United States assessment of gender considerations in AID evaluations in support of phase I of the DAC WID evaluation theme III : WID as a cross-cutting issue in development AID evaluation

project and program evaluations discuss gender issues is assessed in this report, part of an effort by the multi-donor Development Assistance Committee (DAC) to incorporate gender concerns into development activities. The report examines 442 A.I.D. evaluations dated 1/89-3/92, subjecting 152 of these to in-depth analysis on a sectoral basis. Major findings are as follows. (1) While the proportion of A.I.D. evaluations that gather gender-disaggregated data is only 22%, the proportion that discuss gender issues is 50%. (2) The inclusion of gender issues in evaluation scopes of work increases the likelihood that evaluations will include women as team members, gather gender disaggregated data, and discuss gender issues. The explicit inclusion of women as project beneficiaries seems to have a similar effect. These two facts suggest that there are multiple, perhaps serial, causes that influence the quality of evaluations from a gender perspective. (3) Data from the 152 evaluations examined in depth indicate that some projects are yielding positive results for women, although generalizations to A.I.D. as a whole are not possible due to the relatively small number of evaluations in each of the sectors examined (agriculture, health and nutrition, education and training, private enterprise, policy reform and public administration, population, water and sanitation, housing and social infrastructure, and PVO activities). A follow-up study will examine evaluations dated 4/92-3/93.