SDG 5 – Gender equality

KfW promotes gender equality worldwide

Inequality between men and women is still deeply embedded in societies. While progress has been made, disasters and crises such as climate change, pandemics or armed conflicts such as the war in Ukraine continue to set back the goals that have been achieved and pose new challenges to gender equality commitments. None of the 18 SDG 5 indicators have been achieved or nearly achieved to date, with only around 15% of them "on track". Whether it is a question of access to decent work, gender-specific differences in employment and pay, access to digital and other future technologies, basic economic protections or access to political and economic decision-making structures – women are generally worse off.

Amplified by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic or patriarchal regimes, many women and girls experience limited access to healthcare services and education. The same applies to financial services. As a result, women often lack opportunities to earn a living independently and they remain dependent on their family or are exploited. If young women marry early and fall pregnant, they lack the time for education and employment. Violence against women also rises - and not only in armed conflicts. Women's knowledge and experience, e. g. with regard to the impacts of climate change or biodiversity, are often ignored. In addition, discriminatory laws exclude women from societal decisions, political participation and from land and inheritance rights. Women spend three times as much time as men looking after children or other people in need of care and doing (unpaid) housework, which leads to time poverty as well as lower income and consequently lower pension payments.

All this, while gender equality between women and men is a human right. It is a prerequisite for sustainable development and contributes to significantly improving quality of life for all people. A fair and inclusive society, a sustainable and successful economy and a forward-looking approach to the environment can only be attained if women and girls are included. The empowerment of women also has a multiplier effect: while women spend about 90% of their income on the health, education and nutrition of their families, men spend only about 30 - 40%.

The advancement of gender equality and strengthening of women’s rights are therefore a priority for international and German development policy and a core aspect of the 2030 Agenda. With the new legislative period, the BMZ is committed to a feminist development policy with the goal of realising human rights and the equal participation of all people in social, political and economic life – regardless of gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, skin colour, disability or other characteristics. To this end, a new strategy was presented in March 2023 that emphasises intersectionality, partner orientation, participation and the postcolonial, anti-racist understanding of German development policy. The "3 Rs" were identified as central areas of intervention:

Recognition of the Rights of women and marginalised groups.
Improved access to Resources
Representation as the key to equal participation

While SDG 5 focuses exclusively on gender equality and empowering women, another 45 sub-goals and 54 indicators include gender equality as a key factor for the overall sustainability agenda.

Through its projects, KfW is working to advance gender equality and empower women around the world, thereby helping to implement the 2030 Agenda.

For KfW, the promotion of gender equality is a crosscutting topic in all sectors. In all projects, KfW takes care to consider the opportunities and risks with regard to gender equality in every project step – from planning, project design and implementation to the operational phase and ex post evaluation. It is about doing justice to the varying circumstances, interests and potentials of women, men and LGBTIQ+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual and Intersex) people. In projects to promote income and employment, for example, business models and infrastructure are designed to address the gender-specific potential and challenges of both male and female entrepreneurs and trainees, e.g. in a vocational training center in Senegal. In projects in the transportation sector, such as public transport, gender-specific needs are taken into account – for example through women-only carriages in the Mumbai metro co-financed by KfW – and inequalities mitigated where possible.

In many countries, women have fewer opportunities than men to take part in societal debates, gain access to resources and make self-determined decisions for themselves or their family. This is why KfW provides targeted support to enable women’s participation and to empower women. In the area of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), for example, it supports projects for self-determined family planning in Côte d'Ivoire and HIV prevention in South Africa on behalf of the BMZ. Almost half of married women worldwide have no decision-making power over their sexual and reproductive health and rights. Access to sexuality education and information, contraceptives and health services that enable professional care as well as safe pregnancies and births is what enables women and girls to make self-determined decisions about their lives in the first place. In addition, equal access to education in particular lays the foundation for women and girls to develop their skills and lead an economically independent life. On behalf of the BMZ, KfW therefore supports scholarship programs such as "Wings-to-Fly" in Kenya, which enable girls in particular to complete school and receive vocational training.

Women are less likely than men to have access to financial services and have less basic financial education. If women have their own bank accounts and can access credit more easily, they can set up companies, offer services or invest in education. This enables them to earn an income of their own and achieve greater financial independence. KfW therefore supports funds in the area of gender lens investing, among others. The funds of the non-profit organisation Women's World Banking (WWB), for example, improve access to financial services for women and at the same time increase their share of employment in financial institutions.

With the Agenda 2030, the global community has set out to overcome all forms of gender-based violence in the public and private sphere. Nevertheless, it is estimated that one in three women suffer physical or sexualised violence at least once in their lives, 200 million girls and women are affected by female genital mutilation (FGM), and one in five women is now married before her 18th birthday. The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrably increased gender-based violence; an additional 10 million forced marriages of underage girls alone are expected by 2030.

KfW is committed to ending such practices and combating violence against women. It also supports projects that offer professional help to survivors of gender-based violence and thus contribute to breaking the spiral of violence, e.g. in Ethiopia, which is suffering from civil war.

In 2023, many projects of KfW Development Bank contributed to achieving SDG 5. With more than EUR 414 million, gender equality was strengthened as the main goal. In addition, numerous projects with a total financial volume of over EUR 5.7 billion promoted gender equality as an important secondary goal. Within the framework of the feminist development policy, more than 90% of the BMZ's newly committed project funds are to be allocated to projects that contribute to gender equality by 2025.

KfW thus supports its partners in strengthening gender equality and advancing the rights of women in partner countries.

“We need perspective on gender”

Interview with Dr Ursula Schäfer-Preuss, Deputy Chair of UN Women Germany and former Director General at the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) on discrimination against women worldwide and why feminist development policy is the right answer.

Portrait von Vorstandsmitglied der KfW Christiane Laibach

Aids Prevention in South Africa

Women and girls in South Africa are disproportionately affected by HIV, partly due to economic and socio-cultural structures that disadvantage women and often expose them to sexualised violence. Many of them are no longer prepared to accept this and are taking their lives into their own hands. The "Bumb'Ingomso" programme supports them in this.

Financial Inclusion

Finance is not just for men

When education offers wings to fly

Laying the foundation for reconciliation

For more gender equality – designing gender-sensitive social protection systems

Women in KfW projects

Whether as an employee in the laboratory of a Georgian sewage treatment plant, a teacher in a newly built school in Maputo, a scholarship holder in a Kenyan secondary school or an entrepreneur who uses a loan to set up a confectionery company and creates jobs - in the picture gallery you will get to know very different women who all benefit from KfW projects.