The inaugural meeting of the global Community of Practice (CoP) of Finance Ministers on Gender Equality was held at the 2014 Spring Meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington, DC. The first meeting of the CoP brought together Finance Ministers from Jamaica, Mauritania, Morocco, Nigeria, Romania, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Timor-Leste to address financing for gender results. During this meeting, the CoP members agreed to convene every six months to share good practices and knowledge, promote learning and work together to develop a set of indicators to monitor progress on financing for gender equality.
At the second meeting of the CoP, inputs were made by the Minsters of Finance of Bangladesh, Mauritania, Nigeria, Jamaica and Romania and the UK DfID. The UN Women ED opened the meeting with reflection on the report of the open working group and the proposed goal on “achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls”. Ministers then presented GRB country experiences noting the need for more discussion on what works and what doesn’t; and the importance of looking beyond increasing budgets for Gender Equality and Women's Rights and focusing on outcomes and impact.
The CoP members stressed the need to focus on results and raised the issue of the envisaged outcome of the CoP. Nigeria proposed a Charter outlining working modalities for the CoP. The Charter was adopted. In closing, Nigeria called for greater support of World Bank Country Directors and encouraged the use of instruments like the P4R (Performance for Results). UN women ED offered support of UN Women country teams to strengthen collaboration with the World Bank and Finance Ministries at country level. Summary report of the meeting can be found here.
The primary objectives of the CoP include promoting investment for gender results, making national budgets more effective in supporting women’s and girl’s opportunities by working through national budget processes and other finance ministry operations. The CoP aims to promote learning and cross-fertilization through the sharing of innovative approaches spearheaded by Ministries of Finance.
More information on the CoP can be found on the World Bank site.