Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1696590678579.pdf (United States)
II 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 3301 To promote the empowerment, development, and prosperity of women globally, and for other purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES FEBRUARY 13, 2020 Mrs. SHAHEEN (for herself and Mr. GRAHAM) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations A BILL To promote the empowerment, development, and prosperity of women globally, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1.

SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Women’s Global Em- powerment, Development and Prosperity Act of 2020’’.

SEC.

2.

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE WOMEN’S GLOBAL DEVEL- OPMENT AND PROSPERITY INITIATIVE.
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of State shall es- tablish within the Office of Women’s Empowerment an of- 10 fice for the Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative (W–GDP) to lead and coordinate efforts related to the objectives set forth in subsection (b).
(b) OBJECTIVES.—The W–GDP Initiative should be based on the following three pillars: (1) WOMEN PROSPERING IN THE WORK- FORCE.—Advance women in the workforce by im- proving access to quality vocational education and skills training, enabling women to secure jobs in their local economies.

(2) WOMEN SUCCEEDING AS ENTRE- PRENEURS.—Promote women’s entrepreneurship and increase access to capital, markets, technical as- sistance, and mentorship.
(3) WOMEN ENABLED IN THE ECONOMY.— Identify and reduce the legal, regulatory, and cul- tural barriers that constrain women’s full and free participation in the global economy and promote im- proved practices.
(c) SENSE OF CONGRESS ON ENABLING WOMEN IN THE ECONOMY.—It is the sense of Congress that, recog- nizing the breadth of work necessary to address the overall enabling environment and supporting efforts related to the third pillar set forth under subsection (b)(3), it should be the policy of the United States to ensure that the United •S 3301 IS States Government promotes the following five types of foundational legal reforms: (1) ACCESSING INSTITUTIONS.—Lifting barriers that prevent women from fully participating in the workforce, ensuring women’s authority to sign legal documents such as contracts and court documents, and addressing unequal access to courts and admin- istrative bodies for women, whether officially, through lack of proper enforcement, or through the unequal access of education that may prevent wom- en’s literacy.
(2) BUILDING CREDIT.—Ensuring women’s equal access to credit and capital to start and grow their businesses, and prohibiting discrimination in access to credit on the basis of gender or marital status.

(3) OWNING AND MANAGING PROPERTY.—Lift- ing restrictions on women’s possessing and man- aging property, including limitations on inheritance and the ability to transfer, purchase, or lease prop- erty.
(4) TRAVELING FREELY.—Addressing con- straints on women’s freedom of movement, including restrictions on obtaining passports on the basis of gender.

•S 3301 IS (5) REMOVING RESTRICTIONS ON EMPLOY- MENT.—Eliminating barriers that limit working hours, occupations, or tasks on the basis of gender.
(d) POLICY ALIGNMENT.—The Women’s Global De- velopment and Prosperity Initiative shall be closely aligned and coordinated with ongoing United States Government efforts to advance women’s empowerment globally, includ- ing requirements under the Women, Peace, and Security Act of 2017 (Public Law 115–68) and the Women’s En- 10 trepreneurship and Economic Empowerment Act of 2018 11 (Public Law 115–428).

12 SEC.

3.

LEVERAGING UNITED STATES ASSISTANCE.
The Secretary of State, in coordination with the Am- bassador-at-Large overseeing the Office of Women’s Em- powerment and the heads of relevant Federal agencies, in- cluding those set forth in section 5(b), may work with the private sector and nongovernmental organizations to lever- age public and private capital to complement W–GDP Ini- tiative programs and related efforts, including financing infrastructure investments and supporting capacity build- ing activities, and enter into cost-sharing, cost-matching, and other cooperative agreements to support and finance 23 such programs.
•S 3301 IS 5 SEC.

4.

AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.


(a) IN GENERAL.—There is authorized to be appro- priated not less than $200,000,000 for fiscal year 2021 and for each fiscal year thereafter until 2025 for a W– GDP Fund, established at the United States Agency for International Development, with a focus on sourcing and scaling the most impactful programs for women’s eco- nomic empowerment and ensuring there is not duplication of effort with other departments and agencies.
(b) APPROPRIATIONS REQUIREMENT.—Funds au- thorized to be appropriated by this section shall only be made available subject to the availability of appropria- 13 tions.

14 (c) OVERSIGHT.—Funds authorized to be appro- priated by this section shall be jointly overseen by the United States Agency for International Development and the Ambassador described in section 6.

SEC.

5.

INTERAGENCY STEERING GROUP.


(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—The President shall establish a steering group (the ‘‘Steering Group’’), with representa- tion from appropriate Federal departments and agencies, to carry out the policy goals of this Act.

The President shall designate a chair or co-chairs to lead the activities of the Steering Group in coordination with the Ambas- 25 sador-at-Large.
•S 3301 IS (b) MEMBERSHIP.—The Steering Group shall include representatives from— (1) the Department of State; (2) the Department of the Treasury; (3) the Department of Commerce; (4) the Department of Labor; (5) the Department of Defense; (6) the United States Agency for International Development (USAID); (7) the Millennium Challenge Corporation; (8) the Peace Corps; (9) the United States International Develop- ment Finance Corporation (DFC); (10) the Inter-American Foundation; (11) the United States African Development Foundation; (12) the components of the executive offices of the President, including the Office of Management and Budget, and the Office of the United States Trade Representative; and (13) other Federal agencies, as determined ap- propriate by guidelines developed by the co-chairs.
SEC.

6.

OFFICE OF WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT.

(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Secretary of State shall establish in the Office of the Secretary of the Department •S 3301 IS 10 11 12 of State the Office of Women’s Empowerment.
The Office shall be headed by an Ambassador-at-Large, who shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.

The Ambassador shall report di- rectly to the Secretary and shall have the rank and status of Ambassador-at-Large.
(b) PURPOSE.—In addition to the duties described in this Act and duties determined by the Secretary of State, the Ambassador shall coordinate efforts of the United States Government as directed by the Secretary regarding approaches that promote equality and advance the status and development of women and girls in United States for- 13 eign policy.
(c) DUTIES.— (1) IN GENERAL.—The Ambassador shall— (A) direct activities, policies, programs, and funding relating to gender equality and the advancement of women and girls internation- ally; (B) actively promote and advance the inte- gration of gender analysis into the formulation of policy, programs, structures, process, and ca- pacities throughout the bureaus and offices of the Department of State and in the inter- national programs of other Federal agencies; •S 3301 IS (C) direct United States Government re- sources, as appropriate, to respond to needs for promoting gender equality and the empower- ment of women in United States Government foreign policies and international programs; (D) design, support, and implement activi- ties regarding— (i) the empowerment of women inter- nationally, including for the prevention of and response to gender-based violence internationally; (ii) the policies and goals of the Women, Peace, and Security Act of 2017 (Public Law 115–68) and the Women’s Entrepreneurship and Economic Empower- ment Act of 2018 (Public Law 115–428); (iii) the Global Women’s Development and Prosperity (W–GDP) Initiative as de- scribed in section 2; and (iv) the reduction of legal, regulatory, and cultural barriers that constrain women worldwide; (E) ensure that programs, projects, and activities designed to promote and empower women internationally are subject to rigorous •S 3301 IS monitoring and evaluation, and oversee the de- velopment of indicators and standards for such monitoring and evaluation, with the intent of using these across relevant
 Federal agencies; (F) partner, consult, and coordinate with other governments, bilateral and multilateral in- stitutions, nongovernmental organizations, and private-sector partners, and represent the United States in diplomatic and multilateral fora as appropriate, to advance the objectives of this Act; (G) serve as the principal advisor to the Secretary of State regarding gender equality, women’s empowerment, and gender-based vio- lence as a foreign policy matter; and (H) undertake other relevant duties that the Secretary of State shall determine, as ap- propriate.
(2) INFORMATION SHARING AND TRANS- PARENCY.—The Office of Women’s Empowerment shall— (A) be the central repository of data on all United States programs, projects, and activities that relate to empowering, promoting, includ- ing, and advancing women worldwide; and •S 3301 IS 10 (B) produce a full accounting of United States Government spending on such programs, projects, and activities not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this Act.
(d) SERVICE OF CURRENT SENIOR OFFICIAL.—A senior official appointed by the President as an Ambas- sador-at-Large and confirmed by the Senate for a position that addresses global women’s issues may also serve in the Ambassador-at-Large position established under this sec- tion.

11 SEC.

7.

SENIOR COORDINATOR FOR GENDER EQUALITY AND WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT.
(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—There is established in the United States Agency for International Development the position of Senior Coordinator for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment.

The Senior Coordinator shall— (1) report to the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development; and (2) conduct duties as directed by the Adminis- trator to promote the purposes of this Act.
(b) IN GENERAL.—The Senior Coordinator— (1) in consultation with the Ambassador-at- Large described in section 6, shall coordinate activi- ties, policies, programs, and funding of the Agency •S 3301 IS 11 relating to gender equality and women’s empower- ment;.
(2) shall actively promote and advance the inte- gration of gender analysis into the programs, struc- tures, processes, and capacities of all bureaus and offices of the Agency as dictated by the Agency’s Gender Equality and Female Empowerment Policy; (3) may design, support, and implement activi- ties led by the Agency regarding gender equality and women’s empowerment, including for the prevention and response to gender-based violence internation- ally; (4) shall serve as the principal advisor to the Administrator on gender equality, women’s em- powerment, and gender-based violence; (5) shall track and analyze monitoring and eval- uation data and findings on gender equality and women’s empowerment programs of the Agency; and (6) shall partner, consult, and coordinate with other governments, bilateral and multilateral institu- tions, nongovernmental organizations, and private- sector partners to advance the objectives of this Act.
SEC.

8.

REPORTING TO CONGRESS.
(a) ANNUAL REPORT.—Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, and annually there- •S 3301 IS 12 after until 2025, the President shall submit to the appro- priate congressional committees a report that— (1) summarizes and evaluates the implementa- tion of United States diplomatic efforts and foreign assistance programs, projects, and activities to ad- vance the policy objectives set forth in section 2; (2) describes the nature and extent of the co- ordination among the relevant departments and agencies; (3) describes the monitoring and evaluation tools, mechanisms, and common indicators to assess progress made on the policy objectives of this Act; (4) describes partnerships and collaborations with the private sector, including amount of funding leveraged by United States contributions to support the objectives described in section 2; and (5) describes partnerships, consultation, and co- ordination being undertaken with other govern- ments, bilateral and multilateral institutions, and nongovernmental organizations.
(b) BRIEFING.—Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, the Ambassador and Senior Coordinator shall provide to the appropriate congressional committees a briefing on barriers preventing gender equality and women’s inclusion •S 3301 IS 13 and empowerment worldwide and response strategies, pro- gramming, and associated outcomes.
SEC.

9.

DEFINITIONS.

In this Act: (1) AGENCY.—The term ‘‘Agency’’ means the United States Agency for International Develop- ment.

(2) AMBASSADOR.—The term ‘‘Ambassador’’ means the Ambassador-at-Large overseeing the Of- fice of Women’s Empowerment appointed by the President pursuant to section 6(a).
(3) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT- TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com- mittees’’ means— (A) the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate; (B) the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate; (C) the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives; and (D) the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives.
(4) GENDER ANALYSIS.—The term ‘‘gender analysis’’ refers to the definition as outlined in the Women’s Entrepreneurship and Economic Empower- •S 3301 IS 10 11 14 ment Act of 2018 (Public Law 115–428), namely to undertake analysis of ‘‘quantitative and qualitative information to identify, understand, and explain gaps between men and women’’.
(5) OFFICE.—The term ‘‘Office’’ means the Of- fice of Women’s Empowerment established by the Secretary of State pursuant to section 6(a).

(6) SENIOR COORDINATOR.—The term ‘‘Senior Coordinator’’ means the Senior Coordinator for Gen- der Equality and Women’s Empowerment at the Agency •S 3301 IS