Female-led aid photographs well, which is part of the problem. It is easy to put a woman at the front of the picture and leave the decisions, and the budget, exactly where they always were.
The real test is duller and harder: who signs off the spending, who sets the priorities, who is accountable when it goes wrong. When the answer to all three is a woman from the affected community, the programme changes shape.
It changes because the priorities change. Safe routes, childcare, discreet distribution, timing that fits a woman’s day — these are not add-ons when women hold the plan. They are the plan.
Do not put me in the photograph. Put me in the decision. Then it is female-led.
Country programme lead
Female-led aid is not a slogan and it is not a picture. It is a transfer of authority — and it is measured not in who appears, but in who decides.
