Providing Recommendations on Best Practices in GESI Mainstreaming Tactics Across the FCDO Nepal Portfolio
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has commissioned ASI to conduct a full review of gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) mainstreaming within its diverse portfolio of Nepali programmes with the aim of understanding both the extent to which GESI is (or is not) mainstreamed and, critically, the impact of various tactics on inclusion and empowerment. This research is being commissioned on the 25th anniversary of UN Member States endorsing gender mainstreaming as a crucial approach in achieving gender equality. Mainstreaming remains vitally important today and this research represents an important opportunity to reflect on how well GESI mainstreaming is working and how effectively it is translating into real outcomes.
The Project/what we are doing about this challenge:
The research project bridges academic rigour with a practical, utilisation focus drawing on local expertise and global best practice to ensure robust, actionable findings and recommendations. The team will dig into mainstreaming tactics and outcomes across UK-funded projects in broad range of sectors including governance, PFM, economic inclusion, education and many others. The scope for learning through this research is all the greater because the British Embassy Kathmandu’s approach to GESI mainstreaming has been not only to support compliance but to extend ambitions through a clear and structured approach. This research is therefore an opportunity to capture the value of this work and draw lessons from it. It is also timely given the review of the embassy’s portfolio and the changes this will inform. The findings of this research will help provide important information about the strengths and weaknesses of current mainstreaming approaches, the resources these approaches require and which ones might be of greatest value going forward. It will also contribute to global best practice in GESI.
What the project has achieved so far / intends to achieve:
- Review of BEK portfolio of live programmes to identify GESI tactics and evidence of (or lack thereof) outcomes
- Review of global best practices in sub-sector GESI tactics and assessment of relevance to BEK portfolio programmes
Recommendations for BEK GESI approach, programme-level tactics and contribution to global evidence base on GESI mainstreaming and FCDO practice more widely
