What is the least you can do to include a gender equality perspective in your project?

Perhaps by now you have some sort of picture of what can be done to take the gender perspective into account in NGO development projects. The promotion of gender equality in development cooperation projects is a long process in which there are many different stages and alternatives. On the other hand this process offers a wealth of opportunities from which every organisation can choose exactly the ones that are appropriate for its resources at any given moment. The key thing is to remember the goal of reducing gender inequality in all development cooperation, while also creating objectives for your own activities that correspond to your actual resources. Not everything can be changed at once and to change peoples’ attitudes especially requires a lot of time and patience. Even so it is important to determine objectives and activities aimed at gender equality, small as well as large!

Perhaps, too, your own organisation has already been engaged in project work that involved a gender equality perspective, at least to some extent. You may have planned a project in cooperation with different groups and noticed differences amongst different partners or beneficiaries in different roles and tasks. Some organisations are already further ahead than others and may well have also conducted gender analyses and taken the significance of gender into account at all stages of their projects.

In any case it is important to review what you have already done in your organisation and benefit from your skills and experience in the future. Including gender equality perspective in a project does not necessarily mean making excessively great efforts but being systematic and analytic in your work. 

The personal attitude of every person working in development cooperation is decisive. If you think gender equality is a human right and an important goal in all walks of life, you will find its inclusion as a theme in development cooperation motivating and interesting. 

Remember, however, that paying attention to the gender perspective in all projects is also obligatory for Finnish NGOs because both Finland and our partner countries are committed in international agreements to promoting human rights and gender equality. The promotion of gender equality is also a fundamental precondition for high-quality and sustainable development cooperation. Development cooperation that does not pay any attention to reducing gender inequalities cannot be recommended. 

Every NGO should start to include a gender perspective in its operations if this has not yet been done. You could start, for example, by deciding that your organisation will fulfill the following minimal requirements as soon as possible: 

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