Evaluation of Feminist Development Policy
The feminist development policy of Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) aims to eliminate structural causes of inequality and promote equal participation by all people, in particular women, girls and marginalised groups. The German Institute for Development Evaluation (DEval) is evaluating the extent to which selected goals of this strategy have been achieved, and identifying what German development policy can learn from these efforts for the future.
The BMZ published its strategy for feminist development policy in 2023. This strategy encompasses five core elements: Feminist development policy should promote human rights (human rights-based approach) and eliminate the structural and systemic causes of inequality (gender-transformative approach). Inequalities should not be viewed as separate from each other, rather the intersections between diverse forms of discrimination must be considered (intersectional approach). The strategy is designed to consider colonial continuities and racist thinking (anti-racist and post-colonial approach), and strives to build strong alliances in the international community and with civil society (broad alliances).
In its strategy, the BMZ defines four action areas: Action Area 1 aims to strengthen feminist rights, resources and representation in German development policy. Action Area 2 aims to anchor a feminist approach across development cooperation projects . Action Area 3 focuses on building international alliances to thereby foster relationships with partner governments as well as multilateral engagement and cooperation with feminist civil society. Finally, Action Area 4 aims to promote further development of the BMZ in this context as an organisation.
In its evaluation of the BMZ's feminist development policy, DEval examines the relevance and coherence of the strategy's conceptualisation and design. DEval furthermore analyses the extent to which the goals in the various strategic action areas have been achieved, including at portfolio, country and multilateral level.
Background
The global contextual conditions for development policy are challenging – both in general and in terms of implementing feminist goals. Obstacles at the (geo)political level are posed by shifting priorities, a rising number of crises and conflicts, anti-gender movements and constrained freedom of action for civil society organisations. Moreover, there have been cuts in public financing for development services, and funding for projects pursuing gender equality is decreasing.
Feminist development policy was a top priority of Germany's 20th legislative period (2021-2025), and remains so in the current legislative period (since 2025). At international level, the BMZ strategy aligns with the feminist foreign strategies of other nations such as France, Colombia, Mexico and Spain.
Objectives
The evaluation serves to fulfil knowledge, learning and accountability functions, and aims to:
- contribute to the evidence base for feminist development policy;
- provide learning impetus for implementing feminist development policy;
- provide evidence for public discourse on feminist development policy;
- promote accountability for implementing approaches and goals of the strategy, and
- implement and further develop a human rights-based evaluation approach in its methodology.
Methods
The theory-based design of the evaluation is supplemented with a human rights-based approach that anchors principles of human rights across the entire evaluation process. Various methods of data collection and analysis are applied and combined together to examine the design and implementation of the strategy. Among these methods are a portfolio analysis, country case studies and a multilateral case study including qualitative analysis of interviews and documents, primary data analyses and human rights context, vulnerability and stakeholder analyses.
Contact
Dr Angela Heucher
Phone: +49 (0)228 336907-938
E-mail: angela.heucher@DEval.org
![[Translate to Englisch:] Portrait Martin Bruder](/fileadmin/_processed_/c/0/csm_Martin_Bruder_2021_web_1__2c05df0ca9.jpg){kind=small}
Dr Martin Bruder
Phone: +49 (0)228 336907-970
E-mail: martin.bruder@DEval.org