Gender Mainstreaming in Sector Budget Support: The Case of the European Commission's Sector Support to Rwanda's Agriculture Sector

Citation:

Holvoet, Natalie, and Liesbeth Inberg. 2015. “Gender Mainstreaming in Sector Budget Support: The Case of the European Commission’s Sector Support to Rwanda’s Agriculture Sector.” Journal of International Women’s Studies 16 (2).

Authors: Natalie Holvoet, Liesbeth Inberg

Abstract:

Donors face difficulties when handling gender concerns in the context of ongoing changes in aid modalities. Against this background, the European Union (EU) Member States and the European Commission (EC) adopted the EU Plan of Action on Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment in Development (2010-2015) and launched, in collaboration with the UN Women and the International Training Center of the International Labour Organization, the 'Increasing Accountability in Financing for Gender Equality' program. Within the framework of this program, the EU delegation in Rwanda has elaborated a Gender Mainstreaming Strategy for the EC sector budget support to the Agriculture Sector in Rwanda. Given that, so far, experiences with gender mainstreaming in sector budget programs in the agriculture sector are hardly documented, the review of the current degree of gender-sensitivity and the remedying gender mainstreaming strategy are also the focus of our contribution. Both the EC and Rwanda are interesting cases as the former is an influential actor in development cooperation, while Rwanda's own commitment to gender equality gives the EC (and other donors) an interesting entry point to further trigger gender mainstreaming through (sector) budget support.

Keywords: gender mainstreaming, European Commission, Rwanda, sector budget support, agricultural sector

Topics: Agriculture, Development, Gender, Women, Gender Budgeting, Gender Mainstreaming, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, International Organizations Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, Europe Countries: Rwanda

Year: 2015