Synopsis Providing equal rights and access to resources and opportunities to women and girls is crucial to reducing poverty. Achieving gender equality requires a focus on both men's and women's roles. It is a strategy for making the concerns and experiences of women as well as of men an integral part of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes in all political, economic and societal spheres so that women and men benefit equally, and inequality is not perpetuated. The policy acknowledges that the goals and priorities for tackling gender equity will vary from country to country and should be sensitive to the specific needs and priorities of developing country partners.