Gender mainstreaming in international cooperation and development policy

Petra Debusscher

Chapter 16 in Research Handbook on Gender Mainstreaming, 2026, pp 211-223 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Over the past few decades, gender equality has moved to the centre of development policy. Initially focusing on women's exclusion from mainstream development, scholars and practitioners progressively shifted from a Women in Development paradigm to a more transformative Gender and Development paradigm. Gender mainstreaming, championed at the 1995 Beijing Conference, aimed to integrate gender perspectives into all development policies and programs. Although progress has been made, persistent inequalities and rising anti-gender rhetoric show that much urgent work remains. Recent scholarship highlights intersectionality for confronting overlapping disadvantages – such as race, class, disability and sexual orientation – reinforcing one another. Drawing on feminist research, activism and institutional practice, this chapter shows how mainstreaming became a cornerstone of international development cooperation and how it has been applied – and sometimes resisted – in European Union development policy, illustrating both challenges and opportunities in operationalising intersectional gender-transformative agendas in today's increasingly polarised geopolitical climate.

Keywords: Development Cooperation; Gender Mainstreaming; Intersectionality; Aid Policy Programming; Gender and development; European Union (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035353415
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