It is widely recognized that gender equality is both a development goal in itself and a precondition for the achievement of other development outcomes; it is both a matter of human rights and a matter of development or “smart economics”. Gender equality can enhance economic growth and improve other development outcomes in three ways: (1) increasing women’s access to and control over resources can generate broad productivity gains, (2) improving women’s and girls’ status improves many other development outcomes and (3) crucially, women’s economic gains benefit not only themselves but also the next generation, magnifying the development impact.