Gendered Effects of European Union Development Programmes on Women’s Economic Empowerment in Plateau State

This study empirically investigates the gendered effects of European Union development programmes on women's economic empowerment in Plateau State, North-Central Nigeria, examining whether EU gender mainstreaming commitments have produced measurable differences in women's economic participation and resource control among programme beneficiaries. The EU's Gender Action Plan III (2021-2025) commits EU development programmes to explicit gender equality targets, and Plateau State provides a geographically and culturally complex context for testing these commitments in a multiethnic, predominantly rural environment. This analytical study employs a quasi-experimental design, comparing economic empowerment outcomes between beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries of EU-funded programmes across matched communities in five local government areas of Plateau State. Survey data on women's income, asset ownership, decision-making participation, and market access is complemented by qualitative focus group discussions. Secondary analysis of EU programme gender marker data and beneficiary tracking reports provides contextual framing. The study tests whether programme gender mainstreaming approaches, specifically whether programmes with explicit gender targets outperform those with general beneficiary profiles on women's economic empowerment indicators. Findings are expected to fill a literature gap on the empirical effectiveness of EU gender mainstreaming in Jos Plateau environments and to generate evidence for improving programme gender integration. Keywords: EU gender mainstreaming, women's economic empowerment, Plateau State, Gender Action Plan, quasi-experimental.