In 2007, the then Minister for Foreign Affairs Alexander Downer claimed that gender equality was “fundamental” in Australian aid’s efforts to lift people out of poverty. In 2023, Pat Conroy, the Minister for International Development and the Pacific, wrote that he was “proud that, as a partner”, Australia was prioritising gender  in its development work. In between, senior politicians such as Julie Bishop and Julia Gillard emphasised the importance of gender equality for Australian aid. Gender has, nominally at least, been central to Australian aid for more than 15 years.

Despite this, until recently it has been hard to build an accurate, quantitative picture of the types of places and projects that Australia focuses its gender equality aid on. It has also been hard to get a sense of the outcomes that Australian aid projects have for women.