Gender equality is critical for improving lives both because of its intrinsic value and because it can contribute to improving economic and health outcomes. However, women and girls in low-and middle-income countries continue to fall behind because of societal and structural barriers that limit their education, employment, and health opportunities.
We conduct research and evaluations and provide technical assistance to improve gender equality by working with communities, and development agencies.
Our Work
AIR’s work focuses on strengthening, expanding, and disseminating the global evidence base on how to improve gender equality. This includes generating and synthesizing evidence on the impact, cost-effectiveness, and scalability of women’s groups in India, Nigeria, and Uganda, as well as examining the impact of cash transfers on women’s empowerment in various countries in sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, AIR conducts research and provides technical assistance on girls’ education. Recent examples of work include the following:
Gender, LGBTI, and Persons with Disabilities Assessment (PDF)
Gender Analysis for Bosnia and Herzegovina: 2019 Follow-Up, Final Report (PDF)
Project: Development of a Toolkit to Measure School-related Gender-based Violence
- A research agenda on women’s groups and COVID-19;
- Guidelines to measure women’s empowerment in impact evaluations of women’s groups;
- Guidelines to estimate the cost-effectiveness of women’s groups;
- A mixed-methods cluster-a randomized controlled trial to determine the impact of a gender socialization program in Uganda;
- An evaluation of a men’s engagement program in Nigeria;
- A systematic review on the effects of economic self-help group programs on women’s empowerment; and
- A systematic review on the effects of vocational and business training on women’s labor market outcomes.
In addition to these specific projects, AIR implements a gender-sensitive approach across its international work, which allows it to go beyond measuring women’s empowerment and including analyses on gender relations and social norms. To achieve this objective, AIR has laid out components of a gender-sensitive approach to various steps in the life cycle of research, evaluation, and technical assistance. This includes the use of a gender balanced team, the consideration of gender implications within the research questions, and the design of research, evaluation, and technical assistance in a gender-sensitive manner, including quantitative and qualitative data collection instruments, and gender-focused data analysis.
