Lack of gender equality hinders sustainable development. Together with local partners, we initiate structural changes and promote equality through a variety of measures.
Gender equality is a fundamental human right. It is essential for sustainable development and contributes to democracy, prosperity and peace. People around the world experience discrimination based on their gender, sexual orientation or gender identity.
Women and girls are the largest disadvantaged population group at 50 per cent. Crises and conflicts reinforce or cement existing gender inequalities. In addition, transnational anti-gender movements are calling progress into question.
All development cooperation measures can only have a sustainable impact if gender equality is taken into account. When women and marginalised groups play an equal and active role in shaping processes and decisions, they become more sustainable. Increased economic participation by women boosts productivity and innovative strength, and economic growth increases demonstrably faster. All of this has a positive impact on social stability, as there are fewer inequalities and tensions.
The international community has set itself the goal of promoting gender equality, strengthening women’s rights and overcoming gender-specific disadvantages and discrimination in political commitments.
Examples of important agreements:
Many of our partner countries have committed themselves to corresponding national strategies. The challenge remains how to actually implement these international and national commitments.
We cooperate with government, civil society and private sector partners to promote gender equality. Where political movements challenge fundamental human rights, we strengthen local actors.
We mainstream the promotion of gender equality throughout the entire project cycle. To this end, we use mandatory gender analyses to already identify potential and rule out unintended negative effects at the planning stage. This ensures a context-sensitive approach.
Wherever possible, we pursue a gender-transformative and intersectional approach in the implementation of our projects in order to contribute to reducing the causes of gender-based inequality and multiple discrimination and to reduce structural inequality.
We prepare technical and methodological knowledge to promote gender equality in different countries and sectors. In this way, we support the dissemination of proven approaches and the implementation of innovative ones.
Our work is guided by the GIZ Gender Strategy 2025-2029.
Current examples can be found in our brochure Champions for Gender Equality – Good Practice Examples from GIZ.
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