Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) and Gender Equality

Sida, the "Gender International Development Cooperation Agency, is a government agency under the Ministry for Foreign Sida’s goal is to contribute to making it possible for poor people to improve their living conditions. Sida works on behalf of Sweden’s Parliament and Government to reduce poverty in the world. Its activities range over many areas. Sida has more than 120 partner countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Sida has in-depth programmes of cooperation with some 50 of these countries.

Not all Swedish ODA is channelled via Sida. Of Sweden’s total budget for development cooperation in 2006, SEK 15,4 billion, or 53 %, was channelled via Sida. Other major Swedish actors in the field of international development cooperation are the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Swedfund.
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<h2>Table of Contents</h2>
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<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#w_sida-and-gender-equality-programmes"><span class="tocnumber">1</span> <span class="toctext">Sida and Gender Equality programmes</span></a>
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<li class="toclevel-2"><a href="#w_strengthening-rights-for-women-and-men-girls-and-boys"><span class="tocnumber">1.1</span> <span class="toctext">Strengthening rights for women and men, girls and boys</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-2"><a href="#w_economic-empowerment"><span class="tocnumber">1.2</span> <span class="toctext">Economic Empowerment</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-2"><a href="#w_political-empowerment"><span class="tocnumber">1.3</span> <span class="toctext">Political Empowerment</span></a></li>
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<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#w_sources"><span class="tocnumber">2</span> <span class="toctext">Sources</span></a></li>
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<h2 id="w_sida-and-gender-equality-programmes">Sida and Gender Equality programmes</h2>
Sida has a specific gender equality policy to ensure that interventions and actions contribute to gender equality, since it is strongly linked to sustainable development and pro-poor growth in any society. This policy is an outcome of the 2002 evaluation of Sida’s support to the promotion of gender equality, together with recommendations from Sida’s departments, Swedish embassies and Swedish civil society organisations.

Key objectives of Sida’s policies and work on gender equality are:
<h3 id="w_strengthening-rights-for-women-and-men-girls-and-boys"><b>Strengthening rights for women and men, girls and boys</b></h3>
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<li>Sida will address different kinds of formal and informal power structures affecting women’s and men’s rights and possibilities to make choices regarding their individual sexual and reproductive lives, such as the right to safe health care, or the right to safe abortions.</li>
<li>Sida will give priority to actions oriented towards openness on men’s and women’s roles and responsibilities towards safer sexual behaviour, including their sexual and reproductive rights, giving priority to young people.</li>
<li>Sida will support actions oriented towards men’s roles and understanding of masculinity as a mean of strengthening a rights perspective on gender equality.</li>
<li>Sida will contribute to and strengthen institutional frameworks such as formal policies, legislation or other systems of norms that stipulate the limits within which individuals and organisations can develop their own capacity to promote gender equality.</li>
<li>In promoting structural stability and in conflict management, Sida will address the specific needs and interests of women and men, girls and boys – for example, by strengthening women’s participation in peace processes or by promoting changes to societal norms on gender-based violence.</li>
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<h3 id="w_economic-empowerment"><b>Economic Empowerment</b></h3>
Sida will work to enhance the inclusion and productivity of women in economic activities and to counteract discriminatory legislation and practices based on sex.
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<li>Sida will contribute to removing barriers to poor women’s equal participation in the economy.</li>
<li>Sida will highlight access to resources – such as land, tenure, credit, financial resources, facilities and information – when promoting balanced power relations and gender equality.</li>
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<h3 id="w_political-empowerment">Political Empowerment</h3>
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<li>Sida supports and promotes equal rights of participation in central political institutions such as parties, parliaments and elections.</li>
<li>Supporting central gender equality institutions such as gender equality ministries can be strategically important for accelerating national processes towards including gender equality in all policy areas.</li>
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<h2 id="w_sources">References</h2>
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<li>http://www.sida.se</li>
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