Although important advances have been recorded from the celebration of the First International Conference on Women (Mexico 1975), women, especially those belonging to marginal and extreme poverty groups, suffer from backward conditions, impediments to the free exercise of their rights and limitations in their capacity to develop. It is these factors that call for the implementation of concrete actions to revert such conditions and guarantee women’s development, and with theirs, that of their societies.

It is therefore of vital importance that national and international organizations and civil society organizations dedicated to women’s empowerment and gender equality, be closely involved in the research, participation in negotiations and follow-up of the execution of development-related international agreements. In this regard, two tasks are urgently required: 1) the integration of the principles and actions of the gender-related agreements (Cairo, Beijing) in financing for development-related processes, and 2) the follow-up of the advances in the execution of the agreements, from a gender perspective.

In order to facilitate the execution of these tasks, INSTRAW promotes analyses on the agreements and actions surrounding financing for development, from a gender perspective. Following is a brief review of the contents of such agreements, the advances made in their implementation stages, and of the most important areas needed to guarantee gender equality in the different stages of the financing for development process.