On May 29, the Policy & Learning Workgroup convened three experts to discuss USAID’s 2023 Gender Equality & Women’s Empowerment Policy. The Policy, published in June 2023, incorporated recent learnings on how to reduce gender disparities best, promote equity and equality, safeguard the rights of women and girls, and reduce gender-based violence (GBV). This policy update reflects a holistic effort undertaken by experts inside and outside of the Agency who are dedicated to promoting gender equality and women’s rights and mainstreaming gender policy throughout all of USAID’s work.
The discussion started with one such expert: Diana Santillan, a leading technical expert in gender and the Principal Advisor for Gender Equity and Inclusive Practices at EnCompass, who provided an overview of the Agency’s policy, including major updates and changes. Diana brought inside expertise as she contributed to the original 2020 policy as well as the 2023 updates that informed the event’s discussion.
USAID’s 2023 Gender Equality & Women’s Empowerment Policy has four key policy objectives:
- Reduce gender disparities in who accesses, controls, and benefits from economic, social, political, legal, educational, health, and cultural resources, as well as wealth, opportunities, and services.
- Strive to eliminate GBV and mitigate its harmful effects on individuals and communities, so all people can live free from violence.
- Increase the capability of women and girls to fully exercise their rights, determine their life outcomes, assume leadership roles, and influence decision-making in households, communities, and societies.
- Advance structural changes that address the root causes of gender inequality and promote equitable gender norms.
The first three of these objectives remained unchanged from the original 2020 policy, while the fourth represented a recognition of structural changes needed and that addressing the deep roots of inequality is key to driving lasting improvement.
Along with adding a fourth policy objective, the 2023 updates also included several policy changes, including recognition of gender equality as a human right, improvements to the inclusivity of the policy’s and Agency’s language, a focus on accountability, and a commitment to placing locally-driven and transformative approaches to the forefront.
The 2023 policy also confirmed that, in addition to the strategy and project level, gender analyses are required at the activity level (pursuant to the Women’s Economic Empowerment Act). The policy also outlines a timeline for adoption and renewal of Gender Mission Orders (within a year and every five years, respectively), a commensurate gender Standard Operating Procedures for Washington bureaus (new), and updates to USAID’s Gender 101 e-learning course (required for all Agency staff and recommended for Implementing Partners).
Diana then walked participants through the seven guiding principles for the 2023 Gender Equality & Women’s Policy:
- Integrated: If we are going to have greater equity, work needs to work across sectors, not just sector-specific. This requires integration across sectors.
- Intersectionality: Recognition that we live intersectional lives and the power and privilege attached to these intersectional identities. How does gender intersect with these other inequalities? What differences make a difference?
- Transformative: All people have the potential to realize their full potential regardless of gender identity
- Locally Led: USAID continues to put into practice its commitment to localization, placing local actors and organizations in the lead
- Collaborative: Foster more flexible and creative approaches to engage new and diverse partners to advance gender equality
- Accountable: Everyone, especially everyone within USAID and implementing partners (IPs), is accountable for advancing gender equality, not just Gender Advisors
- Do No Harm: Make sure to mitigate unintended consequences of our programming. This emphasizes the importance of conducting gender analyses to identify and help mitigate these risks
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Following Diana’s presentation, Tessie Kuhe, the former Gender and Inclusive Development Advisor for USAID/Nigeria, spoke about the importance of gender analyses at the activity level and Caroline Ferraz Ignacio, the Gender and Inclusive Development Advisor for USAID/Colombia, gave a deep dive into the importance of intersectionality.
Tessie shared that, despite the importance of gender analyses as a development practice, they had not been sufficiently emphasized at all levels of USAID’s design, procurement, and implementation process. The absence of a requirement for a gender analysis at the activity level led to a disconnect between the strategy and implementation efforts, especially since gender analyses were usually unfunded and conducted post-award. This was addressed by requiring analyses at the activity level and providing clarity around the goals for conducting one. By analyzing at the design stage, procurement officers can integrate findings and recommendations into the statement of work, indicators, etc. With the benefit of early gender analyses, Missions can pivot adaptively and maximize their impact and reach despite serious time constraints on staff time. This further allows programming to follow a gender analysis as opposed to the other way around.
Despite the ability for adaptive pivots, Mission staff remain stretched thin. The updated policy provides new solutions and tools to address these serious constraints. For example, Mission gender advisors have developed abridged guidance and resources to conduct these analyses and merge them as a step in the procurement process. Gender Advisors as well as general Mission staff have received training to support this practice. Additionally, Missions have given IPs latitude to conduct supplementary gender analyses post-award to address any gaps from the design-level analyses.
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To demonstrate the integration of gender analysis and centering intersectional identities, Caroline provided an example of her work at the USAID/Colombia Mission that recognized the needs of the Afro-Colombian and indigenous populations in Colombia and the higher rate of GBV they face. This involved identifying the most common type of GBV they face as psychological, an often invisible form of violence that has been normalized in many of these populations. By conducting an early gender analysis, Caroline and her colleagues developed a specific strategy for these communities and the intersection between gender and ethnicity. The analysis also found that men and boys may feel attacked and targeted by traditional programming instead of joining as allies.
With the results from the study, the team adopted an anti-racist approach combined with a gender transformative approach to address the structural root causes and unequal power relations in an intentional, active, participatory, and culturally relevant way. In addition to the gender analysis, the Mission adopted an extensive co-creation process that engaged local feminist organizations and provided them with technical training to develop their own movements.
By starting a gender analysis and prioritizing localization, this project was able to execute and iterate on successful projects while learning along the way. They identified a handful of best practices that can inform work going forward:
- Use incentives beyond gender equity
- Arrange logistics and schedules around participants' needs
- Integrate context-relevant content
- Consider how to engage youth as leaders
- Recognize participant worries, needs, and problems
- Engage charismatic, competent, and dedicated facilitators
Overall, intersectionality allowed for critical thinking about structures of power that allowed men to see how unequal power dynamics are harmful to everyone. By incorporating an anti-racist approach, men were more willing to join the conversation on racism than sexism, which opened the door to talk about broader power dynamics. Implementers also made sure to demonstrate how this work would protect the culture and ancestral knowledge of their community. This strategy contributed to the fight for social justice and gender and racial equity in the region.
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Thank you to everyone who was able to join this event and thank you to everyone interested in reading this summary to learn more about USAID’s 2023 Gender Equality & Women’s Empowerment Policy and how you can get more involved in advancing gender equality in your work and around the world.
A special thank you to our speakers, Diana Santillan, Tessie Kuhe, and Caroline Ferraz Ignacio for their time and thoughtfulness, to SID-US Policy & Learning Workgroup co-chairs Amy Johnson and Lindsey Moore for their efforts to coordinate this event, and Workgroup Associate Sam Alhadeff for his support.
If you would like to learn more about USAID’s Gender Policy, the Agency has very detailed and useful resources. To engage further with the SID-US Policy & Learning Workgroup, you can sign up for our emails and join us on LinkedIn.