African Development Bank unveils Gender Marker System Dashboard to strengthen monitoring and implementation of gender mainstreaming in Bank projects

The African Development Bank Group has launched a new digital platform to track progress towards mainstreaming gender equality in its programmes and projects across the continent.

The Gender Marker System Dashboard is the online equivalent of the Bank’s landmark Gender Marker System – which classifies Bank programmes or projects according to the extent to which they address gender equality/women’s empowerment in their objectives, components, and expected results.

The Gender Marker System classifies the design of a Bank sovereign or non-sovereign operation into four categories: GEN I, GEN II, GEN III, GEN IV:

• GEN I: The principal objective of the project directly addresses gender equality and/or women’s empowerment.
• GEN II: Gender equality and/or women’s empowerment is one of the outcomes of the project, but not the principal outcome.
• GEN III: One or more of the project’s outputs relate to gender equality and/or women’s empowerment.
• GEN IV: The project may contain one or more gender-inclusive activities, but these are marginal to its outputs and outcomes.

The new digital Dashboard presents gender-related data organized by sector, region, country, year, and source of financing, while also highlighting where additional human and financial resources are required to meet or exceed gender-based classifications.

The Dashboard will provide Bank staff and consultants with access to gender-related data for developing country strategy papers, mid-term reviews, annual reports, regional integration strategy papers and other Bank documents, as well as for project supervision, and reporting on specific gender-related activities and results.

“This Gender Marker System Dashboard is the latest innovation in how the Bank is investing in Africa’s women to drive inclusive growth, in line with the Ten-Year Strategy 2024-2033,” said Dr Martha Phiri, the Bank’s Acting Director for Gender, Women and Civil Society. “The goal is to accelerate our actions to empower women and close gender disparities, as well as hold ourselves accountable to our commitment to mainstream gender in the work that we do.”

Linked to the Bank’s Systems Applications and Products, or SAP corporate project management system, the Dashboard provides a basis for monitoring the implementation of Gender Action Plans for Bank operations.  A Gender Action Plan spells out specific actions, budget, and responsibilities for mainstreaming gender during implementation of an operation.

The Gender and Women Empowerment Division of the Bank’s Gender, Women and Civil Department led the development of the Dashboard. Prior to its release, data was centralized and manually entered into an electronic spreadsheet. The new interactive platform automates data entry and can be accessed via SAP or through the Bank’s intranet site.

The Gender and Women Empowerment team will update the Gender Marker System Dashboard data every month. These regular updates will enable all staff to understand the impact their work is having on advancing gender equality, while enabling staff to make improved strategic use of Bank gender resources.

“We have seen incredible enthusiasm from staff across the Bank to ensure that our work contributes to creating more inclusive societies and economies. The Gender Marker System Dashboard provides staff with the latest gender-related updates, anywhere, anytime, when they are online,” Acting Director Phiri said.

The Gender Marker System Dashboard will help strengthen the Bank’s efforts to ensure that at least 80 percent of public-sector operations and 50 percent of private-sector operations directly benefit women and girls.

The Bank’s Ten-Year Strategy 2024-2033 identifies gender as a priority cross-cutting theme to drive Africa’s transformation.