8th March is a symbol: a day that forces us to reflect on the value of diversity but also – unfortunately – on the continuous struggle that many women and girls have to wage in their daily lives to survive in a world that sees them seriously discriminated against only exclusively because they are females.
One day is evidently not enough to reverse the trend, put the rights of women and girls back at the centre, and promote inclusive and peaceful societies. The data tells us how long the path to achieving gender equality still is, which at the current rate could potentially be canceled in 131 years, with peaks of 152 years in North Africa and the Middle East and 189 in East Asia and Pacific.
A daily action is necessary, which permeates the activities of everyone in any area of intervention. And this is the ambition of AICS, which following the strategic guidance of the Guidelines on gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, is engaged in a path to strengthen its capabilities to put women at the center of own action.
These efforts are also contained in the contribution that AICS provides annually for the drafting of the Gender Budget, relating to the 2022 General State Report transmitted to Parliament and published on 11 January. The Gender Budget, analyzing the sectoral policies of the Italian administrations aimed at reducing gender inequalities, highlights that expenses for international development cooperation policies – mainly implemented by AICS – represent 12.5 percent of expenses classified as aimed at reducing gender inequalities. Furthermore, compared to the past, a greater number of projects have been identified which, although not primarily aimed at reducing inequalities (OECD gender marker “principal”), nevertheless have a significant gender target (OECD gender marker “significant”). It is also a source of pride that some elements of the manual “Integrated and environmentally sustainable regeneration of a slum” are relaunched within the Gender Budget, in-depth information on the AICS Gender Glossary and the initiatives carried out by the AICS offices in Tirana, Dakar , Jerusalem and Bogota for the valorization of interventions in the sector.
On the occasion of the International Day of Women’s Rights, the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation, with the commitment of all its foreign offices and branches, reiterates its effort to the fight against gender discrimination and to the promotion of the role and women’s leadership. In the next few days we will therefore give evidence of the activities carried out by the foreign offices: different projects but with a single common denominator.