. Zonibel Woods, Senior Social Development Specialist, ADB
27. Nozipho Wright, Independent Consultant with expertise on gender and energy, Botswana
28. Elaine Zuckerman, Gender Action

Annex I
43
Annex II: Review of projects

This review of projects across the four Funds highlights elements of gender integration to
demonstrate the variety of approaches and considerations and illustrate how this information may
align with the Framework for Strengthening Gender Integration.
While many of these elements indicate strong efforts toward gender integration, others are notably
absent, and the projects’ admitted approaches vary, from rudimentary gender-sensitivity to effective
gender mainstreaming. As all projects contained in this Annex are approved projects, each one is
assumed to be fulfilling the gender requirements of its fund, even in ways that may not be evidenced
through publicly available documentation. As such, the project reviews contained in this guide do not
provide a detailed explanation of how each project meets its respective fund’s gender policy.
Each review includes:
• key background information;
• the objectives of the project;
• the project’s approach on gender integration, highlighting key assertions or elements of the
project’s stated approach to gender, and;
• a commentary on the degree to which the project aligns with the Framework for Strengthening
Gender Integration contained in this guide. Using the six recommendations generated through
the research for this framework, this section highlights moments where project teams have,
have not, or could still (based on project implementation status) make fundamental decisions
about who to engage. It also outlines the ways in which the intention to integrate gender
actually translates into the concrete implementation of gender-responsive approaches and
activities.
The pertinent enabling factors (see section on Enabling Factors, page 27) are only occasionally
referenced because gender equality advocates could not always be identified and Fund-level
requirements are so embedded into each project’s documentation that it is highly challenging to
extricate this information project-by-project.
Limitations of desktop assessments: Desktop reviews are inherently limited in capturing a

full understanding of a project; thus, the interviewees’ experiences were central to the analysis
presented in the main report. Interviewees included people on project teams and people who have
engaged with project teams, as they often have insight into dynamics and details that are rarely
captured in reporting documentation. One trend that emerged is how the ambition of project
design documentation is often unmatched in implementation (though many projects here are
still early in their implementation as we sought projects under the latest fund gender policies and
practices and, thus, have limited information). Another trend is that reporting is constrained, with
information limited to the expected template, or simply not captured due to lack of resources or
perceived relevance.
Terminology and alignment with non-annexed documents: Note that while this guide
generalises the term “implementing entity” in discussing trends across the climate finance
landscape, the key information presented below uses each fund’s precise terminology, such as
“accredited entity” for the GCF. The guide also generalises the term implementing entity to refer not
only to the top-line entity with responsibility for project implementation, but also to others, such as
executing entities, which are not detailed here.
Annex II
44
Adaptation Fund projects

TAKING ADAPTATION TO THE GROUND: A SMALL GRANTS FACILITY FOR ENABLING LOCAL-
LEVEL RESPONSES TO CLIMATE CHANGE IN SOUTH AFRICA
Link: https://www.adaptation-fund.org/project/taking-adaptation-to-the-ground-a-small-grants-
facility-for-enabling-local-level-responses-to-climate-change/ and https://southsouthnorth.org/
portfolio_page/small-grants-facility/
Objective: As climate change-induced weather and precipitation patterns exacerbate the vulnerability
of poor, rural communities in the Mopani and Namakwa Districts, the Community Adaptation Small
Grants Facility seeks to increase climate resilience through the provision of small grants. These grants are
intended to help identify and implement adaptation measures and capture knowledge to inform future
small-grants models.
Key information
• Fund: AF
• Implementing Entity: South Africa National Biodiversity Institution (SANBI)
• Country: South Africa
• Funding amount (Total with co-financing): USD $2,442,682 (N/A14)
• Funding instrument(s): Grant
• Status: Under implementation
Approach to gender integration

• Recognition of gender in project context through mention of women’s experiences with regard
to climate change, especially with food insecurity, and the high number of female-headed
households in these districts
• Commitment to a “participatory, gender-sensitive approach” with “equitable representation”

among beneficiaries in capacity-building and in decision-making/management structures
(largely fulfilled in implementation)
• Meeting of the AF’s Environmental and Social Policy principles, including “gender equity and
women’s empowerment” and performing an inclusive consultative process
• Acknowledgment of the work of some women’s groups and organisations in the districts, along
with field visits to a women’s rights organisation (GenderCC) during the consultative process and
considering GenderCC as a facilitating agency (though not ultimately contracting them)
• Indication in the proposal that grant recipient training would include gender mainstreaming
Commentary
Recommendation: Collect the right data from the start
Implementation reports indicated fulfilment of the commitment to the inclusion and participation
of women as beneficiaries of small grants at an aggregate level (55% of total beneficiaries), noting
variations by project topic and sector. The final reflections on gendered differences in experiences,
skills and access to different project sectors and decision-making spheres could have been
considered earlier and interwoven into project goals and implementation with more differentiated
data across sectors from the start.
Annex II
45
Recommendation: Leverage local women’s groups and national gender institutions

An intention to collaborate with a national gender and climate change group, including working
with them in initial consultations, was not carried over into implementation once the discovery
was made that the organisation would not be a good fit for the role of facilitating agency. Without
insight into that determination, considering other ways of integrating this expertise beyond design
and into implementation could have secured an ongoing mechanism to integrate this valuable
expertise.
ENHANCING ADAPTIVE CAPACITY AND INCREASING RESILIENCE OF SMALL AND MARGINAL

FARMERS IN PURULIA AND BANKURA DISTRICTS OF WEST BENGAL
Link: https://www.adaptation-fund.org/project/enhancing-adaptive-capacity-and-increasing-
resilience-of-small-and-marginal-farmers-in-purulia-and-bankura-districts-of-west-bengal/
Objective: Targeting 5,000 rural farming households in small and marginal communities, this
project seeks to improve adaptive capacity through new land and water-use planning, improved
and accessible early warning systems, technology adoption, and knowledge capture and
management.
Key information
• Fund: AF
• Implementing Entity: National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD)
• Country: India
• Funding amount (Total with co-financing): USD $2,510,854 (N/A)

• Recognition that women’s roles in firewood and water collection and associated time and
labour could be reduced by project interventions, and assumption that regained time could be
allocated toward income generation
• Assumption that project components, such as technical support for home vegetable gardens
and improved cookstoves, are primarily associated with women’s work and, therefore, benefit
women the most
• Introduction of technological interventions to women members of the household first and

reliance on their adoption of it to influence men
• Notation of the number of female-headed households within targeted households
Commentary
Recommendation: Lead with local gender expertise
Design and reporting assume interventions such as biogas cookstoves reduce drudgery. However,
gender and climate change specialists, who are more familiar with the rich literature and challenges
of sustained use, along with local experts are better able to capture whether these pathways of
reducing women’s labour are, indeed, appropriate.
Annex II
46

This project’s approach of recognising women as early adopters suggests that women’s groups
should be key collaborators in the assessment of women’s needs with regard to time and labour
allocation, and that women’s groups can assist with efficiency and eliciting additional insights.

With key results rooted in the goals of reducing women’s workload as well as their exposure to
smoke, measurements to capture time allocation and health metrics would be necessary to gauge
the effectiveness of the interventions.
Recommendation: Pursue team-wide capacity building opportunities

No approach to gender is outlined or mentioned in the project inception report, and reported
assumptions are that interventions that should benefit women will do so. With a greater
appreciation of the complexities of gender and climate change, the team should consider
reorienting attention to gender integration as a key concern in the implementation phase.
AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO PHYSICAL ADAPTATION AND COMMUNITY RESILIENCE IN

ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA’S NORTHWEST MCKINNON’S WATERSHED
Link: https://www.adaptation-fund.org/project/integrated-approach-physical-adaptation-
community-resilience-antigua-barbudas-northwest-mckinnons-watershed/
Objective: To increase the resilience of a watershed, this three-pronged project will support
engineering work and ecosystem-based adaptation to improve drainage among the waterways,
create a revolving loan mechanism for households and businesses to invest in adaptation measures,
and strengthen the resilience of community buildings against disaster.
Key information
• Fund: AF
• Implementing Entity: Department of Environment, Ministry of Health and the Environment

(ABED)
• Country: Antigua and Barbuda

• Inclusion of a revolving loan component noted as gender-responsive, along with the recognition
of women’s lack of access to capital, and inclusion of gender considerations into the waterway
drainage component
• Noting that local area vulnerability studies informed project design, especially given high
number of female-headed households
• A policy of gender-neutrality when hiring contractors
• Noted alignment with AF’s Mid-Term strategy theme of advancing gender equality and the
empowerment of women and girls
Annex II
• Commitment to sex-disaggregated reporting on revolving loan applicants and decision-making

committees
47
Commentary
Recommendation: Integrate gender specialists within the team
According to the staffing information available, only 10% time of one position (ESS and Gender
Officer) is allocated to this work, including implementation of environmental and social safeguards.
This human resource commitment may not orient the team towards gender integration.
Recommendation: Ensure continuity between design and implementation

The intent expressed in project conception and design for gender-responsiveness seems delayed
due to lack of indicators and measurement, which illustrates some failure in process between
design and implementation. The mid-term evaluation notes the lack of receipt of gender
monitoring reports and no reporting on gender-sensitive indicators. The project performance
report notes that gender indicators are delayed in development due to Covid-19.
ENHANCING THE CLIMATE RESILIENCE OF VULNERABLE ISLAND COMMUNITIES IN

FEDERATED STATES OF MICRONESIA
Link: https://www.adaptation-fund.org/project/enhancing-climate-change-resilience-vulnerable-
island-communities-federated-states-micronesia/
Objective: Through improving institutional and regulatory frameworks, implementing water

and livelihoods interventions, building infrastructure and knowledge capture, this project aims to
increase the social, ecological, and economic resilience of the communities targeted.
Key information
• Fund: AF
• Implementing Entity: Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme
• Country: Federated States of Micronesia

• Noting of “gender perspectives” in project goals as part of the mechanism for increasing
resilience
• Invitation for the National Gender Focal Point to join the Steering Committee, based on project
inception workshop discussions
• Inclusion of gender in Project Steering Committee Terms of Reference as assurance of

consideration in project planning and implementation
• Specification that gender is mainstreamed in the project output of adopting a new National
Water and Sanitation Policy, which is informed by a gender and climate change assessment
• Planning for gender-sensitive consultations, including women’s only groups, and

demonstrations on water and sanitation technologies
• Trainings on “gender and climate change tools” and “gender perspectives in coastal
management and coastal monitoring” for various stakeholders
Annex II
• State technical advisory groups to include gender and education specialists and gender and
climate change trainers.
48
Commentary
A gender specialist will be tasked with developing the project’s new Gender and Social Inclusion
Plan, a key opportunity to ensure this specialist/team understands local gender dynamics and
concerns.

While the inclusion of the National Gender Focal Point is well-noted, there seems to be concern about
the results of community outreach in terms of the significance of women’s inclusion. Women’s rights
organisations should be key partners and collaborators that are leveraged for this work.

The proposal and inception workshops show a clear dedication to the idea of gender integration,
with initial first steps taken to assure continuity over time. Further, the new mandate to develop a
Gender and Social Inclusion Plan as part of project restructuring likely offers an opportunity to align
intent with implementation.
Recommendation: Pursue team-wide capacity-building opportunities

The most recent project performance report notes the “need for training” on gender and social
inclusion for all staff.
Enabling factor: National-level planning and policies

Alignment with the National Gender Policy, as presented by the National Gender Focal Point, was
proposed at the project’s inception workshop and could provide a foundation for the project’s new
Gender and Social Inclusion Plan.
Global Environment Facility projects

MITIGATION OF CLIMATE CHANGE THROUGH SUSTAINABLE FOREST MANAGEMENT AND
CAPACITY-BUILDING IN THE SOUTHERN STATES OF MEXICO (CAMPECHE, CHIAPAS, AND
OAXACA)
Link: https://www.thegef.org/project/sfm-mitigating-climate-change-through-sustainable-forest-
management-and-capacity-building
Objective: A mitigation effort aligned with a larger project to improve the lives of those living in
forested areas, this project aimed to avoid greenhouse gas emissions and better sequester carbon
through sustainable forest management, planting of new plantations and supporting livelihood
alternatives.
Key information
• Fund: GEF
• Implementing agency: International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
• Country: Mexico
• Funding amount15 (Total with co-financing): USD $5,100,000 (USD $17,139,356)
• Status: Completed
Annex II
49

• Commitment to gender mainstreaming in project design
• Increasing women’s participation and decision-making noted as one pillar of the implementing
agency’s three-pillared poverty-reduction approach in the country
• Recognition of women’s lack of access to decision-making power over natural resources and lack
of land rights as key context for this work
• Training for community members included a range of topics to demonstrate the importance of
women’s participation and gender mainstreaming
• Training for operations and monitoring team members on gender and forest linkages and
assessing gender indicators in the field, including apparently qualitative assessments of
gendered division of labour, decision-making and distribution of benefits
• Women’s participation and leadership in performance indicators of the logical framework, with
targets varied by topic
Commentary
The project design document demonstrated a commitment to advancing gender equality through
gender mainstreaming by indicating consideration of gendered experiences across various project
elements and indicators. In contrast, however, the proposal document under-valued gender
expertise by stating, “The Project recommends the hiring of a gender expert as part of the group of
technicians; one of the technicians at the State level could also be a woman and/or have experience
in gender.” Identifying gender expertise is not synonymous with identifying an interested woman
to join the project. (See also, Understanding gender expertise)

Despite a focus on youth, women and Indigenous Peoples, little in the design indicated the
connection between these identities, which are not mutually exclusive, nor was there baseline
information on any forms of engagement. Data and indicators should reflect the project approach,
and thus even before the complete failure in data collection during implementation and
monitoring, this recommendation could not be fulfilled. The project did not capture beneficiary
data by gender.

The project evaluation states that no gender specialist was ultimately brought onto the team, and
in noting the plan to focus on including women, youth, and Indigenous Peoples, a mid-project
mission discovered “these intentions were only generic statements with little support in concrete
affirmative actions”.
REDUCING VULNERABILITY AND INCREASING ADAPTIVE CAPACITY TO RESPOND TO

IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND VARIABILITY FOR SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOODS IN
AGRICULTURE SECTOR IN NEPAL
Link: https://www.thegef.org/project/reducing-vulnerability-and-increasing-adaptive-capacity-
respond-impacts-climate-change-and
Objective: This project sought to support adaptation in food and agricultural policy and practice,
improve early warning systems on climate risks to inform adaptation, increase awareness of
climate impacts and adaptation through farmer field schools, and facilitate investment in adaptive
Annex II
50
agricultural technologies. This was done through connecting national and local policy, encouraging
capacity-building among governmental officials and agencies, and promoting participatory
approaches with farmers.
Key information
• Fund: GEF
• Implementing agency: FAO
• Country: Nepal
• Funding amount (total with co-financing): USD $2,739,498 (USD $15,729,498)

• Recognition in the project background of the specific vulnerabilities of women (alongside
children and the elderly) because of lack of rights, including land tenure and access to resources
• Recognition in the project background of the increased workload of women (alongside children
and the elderly) because of migration of men to seek either seasonal or permanent off-farm
work due to livelihood instability exacerbated by climate change
• Alignment with the National Framework on Local Adaptation Plans for Action and its mandate
for inclusive dialogue and decision-making, extending to local level implementation with the
Manual for Local Adaptation Plans for Action, including tools for gender and social inclusion
• Noting of overlaps and alignments with other projects with gendered elements regarding
nutrition, food security and agriculture
• Specification of outreach to women’s groups as part of the communication strategy, and

discussion of how women’s cooperatives could be leveraged, as well as consulting with women
farmers during project design
Commentary
The qualitative reporting in the project implementation review indicates that the recognition of
women’s particular challenges in this context and strategies for inclusive consultation resulted
in reportable outcomes indicating an improvement in women’s lives. A key reported result was
that “technology to reduce women’s drudgery was identified, demonstrated and adopted by the
farmers’ groups”, though additional information was not available.

The community-focused adaptation approaches apparently included skills development and
knowledge sharing beneficial for the organised farmer groups, which were ultimately 74% female.
The reported results may indicate the importance of having a project that is centred in participatory
approaches and learning within groups. (Interviewees did emphasise that while every project can
integrate gender, certain project types and approaches better lend themselves to that.)

The project focussed attention on collecting the right data by having a gender specialist assist
Annex II
in monitoring and evaluation, but gaps in data remained that would have provided key context.
51
While only 21 of 108 staff trained in Vulnerability and Capacity Analysis were women, the
sex-disaggregated breakdown of all eligible staff was unknown. Over 40% of the participant
farmers were Indigenous Peoples, but no sex-disaggregated data across Indigenous and non-
Indigenous participants appears available. Collecting the right data should enable understanding
the importance of what has/has not been achieved, given the complexities, nuances and
intersectionality of advancing gender equality.
Enabling factor: National-level planning and policies

The alignment with the National Framework on Local Adaptation Plans for Action was a central
organising tenet of this project, providing an impetus for a gender-responsive approach in the
project component focused on Local Adaptation Plans for Action.
LEAPFROGGING TUNISIA’S LIGHTING MARKET TO HIGH-EFFICIENCY TECHNOLOGIES

Link: https://www.thegef.org/project/leapfrogging-tunisia-s-lighting-market-high-efficiency-
technologies
Objective: Focusing on transforming the national market regarding energy-efficient lighting

technology, this project adopts a four-pronged approach through improving regulations to
enforce efficiency standards; supporting policies to increase adoption; fostering strong monitoring,
verification, and enforcement processes; and creating a national system for recycling and disposal
of lighting products.
Key information
• Fund: GEF
• Implementing Entity: United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
• Country: Tunisia
• Funding amount (Total with co-financing): USD $2,449,541 (USD $18,187,541)
Approach to gender
• Commitment to gender mainstreaming and gender-responsiveness
• Inclusion of in-project activities to conduct a sector-specific gender assessment, examining

the informal sector and decision-making regimes, and updating the Gender Action Plan
correspondingly
• Setting of 30% targets in the initial Gender Action Plan for women’s participation across various
activities, including training, participation in a market study and consultations
• Commitment to gender-sensitive recruitment and staff training on gender
Commentary
The project outputs, activities and partners framework leads with recognising a “gender
mainstreaming expert (national)” as a partner. This acknowledgement is notable for specifying the
level of expertise/site of hiring as national, which is appropriate given the project scope.
Annex II
52

The project aspires to connect to civil society and non-profit organisations “promoting gender
equality and empowerment of women (providing them with equal voice)” and working on gender
and climate change, as well as consulting governmental focal points for gender.
Recommendation: Integrate gender specialists within the team

A potential indication of how the project values the gender mainstreaming specialist’s technical
expertise is the framing of the position in the list of partners alongside the “efficient lighting expert
(national)”, suggesting the project team’s various technical experts, including regarding gender,
could be valued equally. However, at another point, the gender expert is referred to as “ad hoc”,
suggesting the position may not be permanent. The Terms of Reference for consultants and experts
also demonstrate a commitment to being gender-responsive.

The project specified that gender assessment is a key activity within the project itself, rather
than only a part of project’s design. This is a noteworthy approach to fulfilling the need for
implementation activities to follow through on a project’s intent regarding gender in the
conceptualisation and design phase.
Recommendation: Pursue team-wide capacity building opportunities

The planning documentation indicates staff will be trained on gender issues.
Climate Investment Funds projects

COASTAL CLIMATE RESILIENCE INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECT, BANGLADESH
Link: https://www.climateinvestmentfunds.org/projects/coastal-climate-resilient-infrastructure-
project and https://www.adb.org/projects/45084-002/main
Objective: By improving the resilience of coastal infrastructure such as roads, bridges and culverts,
cyclone shelters and killas, ghats, and markets, the project outcome was to specifically benefit
the poor and women. The project employed a comprehensive approach, deploying engineering
improvements as well as enhancing maintenance and planning, early-warning systems, capacity-
building, and knowledge and awareness-raising.
Key information
• Fund: CIFs, Pilot Programme for Climate Resilience (PPCR)
• Implementing Entity: Asian Development Bank (ADB)
• Country: Bangladesh
• Funding instrument(s): Mix of grant and loan support
Approach to gender
• Noting of gender equity and mainstreaming as a project “driver of change”
• Inclusion of women in project consultation in the role of traders, including poor and vulnerable
women
Annex II
53
• Gender action planning with clear, varied targets for women’s participation and employment
across different project elements; attention to women’s land tenure rights
• A project output on constructing women’s market sections, with goals for Indigenous women’s
participation, facilities for breastfeeding, and associated support and training for women shop-
owners on business and finance
The project qualifies for the ADB’s category of “effective gender mainstreaming”.
Commentary
The project Gender Action Plan signifies the intent to select a gender focal point for coordinating
the gender integration, referring later to this role as a “gender consultant”. Without specifying the
selection process or criteria, however, it is unclear if the preference was for filling this role with
someone with local gender and climate change expertise. While this single-focal-point approach
is typical, other models of integrating local expertise, such as through working with a women’s
group, are possible, especially with a project of this size and complexity. Given that low participation
by women in stakeholder consultations during project implementation is associated with cultural
practices, local gender expertise would be ideal in assessing the situation and formulating potential
responses.

While the latest available PPCR report highlights this project for its delivery of climate-resilient
infrastructure, no information on gender was featured. A project’s outputs being on track is no
guarantee that the commitment to gender integration has been upheld throughout implementation,
as that requires ongoing monitoring to deliver on prescribed activities, and incorporating key
framings and approaches emerging from contextualised knowledge to adapt implementation as
required. Comprehensive, inclusive reporting is necessary to examine whether a project is truly
successful in advancing gender equality, rather than risking the continuation of the unequal status
quo, or even worsening the state of affairs. The most recent social monitoring report, in contrast,
states that over 10,000 stakeholders were consulted, yet only 2.83% were women, making it clear that
a project can be incredibly productive without integrating gender.

Plans to orient staff on their monitoring of the Gender Action Plan, including collecting sex-
disaggregated data, incorporated responsibility for delivering on gender across the team. Moreover,
stating that the Gender Action Plan should be monitored in review meetings demonstrated that the
project valued gender integration equally to other project components. It also provided an opportunity
for all team members to understand, analyse and input into implementation issues.
Enabling factor: National-level planning and processes

The value of gender equality was reinforced through the linkages to the National Poverty Reduction
Strategy and Country Partnership Strategy, which consider gender parity an important contributor
to poverty reduction. One of the interviewees highlighted the significance of this enabling factor,
specifically citing poverty reduction strategies as exemplar frameworks at the national level that
institutions find compelling in turning attention toward gendered dynamics.
DEDICATED GRANT MECHANISM FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND LOCAL COMMUNITIES IN

BURKINA FASO/LOCAL FOREST COMMUNITIES SUPPORT PROGRAMME
Links: http://www.dgmburkinafaso.org/ and https://www.climateinvestmentfunds.org/projects/dedicated-
Annex II
grant-mechanism-indigenous-peoples-and-local-communities-burkina-faso and https://projects.

worldbank.org/en/projects-operations/project-detail/P149434 and https://www.climateinvestmentfunds.
org/sites/cif_enc/files/knowledge-documents/burkinafaso_voice_of_women.pdf
54
Objective: The Local Forest Communities Support Programme distributes grants for sub-projects
and micro-projects to targeted local communities to reduce deforestation, increase sustainable
practices, and improve livelihoods in alignment with the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation
and Forest Degradation (REDD+) programme. Specific project components include building the
managerial and technical capacity of the local communities and developing sustainable natural
resource activities.
Key information
• Fund: CIFs, Forest Investment Programme (FIP)
• Implementing entity: World Bank and IUCN
• Country: Burkina Faso
• Funding amount (Total with co-financing): USD $4,500,000

• A focus on gender with a plan to develop a roadmap for gender elements
• Commitment to the involvement and interests of women, but no targeted outreach

methodology
• Inclusion of a gender specialist on the project team
• Allocation of positions and authority to women via the National Steering Committee, including a
role in project selection
Commentary
A devolved granting mechanism ensures the guidance and leadership of activities are rooted
in local understanding and appreciation of cultural dynamics. Approaches to gender equality
emerging from this mechanism should be contextualised and specific.

Many of the micro- and sub-project grantees are women’s groups and organisations, such as
the Association of Boromo Widows in Solidarity and the Communal Female Non-Timber Forest
Product Processors’ Union of Dassa. Nearly half of the approved sub-projects in the first round
of calls for projects, and more than half of the approved sub-projects in the second call, were for
those led by women’s organisations. This was despite the fact that no outreach methodology had
targeted women. Not only does this grant mechanism ensure local experience, it capitalises on
the existing organisational architecture and ideas of these groups. Indeed, indications are that the
grants strengthened the willingness of the organisations and women to work through collective
structures.
DPSP III: FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS FOR BRAZIL ENERGY EFFICIENT CITIES (FINBRAZEEC)
Link: https://www.climateinvestmentfunds.org/projects/dpsp-iii-financial-instruments-brazil-
energy-efficient-cities-finbrazeec and https://projects.worldbank.org/en/projects-operations/
project-detail/P162455
Annex II
55
Objective: To support urban sub-projects for efficient street lighting and industrial energy
efficiency, this project creates a new facility to unlock private financing and provide sub-loans and
credit enhancement, and complements this new funding mechanism with technical assistance to
support and shape projects in early stages.
Key information
• Fund: CIFs, Clean Technology Fund (CTF)
• Implementing Entity: International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) (World
Bank)
• Country: Brazil
• Funding amount (Total with co-financing): USD $20,000,000 (USD $1.329 billion)
• Funding instrument(s): Convertible grant or contingent recovery grant

• Assertion of a goal of gender mainstreaming
• Recognition of women’s likelihood of harassment within public spaces, citing data from gender
assessment
• Provision of street lighting in areas where victimisation is high
• Workshops and trainings on gender-sensitive policies for businesses
• Promotion of women’s employment in energy efficiency jobs
• Training on gender inequality for employees of participating companies
Commentary:
The responsibility for two of the four Gender Action Plan components – gender-awareness training
and promoting women’s employment – is assigned to a Caixa Econômica Federal (CEF) and a
World Bank gender specialist. While appreciating the skill of a World Bank specialist in delivering
compelling learning experiences that may be honed through presentations worldwide, failure to
localise and contextualise key messages also holds a risk. Alignment with this recommendation
would ensure cooperation at the very least with the national CEF specialist, as stated, as well
as looking for additional local input to shape these efforts by identifying key barriers of both
perception and structure. Women’s business associations, gender (and climate change) specialists
from civil society, and representatives from national gender institutions could each contribute to
designing trainings that catalyse dialogue as well as action.

The approach assumes that better lighting in key areas will improve perceptions as well as
experiences of safety based on crime data and criminology studies. This understanding may be
incomplete without directly capturing contemporary, qualitative data on gendered experiences of
safety in the areas to be targeted. As the Gender Action Plan marks baseline data “to be determined
during implementation” and observes that targets cannot be set within this data, ensuring that
such data is context-specific will help reinforce the Gender Action Plan’s theory of change, while
enabling the most appropriate activities are shaped and driven by progressive sets of data.
Annex II
56
Green Climate Fund projects

PRIMING FINANCIAL AND LAND-USE PLANNING INSTRUMENTS TO REDUCE EMISSIONS
FROM DEFORESTATION, ECUADOR
Link: https://www.greenclimate.fund/project/fp019
Objective: Support to Ecuador’s Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation
(REDD+) Action Plan to implement its activities across four components: build institutional capacity
for an enabling environment to reduce deforestation and promote sustainable agricultural and
livestock practices without encroachment on forested lines through financial and economic
incentives; restore, conserve, and connect key ecosystems with a consideration of water
management; enhance project management; and promote the REDD+ institutional framework.
Key information
• Fund: GCF
• Accredited Entity: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
• Country: Ecuador
Approach to gender
• A lack of quantified, disaggregated tracking and targeting of gender among anticipated
beneficiaries
• General orientation towards equal participation by men and women in project activities,
entailing inclusive dialogue and consultation spaces and inclusive capacity-building
• Recognition of the equal rights of men and women with regard to property, land tenure and
access to natural resources
• Commitment to greater participation of women in land-use planning, facilitation of women’s

producer organisations to have access to the financial incentives, and ensuring equitable
distribution of benefits
• Expressed alignment with existing REDD+ gender mainstreaming work
Commentary
The reporting on gender activities, such as the trainings on environmental management
considering human rights and gender, lacks insight into design and delivery. While proposals
can often provide some insight into the processes that will be followed during implementation,
highlighting, for example, whether local gender experts or existing CSO curricula will inform the
creation and delivery of new trainings, such detail was not provided here.

The proposal indicates a commitment to basic principles of equal participation; however, it
predates the GCF’s requirement of a Gender Action Plan for every project proposal, so gender
Annex II
activities are mentioned without an overarching or comprehensive strategy. (Of course, Gender
57
Action Plans are not synonymous with coherent strategies.) In the first and only available annual
performance report, an interim Gender and Sociocultural Strategy is being implemented, while a
Gender Action Plan is also being developed. Who is leading these processes and what they look
like is unknown. With a five-year project timeline, design processes are spilling over substantially
into implementation. Though the disadvantages of lost time and potential failure to capture
baseline data are likely, there may also be some advantage in the framers’ understanding of the
implementation challenges so that the ultimate Gender Action Plan is constructive and context-
specific.
MSME BUSINESS LOAN PROGRAMME FOR GHG EMISSION REDUCTION, MONGOLIA

Objective: By supporting micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) with concessional
loans to facilitate their investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy, this revolving loan
project, led by a bank, responds to the financial barriers businesses face in transitioning to low-
carbon operations.
Key Information
• Fund: GCF
• Accredited Entity: XacBank
• Country: Mongolia
• Funding instrument(s): Mix of loan (USD $19,500,000) and grant (USD $500,000)
Approach to gender
• Outlining the increase in women’s access to climate finance as one of the four programme goals
• Assertion of being a women-centred MSME programme because it created a target of

having 50% of the loan programme recipients be women-led businesses and offers greater
concessionality
• Definition of women-led businesses as “a) Firms with 51% or more ownership by women; or b)
Firms with at least 30% women on the Board of Directors or in senior management positions; or
c) At least 40% women employment”
• Orientation of the Gender Action Plan largely around categorising inquiries and loan recipients
to achieve the 50% target, and setting a 50% target for external advisors to be women
• Recognition that women are underserved by the market, with higher rates of rejection for loans
applied for by women-led MSMEs
• Training for bank staff to assist in formalising women-led MSMEs that are often informal
• Intention to work with the Asia Foundation Women in Business Centre and local women’s
economic empowerment NGOs to implement Gender Action Plan activities
Commentary
Annex II
Partnering with the Asia Foundation Women in Business Centre is an indication of finding
gender expertise in the sector, while the value of local women’s economic groups is noted by the
58
commitment to “undertake knowledge-sharing…in both directions”. Employing these groups as

messengers of this programme while ensuring real mechanisms for their input would be acting on
the premise of this recommendation.

Though the project aspires to mainstream gender in its goals, the extent to which the project
will assign funding, capacity and specificity to achieving these goals is unknown in the Gender
Action Plan. The branch offices, marketing team, and banking department are generally assigned
responsibility for the Gender Action Plan activities, with the indication of some gender expertise
being incorporated through the partnership with the Asia Foundation Women in Business Centre.
(While the project has been under implementation since 2017, the GCF has not made the annual
performance reports public as this is a private sector project.)

With the XacBank team being assigned responsibility for the Gender Action Plan implementation,
ensuring an appreciation of gender beyond the target of 50% loan recipients is even more
imperative, ensuring an appreciation of gender beyond the target of 50% loan recipients
is imperative. Reflections on marketing policies and practices can contribute to building
understanding of gender-responsive processes, for example.
ENHANCING ADAPTIVE CAPACITIES OF COASTAL COMMUNITIES, ESPECIALLY WOMEN, TO

COPE WITH CLIMATE CHANGE INDUCED SALINITY IN BANGLADESH
Link: https://www.greenclimate.fund/project/fp069 and https://www.gcfprojects-undp.org/tp/
project/5724
Objective: This adaptation project builds the resilience of coastal communities through promoting
climate-resilient livelihoods for women, implementing climate-resilient drinking water solutions
with gender-responsive management structures, and enhancing institutional capacity and
knowledge capture on these activities and practices.
Key information
• Fund: GCF
• Accredited Entity: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
• Country: Bangladesh
Approach to gender
Focus on improving women’s experience in this vulnerable coastal region. Notably, unapproved by
the GCF Board when first submitted and subsequently retooled for perceived lack of justification on
its climate change relevance compared to its development focus
Recognition of women as “change-agents” overseeing livelihoods interventions and drinking water

solutions
Reactivation of previous “Women Livelihood Groups” as a key organising structure. Deploying

Annex II
climate technologies and business and financial training to them in a train-the-trainer model,
alongside the creation of women and girl volunteer groups to disseminate early warnings
59
• Participatory mapping for siting drinking water access points and supporting water user groups,
connecting them to Women Livelihood Groups
• Knowledge-capture in a train-the-trainer toolkit for broader coastal adoption and providing

training on gender and climate change to gender focal points, with the expectation of other
sectoral policy development to include gender and climate change
Commentary
An interviewee described a more inclusive process of consultation with women’s organisations
and civil society during the project reformulation process (after initial Board rejection) than initial
project development, and the integration of context-specific local knowledge seems clear in the
references to reconstituting the women’s livelihood groups, for example. The interviewee also
indicated that the acknowledgement of the importance of participatory, action-oriented women’s
groups was a hallmark of the reformulation. This approach embeds local gender expertise into the
operational model of the project.

This project has a direct connection to the national gender machinery: the Ministry of Women’s and
Children Affairs is the executing entity as designated by UNDP to oversee implementation.

One of the Gender Action Plan indicators speaks to the time women spend collecting and carrying
water for household use. Though concerns about women’s drudgery and reducing time and labour
allocation are also evident in other projects, in this one, this indicator provides a baseline of daily
time and a target to reduce that under one hour. While considering qualitative experiences and
perceptions of collecting water is key, setting out to measure actual time saved is a complementary
and important approach to robust data. Not doing so could lead to the Gender Action Plan
indicators failing to move beyond quantitative measures of women’s participation to capture the
dynamics of agency, engagement and leadership that should be embedded in these management
structures.

The first annual performance report states that none of the Gender Action Plan activities have
updates because the project launched without a gender specialist and women empowerment
officer on board, and both are still being recruited. If the project continues to move forward without
a gender team on board or any other way of ensuring alignment with the Gender Action Plan, the
design of this aspirational project is in danger of becoming irrelevant to actual implementation.
GREEN BRT KARACHI, PAKISTAN

Objective: By creating a bus rapid transit (BRT) system to serve 10% of this 15-million-person city
and replace its informal, inaccessible and inefficient patchwork system as well as shift to operating
the buses with biomethane, this project seeks to create a comprehensive approach to mitigating
emissions from transportation. It also includes creating additional connectivity through bicycling
options and e-pedicabs as well as improving or constructing bus station infrastructure and roads.
Key information
• Fund: GCF
Annex II
• Accredited Entity: ADB
60
• Country: Pakistan
• Funding instrument(s): Mix of loan (USD $37,200,000) and grant (USD $11,800,000)
Approach to gender
• Noting gender equity and mainstreaming as a project “driver of change”
• Qualification for the ADB’s category of “effective gender mainstreaming” under the various ADB
projects associated with this BRT initiative
• Composition of sector-specific gender assessment from two reports: one considering the
connections between women’s more limited mobility, education, and labour and workforce
participation; and the other, an analysis of sexual harassment data in Karachi’s current public
transport. Both inform the Gender Action Plan
• Consultation with women stakeholders cited as influencing the change in bus timing intervals
• Commitment to a comprehensive Gender Action Plan and embedded goals: setting an overall
target to increase the proportion of female riders to 20% (from 10%); establishing qualitative and
quantitative indicators associated with riders’ accessibility, safety and comfort; outlining multiple
interventions, including design features, to reduce and report sexual harassment; and aiming for
10% of employees to be women
• Creation of gender specialist and social and gender staff positions across two operating partners
and assignment of responsibility for implementation
• Training of staff on gender-inclusive practices and, for frontline staff, gender-inclusive passenger
management
Commentary
The Gender Action Plan assigns responsibility to consultants as well as gender specialist staff, but
there is no information on their recruitment process and key qualifications beyond consultants’
having to comply with ADB’s Guidelines on the Use of Consultants. Ensuring that implementation of
this plan, rooted in a Karachi-specific assessment, is not led by outside actors would be a key step in
placing local gender dynamics and concerns at the forefront of action.

The approach of this project illustrates attention to qualitative data and information that considers
local gendered experiences and outcomes. The gender assessment first considers the context of
female labour force participation in Pakistan, including outlining gaps in opportunity, to support
the ability of women to enter and thrive in the labour force. Then, it includes a Rapid Assessment
of Sexual Harassment in Public Transport and Connected Spaces in Karachi. The Gender Action Plan
specifies ridership surveys to capture perceptions on topics such as safety, reliability, connectivity,
and affordability, among others, noting 2015 data as a baseline.
Enabling factor: Existing gender experience and expertise

The gender assessment report on sexual harassment appears to pre-date the project in its GCF
conception, as it is part of a larger initiative under the ADB. Yet, its existence and inclusion here,
including informing the Gender Action Plan, strengthens the gender-responsiveness of the overall
Annex II
project. Thus, this project appears to benefit from the ADB’s existing gender infrastructure.
61
PROMOTION OF CLIMATE-FRIENDLY COOKING: KENYA AND SENEGAL

Objective: This project aims to accelerate production and sales of improved cookstoves (ICS) across
the two target countries, galvanising “an irreversible market transformation” from informal artisanal
producers to a well-managed production base with higher quality, volumes and greater geographic
coverage via technical assistance and training support to producers. It also seeks to increase
consumers’ awareness and put in place enabling policies and regulatory frameworks for long-term,
sustainable market growth of ICS.
Key information
• Fund: GCF
• Accredited Entity: GIZ
• Country: Kenya, Senegal
Approach to gender
• Recognition of health impacts disproportionately affecting women and assumption that
improved cookstoves will reduce drudgery for women who otherwise would have to collect
laborious cook fuel
• Assertion of the importance of women and women’s groups in the current (baseline) supply
chain, and commitment to incorporating these groups into the expanded distribution plan to
ensure reach to rural households
• Acknowledgment of some of the participation of women’s cooperatives and groups in

production (particularly with clay inserts) within the context of a dearth of women-led
production enterprises
• Assumption that female entrepreneurs have fewer business skills
Commentary
This project plans to use village women’s groups as vital links in the supply chain to ensure
distribution to rural households, particularly in Senegal, in recognition of the role these groups
already play in financing and supplying improved cookstove technology. However, it is unclear
what support (training and resources) they may receive, in comparison to other last mile
entrepreneurs, that is, specific to their role as local women’s groups.

To address disparities in men and women’s labour force participation as producers of ICS, the
project approach intends to ensure more women than men benefit from the training while
monitoring employment levels. Gendered differences exist in production among types of stoves,
and by country. Understanding and tracking these dynamics will be crucial to ensure that the
benefits of the programme, through technical assistance directly to producers, do not flow
Annex II
primarily to men and reinforce gendered disparities among the most well-capitalised producers.
62
PROGRAMME ON AFFIRMATIVE FINANCE ACTION FOR WOMEN IN AFRICA (AFAWA):

FINANCING CLIMATE-RESILIENT AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES IN GHANA
Objective: This project will facilitate access to loans by women-led MSMEs and farmer-based
associations led by women for the purposes of agricultural adaptation. As an on-lending
programme, the funds will be directed to local financial institutions to which these enterprises
and groups will apply for loans. The project also includes a component on technical assistance
for climate-resilient agricultural practices, accessible to loan recipients, as well as support for an
enabling environment to facilitate greater access to climate finance for women.
Key information
• Fund: GCF
• Accredited Entity: African Development Bank (AfDB)
• Country: Ghana
• Funding amount (Total with co-financing): USD $20,000 (USD $25,600,000)
• Funding instrument(s): Mix: loan (USD $18,500,000) and grant (USD $1,500,000)
• Status: Approved. Not yet under implementation
Approach to gender
• Focus on supporting women-led MSMEs in recognition that the majority of agricultural work is
carried out by women and men have greater access to finance, designed as a complement to the
accredited entity’s existing agricultural lending project that lacks a gender focus
• Recognition of gendered disparities in relation to agricultural and household work and access to
resources, including women’s lack of land rights, access to bank accounts, and access to credit,
along with increased time spent on fuel and water collection
• Orientation toward women entrepreneurs
• Support for local financial institutions’ capacity-building on gender and climate finance (through
the project grant component)
• Application of a gender-mainstreaming approach for assistance to government bodies to better

channel funds toward women-led business
Commentary
The responsibility for the Gender Action Plan’s associated activities is designated to a “selected CSO
partner in close coordination with Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection”. While the
partner is yet to be selected, this notation indicates work will be done with a local group known to
the national gender machinery, a novel approach to a Gender Action Plan.

Project background and justification focuses on women in agriculture, with little information
beyond the household level or on women-led MSMEs that are the targeted actors. No baseline data
is provided for any indicators in the Gender Action Plan, and all timelines are set for the project
end, after five years. While many of the Gender Action Plan indicators suggest a more robust
Annex II
set of activities than the project proposal, the lack of a monitoring and evaluation framework to
track progress over time, against real baseline data, could hinder the identification of risks and
opportunities and any adaptive measures during project implementation.
63
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Guide to

List of figures and tables

Who should read this guide

Framework for strengthening gender integration

• Pursue team-wide capacity-building opportunities: Identify and require capacity-building

Considerations for the funds

Integrating gender in climate finance projects: A closer look

Who should read this guide

GOVERNMENT FOCAL POINTS

Intersectional approaches to gender

BOX 1: RESEARCH QUESTIONS GUIDING INTERVIEWS

BOX 2: WHAT THIS GUIDE IS NOT

BOX 3: A NOTE ON GENDER MAINSTREAMING

Framing and reflections

• enable international consultants to communicate the imperative of this approach; and

• voice suggestions from local-level experts on their inclusion and engagement.

How are the funds approaching gender integration?

BOX 4: ADAPTATION FUND

Key gender moments

BOX 5: CLIMATE INVESTMENT FUNDS

Key gender moments

BOX 6: GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL FACILITY

Key gender moments

BOX 7: GREEN CLIMATE FUND

Key gender moments

Understanding gender expertise

TYPES OF GENDER EXPERTISE

• Ability to manage and monitor gender-relevant activities, such as overseeing the

EXAMPLES OF “STRENGTHENING GENDER CAPACITY”

• Conducting specific training on collecting intersectional, sex-disaggregated data, carrying out

TABLE 1: How to engage different types of gender experts

LOCAL ORGANISATION OR WOMEN’S GROUP

NATIONAL COORDINATING MECHANISM

GLOBAL ALLIANCE OR ORGANISATION

II. A framework for strengthening gender integration

FIGURE 1: Framework for strengthening gender integration

• Collect the right data from • National-level planning

• Integrate gender specialists Considerations • Fund-level requirements

LEAD WITH LOCAL GENDER EXPERTISE

Gender experts with solid environmental and

BOX 8: THE SIGNIFICANCE OF GENDER SPECIALISTS

LEVERAGE LOCAL WOMEN’S GROUPS AND NATIONAL GENDER INSTITUTIONS

What is the recommendation? Connect with

BOX 9: TIMING OF ASSESSMENTS

COLLECT THE RIGHT DATA FROM THE START

BOX 10: MODELS OF DATA COLLECTION

2x challenge: Financing for women

Comprehensive data about participation in community decision-making, access to resources, time

What are the challenges to implementing this recommendation? Barriers to gathering

INTEGRATE GENDER SPECIALISTS WITHIN THE TEAM

BOX 11: THE EXPERIENCE OF GENDER SPECIALISTS

What are the challenges to implementing this recommendation? Reconceptualising the

deliverables to solely producing gender-related documentation, e.g., a gender assessment and

What are the caveats to this

ENSURE CONTINUITY BETWEEN DESIGN AND

BOX 12: DIVERGENT PERSPECTIVES ON PERSONNEL CONTINUITY VERSUS

BOX 13: SECURING GENDER EXPERTISE IN PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION