Nuts & Bolts: Engendering Monitoring and Evaluation

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Despite the fact that gender equality is widely recognized as a development objective, many M&E systems do not adequately measure differences in development outcomes for women and men and girls and boys. Some of the important issues often not captured include:

•  how a woman’s multiple productive, reproductive, and community maintenance roles limit her ability to participate in and enjoy the full benefits of development initiatives
•  women’s access to and control of productive resources
•  constraints on women’s access to and enjoyment of program benefits
•  gender-based violence
•  women’s participation in decision making at the household,community, and national levels

Despite the compelling evidence on persistent gender inequalities, conventional M&E systems fail to address gender differences. This note discusses the limitations of M&E systems in understanding gender inequalities and presents guidelines for developing a gender-responsive M&E system – a so-called GMES.

The first step is the formulation of a national gender action plan or gender-responsive M&E strategy. Gender objectives are defined at the global, national, sectoral, and project levels.

A gender framework, often expressed in a theory of change, is then articulated to explain how the gender objectives will be achieved. Measurable indicators are defined for each level and translated into a gender-responsive results framework.

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