A new brief “Redefining ‘business as usual’ with a gender lens: Designing an implementing gender-sensitive climate services projects for funders and implementers” has just been published by the UKAID programme Weather and Climate Information Services for Africa. The brief was written by Katharine Vincent. The brief highlights what needs to be done at different stages of the project lifecycle by different actors to integrate gender, and the resources that need to be in place, with illustrations from WISER and a number of different initiatives.

The brief highlights that being gender-blind when designing climate services results in services that do not provide equitable benefits to women and men. To avoid this, gender sensitivity is required at all stages of the project cycle: from needs assessment to intervention design to implementation to monitoring, evaluation and learning. Funders need to acknowledge and action the importance of gender-sensitive design in calls for proposals which could be achieved through adopting Development Assistance Committee (DAC) gender markers. Implementers need to have high-level commitment and be prepared to dedicate adequate resources (time and expertise) to ensure project and programmes are delivered in a gender-sensitive way.