The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) established the practice of indicator-based governance in international development. Yet, knowledge about their effectiveness in re-steering domestic policy remains limited. This chapter explores the extent and pathways of domestic policy adjustment to MDG 3, intended to promote gender equality. The study combines a comprehensive mapping of gender policy adoption in 15 Sub-Saharan African countries over 15 years with two case studies of the causal mechanisms of MDG adjustment in Kenya and Ethiopia. The principal findings are threefold: (1) there was considerable policy adjustment to MDG 3 across countries, pointing to the effectiveness of GPI-based development governance in re-steering policy priorities. (2) Despite the significant effects on policy goal-setting, further implementation remained limited, suggesting superficial behavioral change. (3) Process-tracing of the Kenyan and Ethiopian policy processes shows that behavioral change was primarily driven by the causal mechanisms of aid conditionality, social influence, and civil-society mobilization, all enabled through MDG intense performance monitoring. The decisive role of incentive-based mechanisms in generating policy change, and the limited elite socialization, explains why MDG 3 implementation was slow and contested. These findings have implications for debates about development GPIs and gender equality change and the reproduction of global power structures.