Ensuring that men and women benefit equally from project interventions requires an assessment of gender dynamics: in the division of labor and roles; in power relations; in access to and control over resources, and of the different practical needs and constraints of men and women in any given context. This paper focuses on the critical factors that need to be considered in the efforts to mainstream gender into a cluster development project, with the overall purpose of guiding cluster development practitioners to carry out gender-responsive interventions.