§ Mrs. Dunwoodyasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if his Department has made any provisions for the participation of local women in the preparation, implementation or evaluation of aid projects; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Chris PattenYes. ODA staff work on the basis of guidance designed to ensure that the scope for local women to participate in aid-funded projects is fully considered. I will send a copy of this guidance to the hon. Member.
§ Mrs. Dunwoodyasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make it his policy to ensure equal participation of women in all aspects of his Department's aid programme; if he will list the ways in which they are employed; how many women are involved in the programme; what percentage they are of the programme's work force; if he will assess whether the appraisal, monitoring and evaluations of his Department's programme have fully taken women into account; and if he will list the relevant reports and their dates in the Official Report.
§ Mr. Chris PattenIt is our policy to aim at equal opportunities for women's participation in the aid programme. We recognise the importance of taking women fully into account in all aid projects as both agents and beneficiaries of development. We wish to increase the involvement of women's groups in shaping and implementing change in developing countries and to see more women trained under the aid programme.
Figures are not available on the number of local women involved in projects and programmes financed by the aid programme. As a member of the DAC expert group on women and development we are considering how best to devise standard statistics for measuring women's participation. Of the ODA's own staff, 640 (42 per cent.) are women. Women also participate in the aid programme as technical co-operation officers, supplementees, associate professional officers, volunteers serving overseas and consultants. Gender differentiated statistics are available for the first four categories. At the end of 1986, 85 (4.81 per cent.) of technical co-operation officers and supplementees were women. Currently 20 (31 per cent.) of associate professional officers and 508 (48 per cent.) of VSOs are women. Women are also engaged in ODA-funded research. All major projects are assessed for their impact on women. We are currently seeking to improve our appraisal techniques to give fuller consideration to gender and we require evaluation studies to take account of the impact on women. In consultation with other 286W members of the development assistance committee of the OECD we are continuing with further work to improve evaluation in this regard. A list of appraisal, monitoring and evaluation reports could be provided only at disproportionate cost.