15 January 2018: Gold Standard, a certification body for climate action, has released a framework to assess contributions of climate action to SDG 5 (Gender Equality) that enables developers and funders of climate projects to maximize contributions to empowering women and girls.

The Framework lays out gender-sensitive requirements and guidelines to ensure that gender equality is a core feature of project design, assess gender impacts, and incentive projects that pro-actively address gender gaps. The framework will enable developers to access funding from a growing number of “gender-lens” investors by quantifying and certifying gender impacts based on best practices.

The Framework’s guidelines address key steps and tools to ensure gender equality in project design and implementation, including: consultations; safeguards assessments; gender baseline analysis; and measurement of progress towards goals. It also provides examples of possible gender targets, such as: increasing girls’ school enrollment and graduation rates; increasing income generation opportunities for women and equal pay; or improved access to financial mechanisms for women.

The Gender Equality Framework becomes part of the ‘Gold Standard for the Global Goals,’ a certification standard that aims to ensure that climate action projects also contribute to the SDGs. Gold Standard is a certification body established by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and other NGOs in 2003 to catalyze more ambitious action for climate security and sustainable development. [Gold Standard Press Release][Gold Standard Gender Equality Requirements and Guidelines][Gold Standard for the Global Goals]