This publication is intended to inform IFAD-supported project management units (PMUs), other donors and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in Eastern and Southern Africa about IFAD’s Gender Strengthening Programme in the region. The programme is currently in the process of identifying challenges faced by projects, emphasizing empirical findings from field diagnostic studies. These findings, coupled with local knowledge and the experience of PMUs, will be fed back into sub regional workshops, during which recommendations for improvement and suitable strategies will be identified and discussed by project staff. The programme will lead to the implementation of pilot activities that will test new approaches for gender mainstreaming in IFAD supported projects. The pilot activities will be monitored closely in order that both IFAD staff and PMUs can draw lessons of experience that will enable them to contribute to improving the design of future IFAD-supported projects.