Home > Data > Focus on Gender equality >

Which countries support gender equality in their Official Development Assistance?

Published 24 March 2024 in Facts and figures , Updated 4 March 2026

In 2015, all countries in the world committed to achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. Among these goals, SDG 5 aims to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls worldwide. However, achieving gender equality requires sufficient investment, especially in the poorest countries.

Official Development Assistance (ODA) from the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) is an important source of funding in this regard. To what extent do DAC member countries take into account the promotion of gender equality in their ODA ? What trend has been observed in recent years ? Analysis.

Gender equality, an issue that remains underfunded by donors

Monitoring of ODA for gender equality is carried out by the OECD DAC, using the aid policy marker in support of gender equality (see box).

Significant objective, principal objective : definitions

As part of the annual reporting of their aid to the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC), DAC members are required to indicate for each project/programme whether it targets gender equality as a policy objective according to a three-point scoring system :

Principal (score 2) : gender equality is the main objective of the project/programme and is fundamental in its design and expected results. The project/programme would not have been undertaken without this gender equality objective.
Significant (score 1) : gender equality is an important and deliberate objective, but not the principal reason for undertaking the project/ programme.
Not targeted (score 0) : the project/programme has been screened against the marker but has not been found to target gender equality.

Source : OECD (2016).

On average between 2023 and 2024, the 32 OECD DAC donor countries and EU institutions committed a yearly average $70.8 billion per year (48.2% of their bilateral allocable ODA), towards gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. Of this amount, $6 billion is targeted at equality as a primary objective (4.1% of bilateral ODA), and $64.9 billion as a significant objective (44.1% of bilateral ODA).

Over the same period, DAC members disbursed an average of $60.7 billion for gender equality, representing 43.8% of their disbursements of disaggregated bilateral ODA, including $6.3 billion in support of projects with this as their primary objective (4.5%) and $54 billion for projects with significant objective (39.3%).

Commitments, disbursements : clarification

In addition to the detailed database, the OECD communicates ODA amounts for gender equality and women’s empowerment expressed as commitments, in order to reflect the intentions of donor countries. As these commitments may be made over several years, their total sum may vary significantly from one year to the next without signifying a change of direction, which is why the OECD communicates on the average of two years.

In terms of volume, the largest ODA donors to gender equality are also the largest donors of total ODA (Germany, Japan, USA, United Kingdom, France).

However, no country has reached the international target of directing at least 85% of its ODA to gender equality, and only the Netherlands and Spain have devoted at least 20% of their ODA to the direct promotion of equality.

Declining commitments to gender equality

ODA commitments to gender equality have been on an upward trajectory. A temporary drop was observed in 2021, a year after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, during which donor countries concentrated their resources on other priorities linked to the health crisis and its economic repercussions. This decrease was reversed in 2022, when the commitments made at the Generation Equality Forum, where international players collectively pledged to mobilize $40 billion for the promotion of gender equality, were taken into account. However, commitments to the direct promotion of equality fell sharply between 2020 and 2022, and the slight upturn in 2023 did not restore the 2019 levels.

However, the widespread decline in funding for international solidarity directly threatens funding for gender equality. Commitments in this area fell by 15% between 2023 and 2024.

After several years of stagnation in disbursements for projects and programs promoting gender equality, a 16% increase was observed between 2023 and 2024.

Is France no longer a champion for the promotion of gender equality in the world?

France ranks 16th among donor countries for gender-focused ODA, allocating 50% of its bilateral aid commitments to gender equality on average in 2023–2024. Of this, 9% ($657 million) targeted gender equality as a principal objective, and 41% ($3.1 billion) as a significant objective.

On August 4, 2021, France enacted a new law to frame its development aid policy : the Programming Law on Solidarity-Based Development and the Fight Against Global Inequalities. This law enshrines gender equality between women and men, and girls and boys, as a cross-cutting objective of French ODA. It stipulates that by 2025, 75% of projects funded by French ODA should have gender equality as either a principal or significant objective (according to the OECD gender marker), with 20% having it as the principal objective. This commitment could translate into €3.3 billion allocated to the direct promotion of gender equality in 2025, a sum five times higher than that dedicated in 2021. However, since 2024, France has implemented massive cuts to its ODA, making this goal appear unattainable today.

While France previously stood out for its level of support for women’s rights organizations and movements and government institutions, an integral part of its feminist diplomacy, the share it allocated to this area decreased significantly between 2022-2023 and 2023-2024. While it spent an average of $105 million in 2022-2023, it spent only $30 million in 2023-2024, a decrease of 71%.