Mid-term review of the support to gender equality within the Swedish strategy for development cooperation with Afghanistan

The purpose of this mid-term review is to inform Sida’s in-depth strategy report and to serve as an input to the Afghanistan Unit’s development of a basis for a new strategy proposal after 2024. The assignment will focus on summarizing and reviewing the results that Sida has contributed to as well as lessons learned and best practises, after the Taliban takeover in August 2021 with regard to gender equality and protection of women’s and girls’ rights within all objective areas in the strategy 2022-2024.

The objective of this mid-term review (MTR) is to is to assess the relevance and effectiveness of Sida’s support in regard to gender equality and protection of women’s and girls’ rights within all objective areas in the strategy 2022-2024. The results, lessons learned and best practises will inform Sida’s in depth strategy report that will be developed during autumn 2023 and a proposal for a new strategy after 2024. Considering the extremely challenging context for women and girls in Afghanistan, where the concept ‘gender apartheid’ is increasingly used , and the specific focus on gender equality and protection of women’s and girls’ rights within all objective areas in the strategy 2022-2024, there is a need for Sida to understand better how and what types of interventions within all strategy objective areas that could contribute to changes related to the expected results of gender equality and protection of women’s and girls’ rights in the strategy. There is a need to summarise and review the results related to gender equality and protection of women’s and girls’ rights that have been possible to achieve, as well as lessons learned and best practices, since the Taliban takeover in August 2021 and the subsequent deteriorations in the context.