Jointly produced by the UNDP China and the UN Women China with the support of the European Union, this Issue Brief examines how China has made notable progress in advancing Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) within its International Development Cooperation (IDC), including identifying gender equality as a priority area in its contribution to the Agenda for Sustainable Development (2030 Agenda) as outlined in the 2021 White Paper China’s International Development Cooperation in the New Era. 

A range of projects have been implemented in health, education, and women’s economic empowerment, particularly across Southeast Asia and Africa. In 2023, China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA) introduced a new evaluation indicator system, which includes women and children among core impact indicators in its general evaluation process.

Nonetheless, there remains significant opportunity for China to optimize its IDC efforts for greater attainments towards GEWE and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including by strengthening gender intentionality across the project cycle. To ensure greater GEWE and SDG impact, this brief suggests that Chinese IDC decision-makers could strengthen and adopt a more proactive approach to integrate gender perspectives more comprehensively across strategic policy planning and programme design. Mechanisms and tools, including gender markers, could further enhance transparency, enable more targeted investments, and align China’s practices with evolving international best practices and standards. These initiatives would support greater China’s contributions to the SDGs globally, including SDG 5, and help to advance progress towards made through the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA).