Gender Mainstreaming - what is it and what have we learnt?

August 2025

Briefing: This year, the UK government committed to mainstreaming gender equality across the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO) in response to aid cuts announced earlier this year and the announcement that gender equality spending will be one of the areas most at risk of losing funding. This briefing by GADN and Genderflection delves into what gender mainstreaming is and lessons learned that should be taken into account as a new approach to mainstreaming is developed. 

Reflecting on the existing lessons learned from decades of gender mainstreaming cases, it is argued that in order to effectively mainstream gender throughout FCDO in its policy, programming and international influencing, there must be strong political will, visible leadership and strategic prioritisation, transparent objectives, measures and accountability processes, dedicated resources and technical expertise. Crucially, gender mainstreaming will only be successful if the FCDO includes ‘standalone’ gender programming across all its work. ‘Standalone’ gender programming refers to initiatives with gender equality and the rights of women and girls as primary objectives, tackling structural barriers to equality.