Professional Documents
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We honor Asian Development Bank (ADB)s unsung gender equality heroes. They went the
extra mile to change womens lives through their work in development projects. Anouj
Mehta shares why gender equality matters in his work as a finance professional.
Why do you advocate for gender equality in your work? Why does it
matter to you personally?
I cannot say that I am a gender professional who is well
versed in all technical aspects of gender mainstreaming.
But I can certainly say as a sustainable finance professional
that any project needs to be devised not for building assets
but for delivering services to its end users equitably,
efficiently, effectively and with dignity. In every project we
do, we have very different user needs among different user
segmentswithin a womens group there are subsegments
of working women, older retirees, entrepreneurs,
etc. Their requirements for servicessay transportation,
water supply or health servicesvary based on cultural
norms, regional differences, aspirations, safety concerns,
etc. There is no question that we must devise hard and soft components which
address these concerns, meet the needs, and actively help the most vulnerable
segment meet their aspirations and goals. That's what development should be all
about. Ignoring a likely 50% of project users would be a failure on my part as a finance
professional to make these projects truly sustainable and developmental.
For the first time in 7 years we will be unlikely to meet our 45%- at-
entry gender mainstreaming in operations target in 2016. What is your
view about this?
This is certainly a challenge and needs to be corrected, but it is also an opportunity. I
am very much a fan of a pull, rather than a push strategy. For me the former is all
about making gender inclusion an attractive proposition for a project's business case.
But in that case it needs to take a holistic approach. Developing a business case in
itself for a project is a challenge. I suggest creating 2-3 project business case
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templates which include gender mainstreaming. For instance, linking revenue and
cost models in a water project or an urban transport project to women usage and how
slight changes in gender designs could improve the overall project sustainability. Then
link gender to project sustainability. Where there are additional costs for gender
design, link up with local corporate social responsibility funds which aim for women
empowerment and are looking for project opportunities. Having some specific and
ready models would be a good way to force staff to think on project designs.