Evaluation of Norway's Support to Women's Rights and Gender Equality in Development Cooperation

SIPU in Sweden, the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) in London and Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI) in Norway have been commissioned by Norad to undertake a results-based evaluation on the effects that Norwegian Aid is having on enhancing gender equality and women’s rights in Southern partner countries. The evaluation will also assess the extent to which the results of Norway’s gender programming have been in line with goals set out in the Action Plan for Women’s Rights and Gender Equality in Development Cooperation and its four main thematic priorities – political empowerment, economic empowerment, sexual and reproductive health and violence against women. Ultimately, the evaluation will identify lessons learnt that can inform the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ (MFA) future efforts to strengthen its planning, organisation and implementation of interventions to promote women’s rights and gender equality.

The study covers all Norwegian support to Women’s Rights and Gender Equality in development cooperation in the period 2007-2013, whether directly targeted or gender mainstreamed. The evaluation includes a desk review, which will aim to assess the global dimension of Norway’s gendered aid, as well as three in-depth case studies conducted in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Nepal (all gender pilot-embassies) and two remote case-studies of non-pilot embassies (Zambia and Tanzania). The evaluation combines a gendered political economy approach to understand structural and institutional dynamics shaping Norway’s relative efficacy in promoting women’s rights and gender equality, and an anthropological evaluation approach assessing gender dynamics ‘from below’ in order to understand effects on locally embedded institutions as well as on individual women, men, girls and boys as the ultimate target group of all Norwegian aid.