Attachment_6.D_-_Gender_Equality_and_Female_Empowerment.pdf

GENDER EQUALITY

AND FEMALE

EMPOWERMENT

POLICY

USAID POLICY

MARCH 2012

“Achieving our objectives for global development will demand accelerated efforts to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment. Otherwise, peace and prosperity will have their own glass ceiling.”

Hillary Clinton

JANUARY 2012

USAID

GENDER EQUALITY AND

FEMALE EMPOWERMENT

POLICY

MARCH 2012

WASHINGTON, DC

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Photo credits: Cover (clockwise from top left):West Bank and Gaza Mission:Technical,Vocational and Education Training

Program/USAID;The Hunger Project; Unilever Tea Tanzania, Limited (UTTL); page 5,The Hunger Project; page 18,West

Bank and Gaza Mission:Technical,Vocational and Education Training Program/USAID; page 20, Karen Homer/AWARD.

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USAID Policy on Gender Equality and Female Empowerment Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Message from the Administrator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iv

Executive Summary

1. Introduction

2. A Global Snapshot of Gender Equality and Female Empowerment in 2012

3. USAID’sVision and Goal

4. Outcomes

5. Operational Principles of the Gender Equality and Female Empowerment Policy

6. Organizational Roles and Responsibilities

7. Agency Requirements iii

USAID Policy on Gender Equality and Female Empowerment Message from the Administrator

MESSAGE FROM THE

ADMINISTRATOR

I am pleased to share with you our newly updated policy on Gender Equality and Female Empowerment. Designed to enhance women’s empowerment and reduce gender gaps, the policy affirms the critical role women play in accelerating progress in development and advancing global prosperity and security. As Secretary Clinton has said,“Gender equality is both the right thing to do and the smart thing to do.”

The policy comes at a critical time as global efforts to reduce gender gaps have met only partial success. Across every devel opment priority worldwide—from education to economic inclusion—gender inequality remains a significant challenge.

Building on the Agency’s decades of experience, the new policy provides guidance on pursuing more effective, evidencebased investments in gender equality and female empowerment and incorporating these efforts into our core development pro gramming. Ultimately, this integration is critical to achieving better results in development.

Under this policy, we place a strong emphasis on building high impact partnerships, harnessing the power of innovation and conducting rigorous program evaluation to deliver meaningful results. We will remain focused on protecting women and men from violence and abuse, as well as increasing the participation of women at all levels of decisionmaking, especially during peace processes and postconflict reconstruction. Finally, we must ensure that the composition of our own Agency reflects our principles, creating a work environment that empowers and rewards women and men fully and equitably.

Already, we have established a solid foundation to accelerate progress. We have strengthened requirements to ensure that every strategy and project is shaped by a gender analysis and establishes common indicators for judging our success. Driving this agenda forward, USAID’s Senior Coordinator for Gender

Equality and Women’s Empowerment is working closely with the Senior Gender Advisor in the Bureau for Policy, Planning and Learning, the reinvigorated Office of Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment, and gender advisors in Washington and field missions.

We know that longterm, sustainable development will only be possible when women and men enjoy equal opportunity to rise to their potential. But today, women and girls continue to face disadvantages in every sector in which we work, and—in other cases—boys are falling behind. With this policy, we can ensure our values and commitments are reflected in durable, meaningful results for all. I look forward to working with all of you to ensure an enduring and substantial commitment to gen der equality and female empowerment.

Rajiv Shah March 2012 iv

USAID Policy on Gender Equality and Female Empowerment Executive Summary

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Gender equality and female empowerment are core devel opment objectives, fundamental for the realization of human rights and key to effective and sustainable development out comes. No society can develop successfully without providing equitable opportunities, resources, and life prospects for males and females so that they can shape their own lives and contribute to their families and communities.

Although many gender gaps have narrowed over the past two decades, substantial inequalities remain across all sectors in which USAID works, particularly in lowincome and con flictaffected countries and among disadvantaged groups.

USAID has a long history of supporting programming to increase gender equality. Over the past two years alone, changes to the Automated Directives System (ADS), revised technical competencies required for Foreign Service back stops, new definitions of gender issues for budget attribution, new senior positions devoted exclusively to gender equality and female empowerment, and new common indicators to measure progress in this arena have strengthened the Agency’s ability to address key gender issues and track our progress in doing so. Still, an updated Agency policy on gen der equality and female empowerment is needed to reflect fundamental changes in the world and the evidence that has accumulated since the 1982 Policy Paper on Women in Development was issued. This new policy on Gender Equal ity and Female Empowerment builds on the Agency’s progress to date.

The goal of this policy is to improve the lives of citizens around the world by advancing equality between females and males, and empowering women and girls to participate fully in and benefit from the development of their societies. It will be addressed through integration of gender equality and female empowerment throughout the Agency’s Program Cycle and related processes: in strategic planning, project design and implementation, and monitoring and evaluation.

This integrated approach positions the Agency to address gender gaps and the constraints that hold women back.

Under this policy, USAID investments are aimed at three overarching outcomes. In strategic planning at the country or project level, these outcomes will be adapted and translated into specific results with associated targets and indicators.

These outcomes, which are especially important for people who are marginalized or excluded due to ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, lack of income, disability or other factors, reflect the gamut of activities that USAID undertakes across multiple sectors and fields:

■ Reduce gender disparities in access to, control over and benefit from resources, wealth, opportunities and serv ices economic, social, political, and cultural;

■ Reduce genderbased violence and mitigate its harmful effects on individuals and communities; and

■ Increase capability of women and girls to realize their rights, determine their life outcomes, and influence decisionmaking in households, communities, and soci eties.

Seven guiding principles underpin this policy, reflecting key features of the USAID Policy Framework 20112015 and the parameters of the USAID Forward reform agenda:

■ Integrate gender equality and female empower ment into USAID’s work: This policy will be implemented by integrating approaches and actions to advance gender equality and female empowerment throughout the Agency’s Program Cycle. USAID will also make strategic investments to promote gender equality and female empowerment.

http://www.usaid.gov/policy/USAID_PolicyFramework.PDF

Executive Summary USAID Policy on Gender Equality and Female Empowerment

■ Pursue an inclusive approach to foster equality:

This policy is inclusive of all women and men, girls and boys, regardless of age, sexual orientation, gender iden tity, disability status, religion, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, geographic area, migratory status, forced dis placement or HIV/AIDS status.

■ Build partnerships across a wide range of stake holders: USAID will partner with host governments, civil society, the private sector and other donors to ensure that our efforts are coordinated and non duplicative, build on the skills and initiatives of local actors, and reflect country priorities.

■ Harness science, technology, and innovation to reduce gender gaps and empower women and girls: USAID investments should make bold and imaginative use of new technologies to change dis criminatory social norms and stereotypes, and empower women and girls to wield greater influence in society.

■ Address the unique challenges in crisis and con flictaffected environments: USAID’s work in conflictaffected and fragile states should promote women’s participation in all efforts to prevent, resolve and rebuild following conflict; prevent and respond to sexual and gender based violence; and ensure that relief and recovery efforts address the different needs and priorities of women and men.

■ Serve as a thoughtleader and a learning community: The Agency will measure performance in closing key gender gaps and empowering women and girls, learn from successes and failures and dissemi nate best practices on gender integration throughout the Agency.

■ Hold ourselves accountable: Gender equality and female empowerment is a shared Agency responsibil ity and depends on the contribution and collective commitment of all staff, with particular emphasis on senior managers and Mission Directors.

This policy applies to all bureaus and missions and covers policy and programmatic operations in Washington and the field. The policy includes detailed descriptions of organiza tional roles and responsibilities to institutionalize the policy in missions, regional bureaus, pillar bureaus, the Office of Gen der Equality and Women’s Empowerment, the Office of Acquisition and Assistance, the Office of Human Resources, the Bureau for Policy, Planning and Learning, and the Office of the Administrator. The release of the policy will be fol lowed by Frequently Asked Questions and Implementation Guidance, including a timetable for phasing in the require ments over the next two years. Implementation of the policy will be evaluated in 2015.

Realization of this policy by all Agency staff and in all of the countries in which we work will help to bring to fruition USAID’s development vision of a world in which women and men, girls and boys enjoy economic, social, cultural, civil, and political rights and are equally empowered to secure better lives for themselves, their families, and their communities.

USAID Policy on Gender Equality and Female Empowerment Introduction

1 INTRODUCTION

Gender equality and female empowerment are now universally recognized as core development objectives, fundamental for the realization of human rights, and key to effective and sustainable development outcomes.1

No society can develop sustainably without increasing and transforming the distribution of opportunities, resources, and choices for males and females so that they have equal power to shape their own lives and contribute to their communi ties. A growing body of research demonstrates that societies with greater gender equality experience faster eco nomic growth, and benefit from greater agricultural productivity and improved food security. Empowering women to participate in and lead public and private institu tions makes these institutions more representative and effective. Increasing girls’ and women’s education and access to resources improves the health and education of the next generation. Women also play critical roles as effective peace advocates, community leaders, and champions of civil and human rights.

The 2010 Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR), prepared jointly by the State Department and USAID, placed women at the center of U.S. diplomacy and development — not simply as beneficiaries, but also as agents of peace, reconciliation, development, growth, and sta bility. The first operational principle in the USAID Policy Framework 20112015 is “Promote Gender Equality and Female Empowerment.” This policy on Gender Equality and

BOX 1:

DEFINITIONS

Gender equality2 concerns women and men, and it involves working with men and boys, women and girls to bring about changes in attitudes, behaviors, roles and responsibilities at home, in the workplace, and in the community. Genuine equality means more than parity in numbers or laws on the books; it means expanding freedoms and improving overall quality of life so that equality is achieved without sacrificing gains for males or females.

Female empowerment3 is achieved when women and girls acquire the power to act freely, exercise their rights, and fulfill their potential as full and equal members of society. While empowerment often comes from within, and individuals empower themselves, cultures, societies, and institutions create conditions that facilitate or undermine the possibilities for empowerment.

Gender integration involves identifying, and then addressing, gender inequalities during strategy and proj ect design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation. Since the roles and power relations between men and women affect how an activity is implemented, it is essential that project managers address these issues on an ongoing basis.

1These commitments have been codified in the Beijing Platform for Action signed in 1995 at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, the Millennium Development Goals adopted by 189 governments in 2000, UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security (as well as subsequent related resolutions 1820, 1888, 1889, and 1960) and embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, among myriad other international treaties and declarations.

2Sex is the classification of people as male or female. At birth, infants are assigned a sex based on a combination of bodily characteristics including: chromosomes, hormones, internal reproductive organs and gen italia. Gender is the sociallydefined set of roles, rights, responsibilities, entitlements, and obligations of females and males in societies.The social definitions of what it means to be female or male vary among cultures and change over time. Gender Identity is an individual’s internal, personal sense of being male or female. For transgender people, their birthassigned sex and their own internal sense of gender identity do not match.

3 This policy deliberately uses the term “female” empowerment, as opposed to women’s empowerment, to capture girls and adolescents.This differs from the organizational titles of USAID’s Office of Gender

Equality and Women’s Empowerment, some Position Descriptions and usage in other USAID program and budget documents.

Introduction USAID Policy on Gender Equality and Female Empowerment

Female Empowerment seeks to codify and operationalize these principles across USAID policies and practices.

USAID’s Experience Addressing Gender Equality and Female Empowerment

While USAID has a long history of addressing women’s issues in development, accomplishments have been mixed and the intensity of the focus on gender issues has varied over time. In 1974, soon after passage of the 1973 Percy Amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act, USAID estab lished the Women in Development (WID) Office to assist USAID missions and regional bureaus in integrating women into their various development projects.4 A “Women in Development” Policy Paper was issued in 1982. It was sup plemented in 1996 by a Gender Plan of Action (GPA) that included requirements for gender integration in policy, per sonnel, procurement, performance monitoring, and evaluation. An evaluation of the Plan in 2000 by the Advi sory Committee onVoluntary Foreign Assistance (ACVFA) found a number of obstacles to effective institutionalization of the GPA, including large budget cuts coupled with expanding budget earmarks, disruptions caused by reorgani zation of U.S. foreign assistance agencies, low levels of consultation and communication about the Plan with Agency staff, and concern over proliferation of Agency priorities, among others.

Although few analyses have been carried out that allow for precise quantification of progress, one such analysis5 revealed modest increases in the extent to which gender issues were integrated into country strategies over the period 1996 2005 and into procurement solicitations from May 2006 to February 2007. A second analysis of procurements6 docu mented an improvement in the percentage of solicitations issued in 2010 that were scored as “moderate” to “thor ough” on gender integration, as compared to 2006/7, and a decrease in the percentage of solicitations over the same time period that received the lowest possible score (“minimal”).

Recently, greater progress has been made in integrating gen der issues into Agency strategies, programs and procedures.

In 2009, USAID revised its Automated Directives System (ADS), which contains Agency policy directives and manda tory procedures, to establish a more comprehensive approach to gender integration. Gender analysis is one of only two mandatory analysis requirements that are to be integrated in strategic planning, project design and approval, procurement processes, and measurement and evaluation. In 2011, the Agency reviewed and revised the technical compe tencies for different Foreign Service backstops to ensure that they reflect the knowledge, skills, and abilities that will be needed by technical officers to effectively address gender issues in their work. The Agency also introduced new defini tions of gender issues for budget attributions in Operational Plans, along with a set of common indicators designed to

BOX 2:

FOSTERING

WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP

In 2011, USAID significantly expanded efforts to sup port women’s leadership in several fields. Anticipating release of the U.S. National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security, USAID provided financial support to meet the training, transportation, and security needs of female negotiators, and allocated funds to support the inclusion of women in high level decision making processes, including formal peace negotiations, donor conferences, and transitional political processes. Complementary programs were created to cultivate women leaders in business, academia, and research; strengthen the skills of female legislators and legislative branch staff; foster women’s leadership within social protection; and elevate women’s leader ship in the small and mediumsized enterprise sector.

4The Percy Amendment, which is still in effect, requires U.S. bilateral assistance programs to enhance the integration of women into the national economies of developing countries, and instructs the

State Department to consider progress on women’s issues when making decisions about funding international organizations.

5DevTech, Measuring Gender Integration in USAID Planning and Procurement,” July 2007 (unpublished).

6DevTech, Measuring Gender Integration in USAID Solicitation Documents Issued in 2010, February 2011(unpublished).

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/email-files/US_National_Action_Plan_on_Women_Peace_and_Security.pdf http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/email-files/US_National_Action_Plan_on_Women_Peace_and_Security.pdf

USAID Policy on Gender Equality and Female Empowerment Introduction assess progress toward increasing gender equality and female empowerment (see Box 6). The Office of the Administrator and the Bureau for Policy, Planning and Learning (PPL) cre ated two senior positions devoted exclusively to gender equality and female empowerment; the Office of Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment was renamed and upgraded; and the Bureau of Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance (DCHA) created a Center of Excel lence on Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance with a particular focus on gender equality and women’s rights.

Finally, missions and offices began to scale up programs that work expand coverage and access to medical and psycho social care, legal assistance, and income generating activities for genderbased violence (GBV) survivors in the Demo cratic Republic of the Congo, and extend Safe Schools, an innovative program to reduce schoolrelated genderbased violence, to the Dominican Republic, Senegal, Yemen, and Tajikistan, among others.

For these efforts to be accelerated and sustained, USAID needs a coherent, relevant, and uptodate Agency policy on gender equality and female empowerment. The world has changed considerably since 1982, and the literature and field experience related to closing gender gaps has substantially expanded. This new policy on Gender Equality and Female Empowerment builds on this evidence base and the best practices of USAID and other donors, and provides an over arching framework for gender integration throughout all aspects of our work.

2 A GLOBAL SNAPSHOT OF

GENDER EQUALITY AND

FEMALE EMPOWERMENT IN 2012

A large body of evidence has established that gender inequality has costs for individuals and societies and these costs can multiply across generations.7 For instance, women’s economic depend ency on men reduces their ability to exercise safer sex options to protect themselves against unwanted pregnancies and HIV infec tion.8 When women cannot participate in the labor force, are prevented by law or practice from entering certain occupations, or excluded from management positions, GDP growth can suffer by as much as two percent.9 Conversely, gender equality not only benefits individual males and females but whole sectors and societies. For instance, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that if women had the same access to productive resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20 to 30 percent, which in turn could raise total agricultural output in developing countries by 2.5 to 4 percent and reduce the number of hungry people in the world by 12 to 17 percent, up to 150 million people.10

Great strides have been made to reduce gender gaps and improve the status of women and girls over the past three decades. Yet, significant gender gaps remain across sectors in all countries around the world; they are often greater among the poor. Historically, gender inequalities have disadvantaged females, and while that remains the case in many domains, gen der norms and policies also negatively affect boys and men in specific regions and sectors.

Education Gender gaps in primary education have closed in the vast majority of developing countries since 2000. Progress has been particularly notable at the primary school level in the Arab

States, South and West Asia and subSaharan Africa – the regions with the largest gender gaps in 2000. Still, in 2012, South Asia and West Africa continue to have large gender gaps that disfavor girls in primary education. In Afghanistan, Chad, and the Central African Republic, for instance, fewer than 70 girls per 100 boys are enrolled in primary school. On the other hand, boys are less likely to complete primary education than girls in 24 countries, including Lesotho, Nicaragua, Suriname, Namibia, Bangladesh, and Bhutan.

Progress is less evident at the secondary level: gender parity has not improved in subSaharan Africa or in the Arab States. In contrast, in many countries in Latin America and the Caribbean and Europe and Eurasia, girls have had higher attendance at sec ondary schools than boys since the mid1980s. In countries in other regions, such as subSaharan Africa and South Asia, girls are often more likely to drop out of secondary school even when they have completed primary education.11

Progress in school entry has not been accompanied by changes in other domains. Fields of study, for instance, still tend to be segregated by sex, with more males choosing or being encour aged to pursue higher status and better paid careers in science, technology, and engineering while females predominate in the lower paying education, health care and social service profes sions.

Mortality and Reproductive Health Over the past 30 years, huge strides have been made, particu larly in life expectancy, fertility, and mortality. However, gender inequality continues to have a negative impact on a range of

7TheWorld Bank, World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development, (Washington,DC: TheWorld Bank, 2011); online at http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTWDR2012/Resources/7778105

1299699968583/77862101315936222006/CompleteReport.pdf.

8EllenWeiss,DanielWhelan, and Geeta Rao Gupta,“Gender, Sexuality and HIV:Making a Difference in the Lives ofYoungWomen in Developing Countries.” Sexual and RelationshipTherapy 15(3) (2000): 233245.

9TheWorld Bank. op cit.

10Hafez Ghanem, The State of Food and Agriculture 201011: Women in Agriculture: Closing the Gender Gap for Development. (Rome:The Food and Agricultural Organization, 2011).

11UNESCO, EFA Global Monitoring Report 2011: The Hidden Crisis: Armed Conflict and Education. (Paris: UNESCO, 2011).

A Global Snapshot of Gender Equality and Female Empowerment in 2012 USAID Policy on Gender Equality and Female Empowerment health issues. Genderrelated power imbalances contribute to excess female mortality across the life cycle: at birth, during infancy and early childhood, and throughout the reproductive years. Harmful gender norms affect men and boys by encourag ing risktaking and by limiting their healthseeking behavior. In Russia, Ukraine, and other countries in Eurasia, the life expectancy of men has been dramatically reduced by substance abuse and other risky behaviors.

Although the reproductive health of women and girls has improved over the past few decades, more than 127 million women in subSaharan Africa and South Central Asia in 2010 still have an unmet need for modern contraceptives (215 million across all developing countries). Taking into account projected population growth, this number will increase to 176 million in the next two decades if concerns about the availability of con traceptive methods are not addressed.12 Adolescent fertility rates also remain high; young women have higher unmet need for contraception and higher chances than older women of suf fering from complications at birth. Maternal mortality is especially high in subSaharan Africa and parts of Asia, owing mainly to a failure to provide adequate family planning and maternity care to childbearing women. Maternal deaths in developing countries could be reduced by 70 percent, and newborn deaths cut nearly in half, if the world doubled its investment in family planning and maternal and newborn health care.13

Women are more vulnerable than men to sexually transmitted infections, particularly HIV/AIDS. Unequal gender norms often prevent men and women from seeking HIV testing, counseling, and treatment, as well as disclosing their HIV status. Today, women and girls make up almost half the infected population ages 15–49 worldwide; in subSaharan Africa the rate is close to 60 percent. The persistence of genderbased violence con tributes to women’s increased risk and vulnerability.

GenderBasedViolence A range of evidence points to the high global prevalence of gen der based violence (GBV) which in the broadest definition is violence directed at an individual based on his or her biological sex, gender identity, or perceived adherence to socially defined norms of masculinity and femininity.14 GBV is a constraint to individual and societal development and has high human and economic costs. For instance, women who experience violence from their partners are less likely to earn a living and less able to care for their children. Children who witness violence are signifi cantly more at risk for health problems, anxiety disorders, poor school performance and violent behavior. The economic effects of violence against women include increased absenteeism;

decreased labor market participation; reduced productivity;

lower earnings, investment, and savings; and lower intergenera tional productivity.15

Populationbased prevalence data for one form of GBV inti mate partner violence now exists for more than 90 countries, although there are still some regions, such as the Middle East and West Africa, where data is relatively limited. The prevalence of physical or sexual violence experienced by women varies widely across countries. A tencountry study using Demo graphic and Health Survey (DHS) data of evermarried women reporting spousal/intimate partner violence shows rates ranging from 48 percent in Zambia, 44 percent in Colombia, and 42 percent in Peru, to 18 percent in Cambodia, 19 percent in India, and 22 percent in the Dominican Republic.16 Intimate partner violence cuts across socioeconomic, religious, and ethnic groups and across geographic areas, but women living in poverty, women with disabilities, and adolescent girls are especially vul nerable.17 At least 2 million girls are at risk of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) each year in at least 28 countries, primarily in subSaharan Africa, but also northern Iraq,Malaysia, and Indone sia, exposing them to a wide range of health risks from incontinence to increased risk of childbirth complications and

12United Nations Population Division, World Population Prospects, 2010 Revision, (New York: United Nations Population Division, 2010).

13Susheela Singh et al., Adding it Up:The Costs and Benefits of Investing in Family Planning and Maternal and Newborn Health (NewYork: Guttmacher Institute and UNFPA, 2009).

14Genderbased violence includes physical, sexual, and psychological abuse; threats; coercion; arbitrary deprivation of liberty; and economic deprivation, whether in public or private life.Types of GBV include female infanticide; harmful traditional practices such as early and forced marriage,“honor” killings, and female genital cutting; child sexual abuse and slavery; trafficking in persons; sexual coer cion and abuse; neglect; violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals; domestic violence; and elder abuse. It can occur throughout the lifecycle, from the prenatal phase through childhood and adolescence, the reproductive years, and old age (Claudia GarciaMoreno et al., “Prevalence of Intimate PartnerViolence: Findings from theWHO MultiCountry Study onWomen’s

Health and Domestic Violence,” The Lancet 368 (2006): 1260–69).

15Andrew Morrison and Maria Beatriz Orlando, The Costs and Impacts of GenderBased Violence in Developing Countries: Methodological Considerations and New Evidence (Washington, DC:The World

Bank, November 2004).

16Michelle Hindin, Sunita Kishor, and Donna Ansara, Intimate Partner Violence among Couples in 10 DHS Countries: Predictors and Health Outcomes, DHS Analytical Studies18 (Washington, DC: USAID, December 2008).Accurate statistical data on the prevalence of genderbased violence are difficult to obtain because of underreporting by victims and underrecording by police, which also mean that existing evidence most likely underestimates prevalence.

17CharlotteWatts and Cathy Zimmerman,“Violence againstWomen: Global Scope and Magnitude,” The Lancet 359 (2002): 112137.

USAID Policy on Gender Equality and Female Empowerment A Global Snapshot of Gender Equality and Female Empowerment in 2012 newborn deaths.18 While GBV disproportionately affects women and girls, men and boys also experience sexual violence, increasingly documented in conflict countries,19 and especially when their gender identity conflicts with gender norms.

Paid Employment and Asset Ownership Women’s participation in the paid labor force in developing countries has grown in the past 30 years as expanding eco nomic opportunities and economic necessity have drawn many female workers into the market. Countries that had low rates of female participation in 1980 – for instance in Latin America and the Caribbean and North Africa – saw dramatic increases.

Female participation rates are greater than 50 percent in sub Saharan Africa, East Asia and the Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean. The Middle East and North Africa and South Asia have the lowest female labor force participation rates.

Increased participation has not translated into equal employ ment opportunities or equal earnings for men and women.

Women and men tend to work in very different parts of the economy with little change over time, even in higher income countries. In almost all countries, women are more likely than men to engage in lowproductivity and laborintensive activities.

They are also more likely to be in unpaid family employment or work in the informal wage sector. In agriculture, especially in Africa, women operate smaller plots of land and farm less remu nerative crops. Across all regions, as entrepreneurs, women tend to own and manage smaller firms (measured by sales, employment, and assets) and to concentrate in lessprofitable sectors. As a result of these differences, gender gaps in earnings and productivity persist across sectors and forms of economic activity, including wage employment and entrepreneurship.20

Although countrylevel data is limited, women in developing countries are far less likely than men to own or control key pro ductive assets like land and housing. Researchers in 2003 found that women represented only onethird or less of landowners in the five Latin American countries they examined.21 In the Europe and Eurasia region, land privatization schemes after the fall of communism resulted in many more men than women being granted titles to land. More recently, the World Bank’s World Development Report 2012 cites data from 16 countries in 5 developing regions showing that femaleheaded households are far less likely to own land. And across all developing regions, female land holdings are systematically smaller than male land holdings, and the mean value of men’s landholdings is substantially larger than that of women’s, controlling for socio economic and other factors.

Demographic Shifts andTime Use Women’s increased participation in paid employment and public life has a number of implications for time use and care of dependents. Around the world, women devote more time each day to housework and care of children, the elderly, the dis abled, and other dependents than their male partners;

differences range from 1 to 3 hours more for housework and 2 to 10 times more time for care of children, the elderly, and the sick, leaving women and girls with 1 to 4 hours less time each day than men and boys for market or other productive activi ties.22 Even as women have entered the paid labor force, they remain largely responsible for care and housework. These pat terns are accentuated after marriage and childbearing.

In addition, declining mortality rates are likely to exacerbate these pressures on women. Unlike in developed countries, where social security, elderly day care, housing for the elderly, and comprehensive medical care help the elderly live a more independent lifestyle, similar services do not exist in most devel oping countries. This implies that, unless gender norms change and unpaid work is reduced and redistributed between men and women, more and more females in the developing world will be expected to care for aging parents in addition to their child care and incomeearning responsibilities.

Participation, Governance, and Legal Rights Women’s representation in national legislatures and local gov ernments has increased during the past two decades. For example, women’s share of seats in national legislatures

18The prevalence of FGM varies significantly from country to country, from nearly 98 percent in Somalia to less than one percent in Uganda. New evidence shows prevalence in other countries including Yemen, Iran, Syria, Oman, and Saudi Arabia. See World Health Organization, Female Genital Mutilation, (Geneva:World Health Organization, February 2010). Online at www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs241/en/index.html.

19Kiersten Johnson et al.,“Association of SexualViolence and Human RightsViolations with Physical and Mental Health inTerritories of the Eastern Democratic of the Congo,” JAMA 304(5) (2010).

20In almost all countries, women in manufacturing earn less than men. In agriculture, farms operated by women on average have lower yields than those operated by men, even for men and women in the same households and for men and women cultivating the same crops. Female entrepreneurs are also less productive than male entrepreneurs because of industry/occupational segregation and lower access to credit and productive inputs, and not because they are inherently less efficient.

21Carmen Diana Deere and Magdalena León,“The Gender Asset Gap: Land in Latin America,” World Development 31(6) (2003): 92547.

22World Bank op cit.

A Global Snapshot of Gender Equality and Female Empowerment in 2012 USAID Policy on Gender Equality and Female Empowerment increased from 10 percent to 17 percent worldwide between 1995 and 2009, and all but 1 of the 10 countries without women’s suffrage in 1980 have since granted women the right to vote. Still, in 2011, women held only 19.4 percent of the seats in lower and upper houses of parliaments globally.23 To redress imbalances, 104 countries currently have provisions to promote women’s representation in legislatures at the national or subnational level; for instance India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal reserve 33 percent of legislative seats for women at the municipal and district levels. Women also remain considerably underrepresented in other political bodies, holding less than onefifth of all cabinet positions worldwide. Furthermore, despite numeric gains, the quality of women’s participation in political affairs is often lacking due to a variety of constraints including lower levels of political experience and access to mentoring.

Research has found that higher numbers of women in legislative bodies increases the attention to gender equality in legislation and budgets.24 Nonetheless, in many countries, key areas of women’s rights are neither recognized nor protected; for instance, in parts of subSaharan Africa, South Asia, and the Mid dle East, women lack independent rights to own land, manage property, conduct business or even travel without their hus band’s consent.24 Although many countries have taken steps to reform marital and property rights laws, the implementation and enforcement of new legislation is inconsistent.

In the realm of peacebuilding, women are severely marginal ized. In major peace processes since 1992, women constituted fewer than 3 percent of mediators and 8 percent of negotia tors, numbers that have not markedly improved since the passage over a decade ago of the landmark UN Security Council Resolution 1325 recognizing the central role of women in conflict prevention, peace processes and peacebuilding.

Furthermore, women are a similarly limited share of the partici pants in decisionmaking forums related to transition planning and postconflict reconstruction such as donor conferences convened to allocate resources for postconflict recovery.

Crisis, Conflict and Natural Disasters As the nature of crises and conflicts have changed over the past decades so too have the roles of men and women and the ways they are affected. Forced displacement exposes refugees and internallydisplaced persons, especially women and girls, to additional risks and exploitation. Violence against women, espe cially rape, sexual assault, abduction, mutilation, forced prostitution and sexual slavery, is a facet of many recent conflicts from the Balkans to subSaharan Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia.25

Unfortunately, postconflict peacebuilding, recovery, and disarma ment, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) programs do not always recognize the complex roles females and males play dur ing conflict, as combatants, forced laborers, and sex slaves.

Following conflict, a narrow set of stakeholders usually shapes, implements and is served by postconflict recovery programs.

For example, DDR programs often fail to differentiate between the needs of male and female combatants in their design. They also tend to underestimate and underserve boys and girls who were child soldiers. Moreover, critical issues are often over looked; for example, of 300 ceasefire accords, powersharing arrangements and other peace agreements negotiated since 1989, just 18 of them – only 6 percent – contain even a passing reference to sexual violence. The growth of women’s participa tion in peace processes and postconflict transitions in countries ranging from Kosovo to Liberia is helping to ensure that peace agreements and reconstruction address more comprehensively the issues that need to be resolved to achieve lasting and just peace.26

During and following natural disasters, women and girls often suffer disproportionately due to sociallyconstructed norms, breakdowns in law and order, or disrupted livelihoods due to displacement. For example, up to four times as many females as males were killed in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami due to gen der norms, such as women and girls’ traditionally not being taught how to swim. Following the 2010 Haiti earthquake, human trafficking of women and girls increased dramatically while sexual assaults in relief camps posed a significant problem.

23InterParliamentary Union, accessed January 2012, http://www.ipu.org/wmne/world.htm. For comparison, women held only 16.8 percent of seats in the U.S. Congress in 2011.

24Raghabendra Chattopadhyay and Esther Duflo,“Women as Policy Makers: Evidence from a Randomized Policy Experiment in India.” Econometrica 72 (5) (2004): 1409–43.

25Donald Steinberg,“Women andWar:An Agenda for Action” in Women andWar: Power and Protection in the 21st Century, ed. Kuehnast et al., (Washington, DC: US Institute for Peace, 2011).

26United States National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security, 2011.

USAID Policy on Gender Equality and Female Empowerment USAID’s Vision and Goal/Outcomes

3 USAID’SVISIONAND GOAL

USAID’s development vision is a world in which women and men, girls and boys enjoy economic, social, cultural, civil, and political rights and are equally empowered to secure better lives for themselves, their families, and their communities; are equally able to access quality education and healthcare; accu mulate and control their own economic assets and resources;

exercise their own voice, and live free from intimidation, harass ment, discrimination, and violence. Responsibilities for earning income and the care of family members are not restricted by the roles or stereotypes society has defined for males and females. Women and men, girls and boys treat each other with

4 OUTCOMES

USAID investments are aimed at achieving three overarching outcomes for all people. These outcomes are especially important for males and females who are marginalized or excluded due to ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, lack of income, disability, or other factors. They reflect the gamut of activities that USAID can undertake across multiple sectors and fields to achieve the goal of this policy:

Reduce gender disparities in access to, control over and benefit from resources, wealth, opportunities, and services – economic, social, political, and cultural.

Reduce genderbased violence and mitigate its harmful effects on individuals and communities, so that all people can live healthy and productive lives.

mutual respect and dignity and participate freely and equally in economic and political decisionmaking at the regional, national and local levels. Women’s and girls’ unique expertise, initiatives, leadership, and contributions are recognized and supported by individuals and governments, leading to their economic, social, and political empowerment.

USAID seeks to improve the lives of citizens around the world by advancing equality between women and girls and men and boys, and empowering women and girls to participate fully in and benefit from the development of their societies.

Increase capability of women and girls to realize their rights, determine their life outcomes, and influence decisionmaking in households, communities, and societies.

These outcomes are deliberately set at a general level.

However, in strategic planning and project design at the country or subnational level, they should be adapted into specific results that have associated targets and indicators for tracking progress. For instance, in a food security strategy, the first outcome could be operationalized as “Reduce the gap between female and male farmers’ access to productive inputs and services (credit, seeds, new technology, and agri cultural extension) by 25 percent.” Indicators like the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index should be used to track progress toward this specific result in different country contexts. Further discussion of these options will be provided in forthcoming Implementation Guidance.

USAID Policy on Gender Equality and Female Empowerment Operational Principles of the Gender Equality and Female Empowerment Policy

5 OPERATIONAL PRINCIPLES OFTHE

GENDER EQUALITY AND FEMALE

EMPOWERMENT POLICY

The following principles underpin USAID’s commitment to empowerment, protection, and participation of males and females in their societies.27 They also reflect the principles in USAID Policy Framework 20112015, draw on the reform agenda identified in USAID Forward, are consistent with key points made in the QDDR, and were developed in conjunction with other related USAID policies, specifically the 2012 CounterTrafficking in Persons Policy and forthcomingYouth in Development Policy (see Box 3).

Integrate gender equality and female empowerment into USAID’s work: This policy will be implemented by inte grating approaches and actions to advance gender equality and female empowerment throughout the Program Cycle — in Agencylevel policy and strategy formulation; Country Develop ment Cooperation Strategies (CDCS); project design and implementation; and monitoring, evaluation, and learning.

The identification of specific gender equality and female empow erment results to be achieved is based on the findings of gender analyses, which are mandated by the ADS for country strategies and projects (see Box 4), and by other relevant analyses that may be used in the context of strategic planning and program ming. Gender equality and empowerment of women and girls cannot be achieved without considering the sociocultural con text in which males and females live. Working with men and boys to understand the importance of girls’ education, and women’s employment and career aspirations, for example, is fundamental to bringing about sustainable and transformational social change. At the same time, men and boys are faced with different challenges and vulnerabilities imposed on them by rigid definitions of masculinity. Societal expectations narrow male roles so working with men and boys to reframe broader defini tions of masculinity can expand their own range of

BOX 3:

USAID POLICIES ON COUNTER

TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS AND

YOUTH IN DEVELOPMENT

Trafficking in Persons (TIP) is a crime that involves either sex or labor exploitation, or both. At its essence, TIP is about people being bought and sold as property.

Estimates in 2010 of the number of people enslaved in sex or labor exploitation range from 12 to 27 million.

Trafficking can impede efforts to improve health, to increase economic growth, to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment, and poses a threat to life time prospects for youth. USAID’s new Counter Trafficking in Persons Policy empowers the Agency to redouble efforts to remain a thought and action leader working towards a world in which human beings are no longer bought and sold.

In 2012,USAID is also adopting a newYouth in Devel opment Policy that outlines how USAID can strategically support, protect, prepare, and engage young people in achieving development outcomes. The Youth in Development and Gender Equality and Female Empowerment policies are closely aligned in recognizing that gender norms determine the way households allocate resources to sons and daughters, through decisions about boys’ or girls’ education, where they work, and how they spend their time. A large body of evidence shows that intervening early in key areas – to raise the age of marriage, provide HIV/AIDS information and services, and reduce genderbased vio lence – can have longterm payoffs for girls, their households, and broader communities.

27USAID is also “walking the walk” by ensuring that women are recruited for entry into the Civil and Foreign Service, empowered to contribute fully to our development mission, given opportuni ties through mentorships, treated fairly in the promotion/evaluation/assignment processes, and challenged to lead our Agency.

http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/democracy_and_governance/technical_areas/trafficking/pubs/C-TIP_Policy.pdf

Operational Principles of the Gender Equality and Female Empowerment Policy USAID Policy on Gender Equality and Female Empowerment

BOX 4:

GENDER ANALYSIS

The ADS requires staff to conduct a gender analysis in the design of country strategies and projects, which must in turn be reflected in associated project appraisal documents, Statements of Work (SOWs)/Program Descriptions and Requests for Applications (RFAs)/Requests for Proposals (RFPs). Gender analysis is a tool for examining the differences between the roles that women and men play in communities and societies, the different levels of power they hold, their differing needs, constraints and opportunities, and the impact of these differences on their lives.

At the strategy and project level, the gender analysis should identify root causes of existing gender inequalities or obsta cles to female empowerment in that context so that USAID can proactively address them in the project design and seek out opportunities to promote women’s leadership and participation.