Each year, since 1994, CODESRIA has organised a Gender Institute which brings together some 12 to 15 researchers for a period of 4 weeks. During their first few years of the Institute, its main objective was to promote gender awareness. The Institute has subsequently been organised around specific themes to promote the strengthening of gender analysis in African social science research. A number of themes such as:

• Gender in Contemporary Labour Markets (2008)
• African Female Elites: Origins, Ideologies, and Practices (2007)
• Gender in the Arts (2006)
• Masculinities in Contemporary Africa (2005)
• Gender in the Economy of Care, (2004)
• Gender, Science and Technology (2003)
• Globalisation , Gender and Trade ( 2002)
• Family, Sexuality and Reproduction in Africa (2000)
• Men and Women in the African Plural Economy (1999)
• Men and Women between the Private and Public Sphere (1998)
• Men, Women and Violence (1997)