IDB Gender Mainstreaming Action Plan: March 2003-June 2005

The IDB Gender Mainstreaming Action Plan: March 2003-June 2005, seeks to reactivate efforts and generate new energy around the advances achieved to date since the approval of the IDB's Women in Development Policy in 1987. The Plan builds on accumulated experience indicating that promoting gender equality and investing in women's capabilities are fundamental for improving the impact of development interventions in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Gender Mainstreaming Action Plan aims to facilitate greater attention to gender as a crosscutting issue in all areas of Bank activity. The Action Plan builds on progress made to date, including both on-going and new activities that support gender mainstreaming. It prioritizes the following action areas: 1) Incorporating gender analysis and actions throughout the IDB project cycle; 2) Improving the availability and quality of technical support and analysis for gender mainstreaming; 3) Mainstreaming WID/gender flagship themes and integrating gender into new areas of Bank innovation; and 4) Strengthening the institutional mechanisms for creating accountability, achieving and monitoring results. Investing in women, in their access to information, resources, opportunities and spheres of political decision making, contributes to poverty reduction, economic growth and good governance at the local and national levels.