Gender concerns have come to be a pivotal element of IFAD's poverty-alleviation strategy and agenda, for several reasons:

• Across IFAD-assisted projects, women have proved to be a driving force in achieving project effectiveness and reducing poverty.
• Women are key to addressing the household food security and nutrition goals that are central to IFAD's mandate.
• Women play a major role in agricultural and livestock development. In order to succeed, projects intending to increase agricultural productivity must ensure that the distinct needs, labour constraints, knowledge and decision-making roles of women and of men are analysed and addressed.
• Improvement in the socio-economic status, health and education of women has an immediate and lasting impact on the well-being of the entire family.
• Development initiatives can have adverse consequences for women when gender specificities are not taken into account.
• IFAD is committed to playing a transformative role by promoting equal opportunities for men and women.

Across all geographical regions, women play a focal (although often unrecognized) role in the survival strategies and economy of poor rural households. Increasing the economic resilience of the poor is largely about enabling women to realize their socio-economic potential more fully and improve the quality of their lives. To do so, women need access to assets, services, knowledge and technologies, and must be active in decision-making processes. Greater gender equity means that women are able to express their potential, to the benefit of the entire household and community.

At the same time, evaluations have shown that if gender specificities are not taken into account projects may increase women's workload, thus affecting their caregiving responsibilities and health. Projects may also negatively affect women's control over resources and technologies. Thus gender analysis in design and gender-sensitive monitoring and evaluation (M&E) are needed to identify risks and recommend preventive measures. In addition, variations by gender in roles, relations and the control of assets within a region - and within a country - can be significant. Approaches that have succeeded in one place may not be applicable in another. IFAD recognizes that specific mainstreaming strategies need to be developed to suit different project contexts.

From: "Gender Perspective - Focus on the Rural Poor: An overview of gender issues in IFAD-assisted projects" IFAD, Rome 2000

Rural Women in IFAD Projects: The Key to Poverty Alleviation | Household Food Security and Gender Memory Checks | An IFAD Approach to Gender Mainstreaming: The Experience of Latin America and the Caribbean | IFAD's Gender Strengthening Programme in Eastern and Southern Africa