This guidance note outlines how sector agencies in South Asia can develop gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) strategies, highlights their key elements, and shows how to effectively integrate them into projects and policies. Explaining how GESI strategies can help sector agencies tackle the barriers women and vulnerable groups face, it offers tips on how to adopt participatory processes to help develop and implement inclusive frameworks. It explains why sector agencies need to adapt strategies to their local norms and practices, allocate budgets, and adopt institutional policies to ensure GESI is effectively mainstreamed into organizations.

This gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) framework the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) operations in South Asia serves as a guide for effectively fulfilling GESI-related mandates as outlined in ADB’s Strategy 2030. Developed through an extensive 2-year consultative process from 2020 to 2022, the GESI framework highlights the various dimensions of exclusion and vulnerability, including their intersections with gender inequality and each another. By adopting an intersectionality lens, the GESI framework spotlights the diverse experiences of women and disadvantaged groups, recognizing that the impacts of gender inequality and social exclusion vary based on intersecting identities. The GESI framework promotes context-sensitive and integrated actions to advance GESI goals.

This guidance note aims to enhance the quality of poverty and social analysis for the design of country partnership strategies and programs in South Asia. The guidance note outlines approaches for conducting Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) analysis at the country, sector, and project levels to determine the GESI elements within ADB's country partnership strategies and projects in South Asia. It emphasizes the need to enhance the analysis of intersectional dimensions of exclusion and vulnerability experienced by individuals with intersecting disadvantaged identities.

This framework outlines how to integrate gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) into ADB's operations in South Asia to help close the gender gap, combat exclusion, and bolster equitable economic growth. It highlights the experience of women and disadvantaged groups and assesses the impact of pervasive gender inequality and social exclusion. It includes practical guides and tools that can be integrated throughout project design and implementation. It underscores the need to improve data collection showing how women and vulnerable groups are excluded and increase financial and technical support to better target inclusive and sustainable development.

This publication presents a gender equality and social inclusion (GeSi) analysis of six priority sectors in Nepal: agriculture and natural resources management, energy, skills development, urban development, transport and water, and sanitation and hygiene. The publication identifies practical ways in which gender equality, social inclusion, and women’s empowerment approaches can be integrated into each of these sectors. The diagnostic aims to inform the GeSi initiatives of the Government of Nepal, the Asian development Bank, and other development partners of the country.

ADB's South Asia Department conducted a study to assess the status and responses to the needs of disadvantaged groups in its member countries and identify entry points for greater gender equality and social inclusion impacts in its operations. This publication presents the results, providing an analysis of nine dimensions of exclusion and vulnerability- gender inequality; old age, disability, social identity, diverse sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics; geographic location; income poverty; young age; and migrant status-and how these dimensions overlap in the lives of people with intersecting disadvantaged identities. Drawing from the good practices of governments, civil society organizations, and ADB-financed projects in South Asia, the publication provides SARD a 10-point guide for designing and operationalizing programs for gender equality and social inclusion.

In March 2012, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) held the Subregional Workshop on Gender and Urban Poverty in South Asia to share experiences and enhance lateral learning among ADB and its project partners on addressing gender and social inclusion issues in urban development projects in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. Participants included senior government officials, nongovernment organizations, community-based organizations, researchers, ADB urban and gender specialists, and representatives of international development agencies.This report presents the synthesis of knowledge, experiences, good practices, and recommendations shared at the forum with the aim of assisting ADB and its partner agencies in the planning of urban development projects to facilitate gender- and socially inclusive outcomes and reduce poverty in South Asia.

This collection adds fresh perspectives to the current policy and programming initiatives concerning woman teachers in South Asia. It discusses the issues related to the lives and experiences of woman teachers in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India, Nepal and Bangladesh, providing a common framework for the analysis of the policies and programmes with and for them, in relation to their lived experiences as women in diverse families, communities and societies of the region. It promotes critical discussion of the potential and agency of woman teachers to create change in schools and in society, dwelling on the structural limitations that exist for women working within patriarchal institutions in male-dominated societies. Women Teaching in South Asia argues for a broader gender equality and empowerment perspective when working with woman teachers and for developing policy and programmes. The chapters demonstrate the need for explicit attention to ‘gender’ in the power dynamics between women and men, in the roles they play and in the tasks they perform in schools. This compilation is a valuable contribution with recommendations for future policy, programme and research project development to bridge the gender divide and make sustainable progress towards Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Education for All (EFA). It will be a rich resource for ministries of education, NGOs and other agencies supporting educational development, as well as for researchers and academicians working in the fields of Education and Gender Studies.

An edited volume on factors determining success or failure of energy technology innovation, for researchers and policy makers.