Gender equality
Australia’s international support for gender equality
The Australian Government has a steadfast and ongoing commitment to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, particularly in the Indo-Pacific region, with a focus on:
- ending sexual and gender-based violence
- advancing women’s economic empowerment
- enhancing women’s leadership
- strengthening women’s and girls’ access to and influence on essential services, including in health and education
- implementing the Women, Peace and Security agenda
The Australian Government is committed to ensuring that responses to and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic deliver positive impacts for women and girls. The COVID crisis is an opportunity to build back better, with women’s and girl’s human rights at the centre.
Contents
- Partnerships for Recovery
- Gender Equality Fund
- Ending Gender-Based Violence
- Women's Economic Empowerment
- Women, Peace & Security
- Gender data
- UN Women (United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women)
Partnerships for Recovery
Partnerships for Recovery sets out Australia’s development response to COVID-19. With a focus on the Indo-Pacific region, the response prioritises people in vulnerable situations, including women and girls. Australia’s Ambassador for Women and Girls, as an international advocate for gender equality and the human rights of women and girls, has an integral in advancing this agenda.
Related links
Gender Equality Fund
$65 million, 2022-23 [budget estimate]
$65 million, 2021-22 [budget estimate]
$65 million, 2020-21 [budget actual]
In 2015, Australia established the Gender Equality Fund to strengthen work on gender equality and women's empowerment in the aid program. The Fund maintains flagship investments that promote gender equality in the Pacific and South-East Asia, and supports innovative investments at country, regional and global levels, including through partnerships with the private sector and civil society. The Gender Equality Fund plays an important role in shaping Australia's development program to drive strong gender equality performance and results.
To support gender-responsive COVID-19 efforts, the Gender Equality Fund received an additional $10 million in the financial year 2020-21, increasing the total to $65 million.
Ending Gender-Based Violence
Australia’s efforts to address, prevent and respond to gender-based violence include supporting regional and 17 bilateral ending gender-based violence projects through our development and humanitarian programs, helping to build the evidence on what works to end violence, supporting knowledge exchange and collaboration between Australian organisations and our regional partners, and advocating for a strong focus on addressing and preventing gender-based violence in international forums.
Australia is also a member of several global advocacy partnerships focused on advancing efforts to end gender-based violence, including the UN Group of Friends for the Elimination of Violence against Women and Girls, the Generation Equality Forum Action Coalition on Gender-Based Violence, Global Partnership for Action on Gender-Based Online Harassment and Abuse, and the Call to Action on Protection of Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies.
Support to UN Women
$22.5 million, 2020-2025
Australia is a long-standing supporter of UN Women's Ending Violence against Women and Girls global, regional and bilateral programs, providing funding since its establishment in 2010. In 2020 Australia commenced a new phase of funding through the Gender Equality Fund to support UN Women to deliver activities focused on prevention, essential services and support for local women's organisations to end violence against women and girls, particularly in response to the intensification of gender-based violence during and following the COVID-19 crisis.
Specific activities funded under this investment include:
- grant support for women's organisations responding to gender-based violence through the UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women;
- delivery of prevention activities in the Indo-Pacific specifically targeted at addressing the intensification of violence that has been reported since the outbreak of COVID‑19, and continuation of these activities as part of the COVID-19 recovery phase; and
- support for the UN Joint Global Programme for Essential Services for Women and Girls subject to violence to ensure frontline services are able to identify and effectively respond to gender-based violence during and following the COVID-19 crisis in the Indo-Pacific.
Since 2020, UN Women has launched and rolled-out the ‘Making Progress in Prevention Possible' monitoring framework and the ‘RESPECT Women: Preventing Violence against women – Implementation Package' to support prevention activities in the Indo-Pacific. Through the UN Joint Global Programme for Essential Services, UN Women provided direct technical support and developed new guidance to improve services for survivors, including the launch and roll-out of a ‘Training Package for Prosecutors', ‘Handbook on Gender-responsive policing practices' and ‘Global Costing Tool' guidance on estimating resource requirements for services.
Related links
- UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women
- UN Joint Global Programme on Essential Services for Women and Girls subject to violence
- UN Women Asia Pacific Regional Office — Preventing Violence Against Women
Support to UNFPA – kNOwVAWdata Initiative
$3 million, 2021-2024
Australia is supporting UNFPA to deliver the second Phase of the kNOwVAWdata initiative to support and strengthen regional and national capacity to measure violence against women (VAW) prevalence in Asia and the Pacific.
Launched in 2016, kNOwVAWdata is a partnership between UNFPA, DFAT, the University of Melbourne and Australia's National Research Organisation for Women's Safety (ANROWS), which provides technical support and capacity building, enabling countries to undertake VAW prevalence studies in an ethical and scientifically robust way.
Australia provided A$2.9 million to support the successful first phase of the kNOwVAWdata program between 2016-2021. During Phase 1, kNOwVAWdata supported 23 countries in Asia and the Pacific with violence against women data prevalence activities. The Phase 1 evaluation found that kNOwVAWdata had increased awareness and knowledge of violence against women data, and this had influenced policy and advocacy efforts in several countries across the region.
Related links
- kNOwVAWdata
- UNFPA Asia Pacific | Measuring prevalence of violence against women in Asia-Pacific
- Know Violence Against Women Data - The University of Melbourne
- Australia's National Research Organisation for Women's Safety (ANROWS)
Women's Economic Empowerment
Australia supports various activities to enhance women's economic empowerment, promoting a sustainable and inclusive COVID-19 recovery that accounts for both the disproportionate impacts of the economic downturn on women, and also harnesses their agency to contribute to and benefit from economic recovery measures.
Investing in Women
$102 million, 2016-23
Investing in Women is a multi-country program with an innovative, long-term approach to improving women's economic participation as employees and as entrepreneurs, and influencing the private and public sector environment to promote women's economic empowerment in Southeast Asia. The program operates in Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Myanmar, and works directly in collaboration with corporations and business leaders, impact investors, entrepreneurs and advocates.
With its partners, Investing in Women has moved quickly to respond to the COVID-19 crisis. This includes emergency relief to support women's small and medium enterprises through immediate financial pressures, adapt their businesses to manage the impact of COVID-19, and ensuring their continued operation and contribution to the resilience of local economies. Investing in Women's business coalitions for workplace gender equality are supporting companies with COVID-19 impact assessments, and reviewing their Gender Action Plans to adjust and respond to COVID-19 — for example through Flexible Working Toolkits. Investing in Women surveyed 6000 millennial men and women in Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam to capture insights into gender norms around work and care during the pandemic, and support civil society campaigns to utilise the findings.
Related links
- Investing in Women
- Investing in women Phase 2 Investment Design Document Update
- Investing in Women report - Gender Equality Matters 2020: Social norms, attitudes and practices of urban millennials in Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam
- Investing in Women Phase 2 (2019-23) Mid-Term review
Women's World Banking
$19.9 million, 2016-2024
Women's World Banking (WWB) is a leading global organisation on women's financial inclusion, giving low-income women increased access to financial tools and resources. DFAT has partnered with WWB for activities in Southeast Asia since 2016 ($4.5 million) and provided core funding ($9.3 million) for global activities. An extension to the partnership ($6.1 million, 2020-24) supports COVID-19 economic recovery and resilience efforts in Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Vietnam, and Cambodia).
COVID-19 has demonstrated the heightened relevance and increased urgency of WWB's work to help women build financial security and resilience to shocks, through access to savings products, credit and capital for their businesses, micro-insurance and secure digital financial products (including government social protection payments). WWB aims to reach at least one million women in Southeast Asia through financial solutions that are relevant to their needs, reduce their risk of falling into poverty, and enables them to fully engage in productive economic activities and contribute to an inclusive and sustainable post-COVID recovery. WWB also works to influence governments and engages with policy makers to overcome barriers to women's financial inclusion and is researching the impact of financial inclusion on women's economic empowerment.
Related links:
Women, Peace & Security
The five year, $25 million WPS Investment 2022-2027 is one significant and substantial means through which DFAT will contribute to achieving the goal of Australia’s National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security 2021-2031: that in the context of increasing insecurity with climate change, diverse women and girls realise their human rights and achieve meaningful participation in all of Australia’s work to prevent and resolve conflict and establish enduring peace.
Women, Peace and Humanitarian Fund
$7.5 million, 2022-2027
The Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund (WPHF) is a UN multi-partner trust fund which finances women’s participation, leadership, inclusion and empowerment in humanitarian responses and peace and security settings. Australia was a founding donor and supporter for the WPHF.
UN Women Regional Framework Towards Peaceful, Inclusive Societies: Advancing the Women, Peace and Security Agenda in the Asia Pacific Region
$10.5 million, 2022-2027
The Regional Framework addresses priority WPS issues and emerging trends in the Asia-Pacific region. Activities under this investment include:
- technical support to governments in the region to develop, implement and review National Action Plans and the ASEAN Regional Plan of Action on WPS;
- research, data and tools on WPS;
- creation of a coordination mechanism and engagement platform for government, civil society organisations and other WPS actors;
- technical and financial support to civil society organisations to implement the WPS agenda at the regional, national and community levels; and
- capacity strengthening and networking opportunities for women’s rights civil society organisations to advance WPS.
ActionAid Australia
$3.36 million, 2022-2027
This investment supports (i) the establishment of a Pacific Women Mediators Network (PWMN), and (ii) strengthened civil society engagement on WPS in Asia-Pacific and the Great Lakes region in Africa.
The PWMN will provide regional actors with women mediators and negotiators, coordinated by the Shifting the Power Coalition. Activities include:
- creation of a network of women mediators;
- development of a knowledge management platform to support advocacy and action on WPS in the Pacific; and
- establishment of channels for the PWMN to engage with national and regional actors through convening of meetings.
Civil society engagement on WPS includes strengthening dialogue and engagement among women peacebuilders in Asia, the Pacific and the Great Lakes region of Africa. Activities include:
- mapping women’s organisations and activists working across the regions on WPS;
- research and development of evidenced-based briefs to support advocacy and accountability for implementation of the WPS agenda;
- regional convenings to share learning, build understanding and identify and define priorities for advancing WPS; and
- development of communication tools and digital platforms for engagement.
Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies
$1.1 million, 2022-2026
This investment supports the Southeast Asian Network of Women Peace Mediators (SEAWPM). The Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (CPCS) is a well-established regional organization with experience implementing conflict transformation and peace process facilitation. The CPCS is also the secretariat of the SEAWPM.
The SEAWPM was established in 2019 to facilitate the involvement of its women mediators and negotiators in all phases of peace and conflict resolution processes in Asia. The SEAWPM is an independent but complimentary mechanism to ASEAN, making it uniquely placed to accompany ASEAN as a regional mediation mechanism. Activities include:
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- diplomacy with decision-makers and actors in analysing and exploring strategies and mechanisms for preventing, deescalating, and transforming political crises in Asia;
- convening stakeholders in processes that enhance the potential for constructive dialogue across and within concerned parties relevant to conflicts and their resolution; and
- responding to emerging opportunities for mediation and facilitation in regional peace processes.
Legal Action Worldwide
$1.09 million, 2023-2024
This investment supports the establishment of an innovative, international Gender Justice Practitioner Hub. Legal Action Worldwide is an independent non-profit organisation comprised of human rights lawyers and jurists working in fragile and conflict-affected areas, providing advocacy, strategic litigation, legal aid, empowerment, and technical assistance.
The Practitioner Hub will be constructed in two phases.
- Phase 1 (18 months) will involve consultations with diverse stakeholders, mapping of existing initiatives, scoping of needs and development of initial resources and website.
- Informed by Phase 1, Phase 2 will involve the establishment of the Practitioner Hub.
Related links
Gender data
Australia's policy engagement and investments are strengthening capacities to collect, analyse and make accessible statistics on gender equality and the empowerment of women. Improvements in gender data support progress in such areas as women's health and wellbeing, women's workforce participation, and ending violence against women. In addition, high-quality data are critical for enabling governments in our region to ensure their responses to COVID-19 are effective for all.
Australia funds UN Women's global flagship program on better gender statistics, Women Count ($6.5 million, 2016-2021). Working with partner governments, international agencies and other actors, the Women Count assists governments to collect, analyse and use good gender data, including to monitor progress on the Sustainable Development Goals. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Women Count conducted rapid gender assessment surveys to determine the impacts of COVID-19 on women and girls.
To meet the increasing need and demand for data, Australia also funds UN Women to implement Building Back Better: Promoting a gender data-driven response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Pacific and South East Asia ($3.5 million, 2021-2022). This initiative provides important support to countries in the Pacific and South East Asia in their efforts to address the impacts of the pandemic, and to ensure their responses are data-driven and improve the lives of women and girls.
In addition, Australia has been at the forefront of supporting a move towards multidimensional, gender-sensitive data, and poverty measurement that can accurately capture gender inequalities. Through a partnership with the International Women's Development Agency, Australia supports Equality Insights ($2 million, 2020-2022). This program aims to make gender-sensitive, individual-level, multidimensional data accessible to governments and decision-makers, improving the evidence available to them for COVID-19 recovery efforts that advance gender equality.
Related links
Umbrella Facility for Gender Equality (UFGE)
$16 million, 2013-2027
The World Bank Umbrella Facility for Gender Equality (UFGE) invests in research and experimentation, accompanied by impact evaluations and data collection to fill knowledge gaps and identify what works. The UFGE is an important catalyst for work that pushes frontiers of knowledge on gender equality and promotes policy that supports effective development assistance. Australia supports the East Asia and Pacific Gender Innovation Laboratory (EAPGIL) and Get2Equal project.
EAPGIL carries out impact evaluations and research to generate evidence of what works in closing gender gaps in access to economic opportunities and assets, services, and voice and agency, and how closing these gaps can help achieve broader development outcomes. An integral part of EAPGIL's work is strengthening the gender capacities of World Bank project teams and partners, to strengthen projects, policies and advocacy, contributing to the sustainability and efficacy of activities. Target countries include Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Vietnam.
The International Finance Corporation-managed Get2Equal project partners with the private sector, research institutes, academia, governments and development partners to grow demand for gender-smart initiatives. Get2Equal seeks to understand the barriers women face in accessing more and better jobs and tests solutions through client engagement.
Related links
- World Bank East Asia and Pacific Gender Innovation Lab
- World Bank Umbrella Facility for Gender Equality
United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women)
$31.16 million, 2022-2025
UN Women is the United Nations (UN) entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. UN Women is a valued partner for Australia in advancing gender equality and women’s and girls’ human rights, in the Indo-Pacific region and globally.
Australia provides UN Women with funding to support its work, guided by the Strategic Partnership Framework between the Australian Government and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) 2022-2025. This includes annual core voluntary contributions, totalling $31.16 million for the period 2022-2025. In addition, Australia provides funding to support UN Women’s activities at the regional and country level.
The Strategic Partnership Framework identifies the following shared objectives:
- promoting, protecting and strengthening global norms, policies and standards on gender equality and women’s empowerment;
- strengthening the UN system’s action on gender equality;
- advancing disability and social inclusion;
- reducing vulnerability and increasing resilience;
- women's economic empowerment;
- ending violence against women and girls;
- women’s participation in leadership and decision-making, including in building sustainable peace and resilience;
- improving the availability and use of disaggregated data and evidence on gender equality; and
- delivery representing good value for money in the Indo-Pacific region and globally.
Our cooperation with UN Women complements Australia’s own efforts for the achievement of gender equality, domestically and internationally, with a particular focus on women’s leadership and decision-making, women’s economic empowerment, ending violence against women and girls, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and the Women, Peace and Security agenda.