Committed to Gender Equality: Gender-transformative programming in practice

This brief – Committed to Gender Equality: Gender-transformative programming in practice – outlines World Vision's approach to advancing gender equality and empowering women and girls. Grounded in a rights-based framework, it addresses systemic barriers such as unequal decision-making, limited access to resources, harmful social norms, and gender-based violence. It demonstrates how achieving sustainable outcomes in health, education, nutrition, and livelihoods depends on tackling these inequalities at individual, community, and system levels.

It highlights five core elements of effective programming: making gender equality a central objective and driver of results; partnering with women and girls to strengthen their agency; fostering enabling environments; transforming harmful norms; and engaging men, boys, and influential leaders. Drawing on global programme examples from seven projects funded by the Government of Canada, the brief shows how integrated, multi-level approaches can shift power dynamics and create lasting, inclusive change for women, girls, and their communities.