U.S. Agency for International Development Women in Development

1
U.S. Agency for International DevelopmentWomen
in Development

• Kristin Meyer
• Mayra D. Aviles

2
Presentation Overview

• Team Introduction
• USAID Background
• Introduction to WID
• Gender Initiatives
• Case Studies Europe, Central America, South
  America
• Open Discussion

3
Team Introduction

• Kristin Meyer
• Gender Health Intervention Specialist
• Europe Eurasia
• Senior USAID WID Consultant
• Mayra Daniela
• Gender Analysis Expert
• South American Focus
• Senior USAID WID Consultant

4
USAID Background

• 1950 Act for International Development
• Created in 1961
• U.S. Foreign Assistance Act

5
USAID Program Focus

• Early Programs
• Fight Communism Poverty
• Capital-Intensive
• Centralized Programming
• 1980s-90s
• New Democracies Market Economies
• Sustainable Development
• Capacity for Quality of Life

6
USAID Program Focus

• 2000s
• Joint Strategy with Department of State
• Millennium Challenge Account
• Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief

7
USAID Organization

• Administrator Randall Tobias
• Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief
• Deputy Administrator James Kunder
• Save the Children Federation

8
USAID Organization

• HQ in Washington, DC
• Four Global Regions
• Country-level Activities
• Three Functional Bureaus
• Worldwide Programs
• Three HQ Bureaus
• Management, Legislative, Coordination

9
USAID Organization

• Missions in 100 Countries
• Collaborates
• 3500 U.S. Companies
• 300 Private Voluntary Organizations

10
USAID Organization

• 2,227 Direct Hire
• 1132 in DC
• 1095 Foreign Service Officers
• 4,966 Foreign Nationals
• 624 Service Contractors (80 Overseas)
• 300 Other Agency, Univ, Nonprofit

11
Employee Geographic Scope
12
Development Mission

• Revised in 2004
• Five Goals
• Transformational Development
• Fragile States
• Geostrategic Interests
• Transnational Problems
• Humanitarian Relief
• Development Assistance 19.7b in 2004

13
Development Commitment
14
Women in Development

• Establishment of USAIDs WID Office 1974 for
  ensuring women participation and benefit equally
  from development assistance programs.
• WID Office initiative ? Percy Amendment
• WID approach integrating gender by designing
  programs that take into account the participation
  of both women and men to guarantee effectiveness.

15
WID Organization and Budget

• WID Office Position within USAID Organization
• USAID? three headquarter bureaus.
• Bureau for Program and Policy Coordination ?WID
  Administrator Douglas Menarchick
• WID Office budget FY2007 7.8million out of a
  total program assistance of 139m

16
WID Office Technical Assistance

• WID Office ? base of technical leadership and
  expertise on gender issues and development
  providing
• -Technical leadership on gender-related
  issues within the agency and beyond
• -Support to field missions
• -Identification of new and emerging gender
  issues and development of multi-disciplinary
  approaches
• -Proactive actions creating a greater
  responsibility for and the institutionalization
  of gender considerations throughout the Agency.

17
WID Office Activities

• WID Office supports activities in
• 1- Gender integration
• 2- Women and economic growth
• 3- Gender equality in education
• 4- Womens legal rights
• 5- Trafficking persons

18
1- Gender Integration

• Women in Development Indefinite Quantity Contract
  
• WID IQC support services
• 5 year IQC mechanism? Task Order (TO) mechanism
• All USAID units eligible
• Current WID IQC activities Short-Term Technical
  Assistance and Training (STTA) and Investing in
  Women in Development (IWID) Fellows Program

19
2- Women and Economic Growth

• The WID Office key economic growth activities
• -promoting full participation of women and
  men in economic development
• -greater understanding gender-based
  constraints to womens participation in economic
  activities
• -trade, IT (information technology),
  agriculture, and labor.
• Current Activities Promoting Gender Issues in
  USAID Trade-related Economic Growth Activities

20
3- Gender Equality in Education

• Objective
• - To strengthen capacity of Agency to set up
  gender-equitable practices and policies in
  USAID-funded basic education activities improving
  children's (girls) basic education
• - To address impact that gender has on
  educational quality
• Current Activities Safe Schools Program and
  EQUATE Achieving Equality in Education

21
4- Womens Legal Rights

• WID Office approach to womens legal rights
  includes
• - educating on womens legal, economic, and
  political rights
• - strengthening organizations and capacitating
  institutions? gender-equitable legislation and
  practice
• Current Activities Womens Legal Rights
  Initiative.
• - Guatemala, Albania and Southern Africa,
  Benin, and Madagascar

22
USAIDs Successes in WID

• Over 40 requests for gender assessments,
  strategies review and trainings. 14 country
  gender assessments completed.
• 15 country strategies reviewed and gender
  training provided to all missions in Africa.

23
Ukraine Anti-Trafficking Project

• Economic Age Discrimination
• Empowerment Strategy
• Entrepreneurial Computer Training
• Trafficking Awareness Support Services
• Hotlines, Crisis Intervention

24
Project Analysis

• Over 26,000 Women Trained
• Participants
• 13-20 employed
• 10 pursuing education
• 29 created businesses
• 151 business loans
• Improvement
• Prioritize High-risk Regions
• Target Resources

25
Central America Economic Opportunities

• Small Grants Program
• Support Activities
• Work Opportunities, Conditions Rights
• Strengthen Organizations Visibility
• Legal Action
• Training Empowerment

26
Project Analysis

• 11 Projects Funded
• Documentation
• Leadership Training
• Awareness Workshops
• Guatemala 700 Union Women
• Legal Assistance
• Guatemala 122 cases, 38 amendments

27
WIDTECH and Commodity Chain Analysis of Forest
Products in Nicaragua

• WIDTECH
• Laguna de Apoyo Nature Reserve (LANR)
• Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFP)
• Gender and NTFP in LANR
• Focus gender roles household and NTFP market
  -roles influence on conservation
• -NTFP significance household income and
  forest conservation
• -NTFP potential of environmental
  sustainability

28
Findings

• Both men and women active in chain of production
• Men and women separate but equal stakeholders
• Considering womens concerns ? approach to
  conservation and development equitable and
  efficient.

29
Economic Opportunities and Labor Conditions for
Women Perspectives From Latin America

• 2000- 16 month small grants programs
• NGO Small Grants Program Bolivia, Brazil,
  Ecuador and Peru
• Purpose support income generating activities
  that expand on products or markets to existing
  effective project.

30
Results

• Access resources and knowledge? womens economic
  opportunities expanded
• women and men participation changes in different
  productive activities of project
• Facilitating access to technical knowledge?
  Participating womens self-esteem ?

31
Women in Development

• USAID Progressive Strategies
• Commitment to Equality
• Growing Investment in Development
• Advocate for Global Change