The Government of Canada, through the Canadian International Development Agency, signed a letter of adherence to the Inter-American Development Bank’s Gender Mainstreaming Trust Fund with a US$1.1 million contribution in support of women’s rights and gender equality in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Canada joins Norway as donor to the Fund, bringing total contributions to approximately US$4 million. Both countries are leaders in gender-equal development practices around the world and active contributors to the Bank’s Trust Fund program for technical assistance.
Launched in 2005, the Gender Mainstreaming Fund (GMF) aims at supporting gender equality through IDB’s contributions to economic growth and social development of the LAC region. To achieve this goal, the GMF provides technical support and seed grants for gender mainstreaming through IDB’s analytical work, country strategies and financial operations.
The purpose of the GMF is to improve the design and outcomes of development lending, technical assistance and other engagements with regional actors, as well as to leverage more resources for gender-equal development.
GMF-funded projects to date have supported the integration of gender perspectives in country strategies, project design, execution and evaluation. Among other work, the Fund has facilitated the participation of gender consultants to contribute a gender perspective to lending operations in Chile, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru and Uruguay. Strategic analytical work to date includes studies on women’s participation in the informal labor market of Colombia and Costa Rica.