Policy Context

Ireland does not have standalone gender equality strategy or feminist foreign policy. The following are top priorities of gender equality for Irish Aid:

• Girls’ education;
• Preventing gender-based violence;
• WEE and support to women farmers;
• Expanding access to sexual and reproductive health and rights;
• Women, peace and security and promoting women’s political leadership; and
• Gender equality and climate action.

According to the OECD Peer Review 2020, Ireland is an international leader on women, peace and security, and fights again GBV in humanitarian settings. Ireland is also the largest contributor of personnel to UN peacekeeping operations as a proportion of its population among all DAC member countries and has an unbroken record of UN peacekeeping service since 1958.

ODA Spending

How much ODA does Ireland allocate to gender equality?

In 2021, Ireland provided US$356 million in gender equality-related funding. This includes US$54 million, or 15% of bilateral allocable ODA in funding for projects with gender equality as a principal objective and US$303 million, or 85% of bilateral allocable ODA) in funding for projects with significant gender equality components. In 2021, gender equality-related funding accounted for 69% of bilateral allocable ODA, significantly higher than the DAC average of 42%.

How is Ireland's gender equality ODA changing?

Ireland’s gender-related ODA decreased between 2017 and 2021, but steadily increased since 2018 largely due to increases in significant funding.

Ireland's principal funding for gender-related ODA fell from 16% in 2017 to 10% in 2021, and significant funding for gender-related ODA also fell from 68% in 2017 to 59% in 2021.

Multilateral Spending

Ireland contributed US$10 million to UNFPA in 2022. Of this, 46%, or US$4.6 million comprised core contributions and 58%, or US$5.8 million was non-core contributions towards UNFPA Emergencies and other programs. In addition, Ireland contributed US$5.5 million to UN Women in 2021, making it the 18^the largest donor country to UN Women.