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GENDER INTEGRATION FRAMEWORK How to integrate gender in every aspect of our work Table of Contents Foreword Background Goal and Objectives Guiding Principles Definitions FHI 360 Framework for Gender Integration Gender Integration Continuum Introduction to Gender Analysis Gender Integration in Programs Specific Considerations for Gender Integration in Research i 1 4 5 6 8 9 12 14 21 The Science of Improving Lives: Putting the Framework into Action 23 ©2012 by FHI 360 i FORWARD FHI 360 envisions a world in which all individuals and communities have the opportunity to reach their highest potential.
The evidence is clear that gender norms, roles and relations are key determinants of well-being across sectors and across the globe.

Recognizing that gender is a variable in most work in support of human development, we have created a Gender Integration Framework to guide all FHI 360 research and programmatic endeavors.
The objectives of this framework are four-fold: to build a common understanding of the fundamental role that gender plays in FHI 360’s work; to provide guidance on integrating gender into our projects; to foster an organization-wide commitment to gender integration; and to position FHI 360 as a technical leader.

Our over-arching goal is to ensure that gender is integrated in every aspect of our work.
This framework provides a means to accomplish this by offering guiding principles, providing definitions, explaining gender integration, introducing gender analysis and addressing gender integration in programs and research.

If used consistently and adapted as we learn from daily practice, this framework can enable us to make gender a positive aspect around which individual lives can be improved and human development advanced.
With support from FHI 360’s Scientific and Technical Strategic Initiative and Global Operating Platform Strategic Initiative, the Framework was developed by Elizabeth Doggett, Gail Goodridge, Elizabeth Mosely, Dominick Shattuck and Rose Wilcher.
It benefitted from input by Andrea Bertone, Denise Borders, Anne Eckman, FHI 360’s Asia Pacific Regional Office, Cindy Geary, Eugene Katzin, Laura Kayser, Timothy Mastro, Misti McDowell, Geeta Misra, Marjorie Newman-Williams, Susan Onyango, May Rihani and Cathy Thompson.

The launch of FHI 360’s Gender Integration Framework is an important milestone in our work.
Although we consider this a living document—one that will evolve over time—its launch marks our institutional commitment to advancing gender equality through our diverse development portfolio, including health, education, civil society, environment, economic productivity and research programs.

FHI 360 GENDER INTEGRATION FRAMEWORK 1 BACKGROUND Gender norms, roles and relations are powerful determinants of the health, social and economic well-being of individuals and communities around the world.
Indeed, gender equality is a key factor for human development and greater realization of human rights.

Development leaders around the world increasingly recognize that promoting gender equality is essential to achieving significant and sustainable progress related to health, education, the environment, civil society and the economy.
Gender inequality limits women’s and girls’ access to information, decision-making power, economic assets, educational opportunities, social capital and other health and development resources.

It also places them at greater risk of gender-based violence, human trafficking, early and forced marriage and other human rights violations.
Given women’s roles in agricultural production and water resource management, environmental degradation of soil, water and the natural resource base has a direct, negative impact on women and the families they support.

Though gender inequality disproportionately harms women and girls, men and boys are also affected by harmful gender norms.
For example, norms that pressure men and boys to be violent, have risky sex or refrain from seeking health care can increase their risk of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.

Gender is closely linked with sexuality, and those who transgress sexual norms related to gender and heterosexuality often experience stigma, discrimination and violence.

For example, discrimination against sexual minorities is prevalent in health care settings in many countries.
Not recognizing the needs and rights of these communities leaves many people vulnerable to poor health, lack of education and social and political discrimination.

In addition to individual-level harm, gender inequality may impede development at the country and societal levels.
For instance, research on education and economic growth has shown that failing to invest in girls’ education lowers gross national product (GNP) and incurs considerable consequences, such as increases in fertility, child mortality and malnutrition.

Further, without appropriate action, these costs will increase over time.

Evidence shows that integrating a gender perspective into development programs can improve program outcomes and increase equality between girls and boys and between women and men.
Effective strategies are emerging that transform harmful gender norms and behaviors, FHI 360 GENDER INTEGRATION FRAMEWORK “Gender equality is a core development objective in its own right.

But greater gender equality is also smart economics, enhancing productivity and improving other development outcomes, including prospects for the next generation and for the quality of societal policies and institutions.
Economic development is not enough to shrink all gender disparities— corrective policies that focus on persisting gender gaps are essential.” —WORLD BANK 2012 WORLD DEVELOPMENT REPORT 3 empower women and girls and engage men and boys as partners, clients and agents of positive social change.
Incorporating these strategies into programs has promoted gender-equitable norms and resulted in better program outcomes—such as increased contraceptive uptake and condom use; greater access, retention and completion of school among girls; improved food security and farming outputs; and more representative and more effective government and civil society institutions.
In light of this evidence, promoting gender equality is a major focus of global development donors—including the U.S. Government, World Bank, other bi-lateral and multi-lateral donors— and high-level international commitments such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Gender equality is widely acknowledged as a driver of all the MDGs, and MDG 3 (promote gender equity and empower women) specifically recognizes the importance of gender equality to development.

The U.S.
The U.S.

Global Health Initiative, of which the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is a key component, makes women and girls a top priority and gender equality a cross-cutting principle.
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which announced the formation of the Office of Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in May 2011 and released its Gender Equality and Female Empowerment Policy in 2012, mandates integrating gender considerations into all international development programs.

Several USAID bureaus and offices have already prioritized integrating gender into proposal language and monitoring of activities.
FHI 360 is committed to advancing gender equality through its diverse development portfolio, including global health, education, civil society, environment and economic productivity research and programs.

Indeed, many projects at FHI 360 have addressed gender issues over the years.

Under the Women’s Studies Project in the 1990s, FHI 360 conducted groundbreaking research on the impact of family planning on women’s lives—including their educational attainment, employment status and marital relations.
Through the YouthNet project, FHI 360 addressed gender norms among youth that contribute to unintended pregnancy, STIs, HIV/AIDS, sexual violence and coercion and early sexual debut and marriage.
More recently, FHI 360 worked with communities to confront gender-based violence, evaluated strategies to increase men’s engagement in reproductive health, implemented income generation and vocational-skills training programs with vulnerable female heads of households and tested and advocated for female-controlled HIV prevention methods.
Having recently acquired the projects of Academy for Educational Development (AED), FHI 360 has greatly expanded its knowledge and expertise on gender issues in the fields of education, women’s economic empowerment, health and youth engagement.

Through its Ambassadors Girls Scholarship Program (AGSP), for example, marriage age was delayed for girls in the countries where AGSP is working at the secondary level.
Through the Prevention of School-Related Gender-Based Violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, FHI 360 is changing the attitudes and behavior of teachers, parents, students and community members towards gender-based violence.

Gender issues must feature even more prominently in FHI 360’s future work.

At the time of the creation of this framework, FHI 360 is transforming with the integration of two organizations.
The ongoing transition will further enrich our capacity to increase gender equality and transform harmful gender norms and relations in our broader development work.

The legacy organizations each bring a wealth of knowledge and experience in addressing gender in health, education, economic development, civil society and peacebuilding and environmental programs.
This range of expertise positions FHI 360 as an organization with the potential to address gender inequality as a complex, multifaceted problem through tailored, comprehensive FHI 360 GENDER INTEGRATION FRAMEWORK 4 approaches.

As an organization, we now have unprecedented opportunities to bring together those separate areas of expertise to develop more holistic and refined approaches to effecting real changes toward greater gender equality.
This framework offers guidance for how FHI 360’s research and programs can systematically identify and challenge gender-based inequalities that pose barriers to development.
Integrating gender considerations (hereafter referred to as gender integration) into the planning, design, implementation and measurement of FHI 360’s research and programs and promoting the utilization of gender-related findings and evidence-based practices will maximize FHI 360’s contributions to development goals, including gender equality.

Given the change the organization is undertaking, this framework is conceived as a living document.
It was created in 2011 from our historical perspective as a tool for integrating gender concerns in health-oriented programs, and has been updated in 2012 to reflect more of the expanded organization’s areas of technical expertise.

The organization’s ongoing transformation will likely require that the framework adapt to reflect an approach to gender integration that is increasingly more comprehensive, evidence-based and more effective in increasing gender equality everywhere we work.
GOAL AND OBJECTIVES The goal of this framework is to lay a foundation of commitment and support that will enable FHI 360 to address gender-related norms, practices, inequalities and disparities in the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation (M&E) and dissemination of its development programs and research.

Gender integration will directly enhance the impact of FHI 360’s work by challenging gender-based inequalities that pose barriers to development progress.
The specific objectives of this framework are to • • • • build a common understanding of the fundamental role that gender plays in hindering or fostering development progress in all of FHI 360’s technical domains provide guidance on integrating gender, including gender analysis, into the entire project cycle to produce gender-aware and transformative projects foster commitment to gender integration at all levels of the organization and translate this commitment into practice position FHI 360 as a technical leader in advancing gender equality through our multisectoral development work FHI 360 GENDER INTEGRATION FRAMEWORK 5 GUIDING PRINCIPLES The following principles should guide all of FHI360’s work: • We maintain that gender integration is an essential component of FHI 360’s development work that will improve program outcomes.
We seek to address gender-related norms, practices, inequalities and disparities through gender integration in all stages of the project life cycle.

• We respect diversity and cultural differences while advocating nondiscrimination and social justice.
That is, all people, regardless of sex, gender expression/identity and/or sexual orientation, have equal rights, including the right to freedom from preventable disease and disability and the right to access quality health care; the right to quality education at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels; the right to economic opportunities; the right to participate freely and equitably in society; and the right to a healthy environment.
• We believe in promoting human rights-based approaches grounded in gender equality.

People of all genders are rights-holders and have the rights to health, security, dignity and autonomy.

This includes the rights of individuals to express their gender as they see fit and to make choices about their bodies and lives without discrimination or repercussion.

We affirm that state actors, service providers, and other civil society actors have the responsibility to respect, protect and fulfill human rights.
• We are committed to working within and from the local context.

Because culture, religion, ethnicity and class shape gender norms and roles, it is important to start from the local context when integrating gender into programs.

Local organizations, informal community leaders and local residents all have a vested interest in the well-being of their community and should participate in the design of interventions to ensure relevance, ownership, success and sustainability.
Successful development programs work with communities to identify elements of culture that may promote gender equality and use these elements as a resource for change.

These programs will acknowledge, respect and build on the diversity of their clients, communities, staff, partners and donors.

As a result, programs can more effectively advance gender equality in partnership with local communities.

• We seek to build alliances with diverse partners.
Addressing gender inequality requires collaboration among diverse stakeholders including national, district, local and traditional/ customary governments; civil society organizations (especially women’s groups); the private sector; and funders.

Each stakeholder provides a unique perspective, expertise and capacity to enrich strategic thinking, idea sharing, adoption of effective gender mainstreaming practices and joint responses to mutually relevant issues.
• Our framework and approach are grounded in empirical evidence and rigorous methodologies.

We are committed to generating and sharing quality data about gender and its impact on development.

We are further committed to basing our programs on the best available quantitative and qualitative evidence.

Monitoring and evaluation of our activities and programs must include gender-related measures as a critical component of overall progress and outcomes.
These processes should involve women and other program beneficiaries.

FHI 360 GENDER INTEGRATION FRAMEWORK 6 DEFINITIONS Gender: the economic, social, political and cultural attributes and opportunities that are associated with being girls and boys or women and men, and in some cultures a third or other gender.

The social definitions of what it means to be a girl, boy, woman or man vary among cultures and change over time.
Gender is a sociocultural expression of particular characteristics and roles that are associated with certain groups of people with reference to their sex and sexuality.1 For example, the expectation of men to be economic providers of the family and for women to be caregivers is a gender norm in many cultural contexts.

Sex: the biological characteristics (including genetics, anatomy and physiology) that generally define humans as female or male.
These biological characteristics are not mutually exclusive, however, as there are individuals who possess both male and female characteristics.2 For example, the fact that only females can have babies is related to their sex.

Gender equality: the state or condition that affords women and men equal enjoyment of human rights, socially valued goods, opportunities and resources.
Gender equality means that the different behaviors, aspirations and needs of women and men are considered, valued and treated equally and that individuals’ rights, responsibilities and opportunities will not depend on whether they are born male or female.3 For example, greater gender equality is the end goal of gender-integrated programming.

Gender equity: fairness in treatment of girls and boys and women and men, according to their respective needs.
The concept recognizes that women and men have different needs and social power and that these differences should be identified and addressed in a manner that rectifies the imbalance between the sexes.
In the development context, a gender equity goal often requires built-in measures to compensate for the historical and social disadvantages of girls and women.4 For example, a project that provides scholarships for girls to attend school seeks to compensate for historical disadvantages of girls and thus enacts a gender equity approach.
Gender integration: strategies applied in program planning, assessment, design, implementation and M&E to consider gender norms and to compensate for gender-based inequalities.5 For example, when a project conducts a gender analysis and incorporates the results into its objectives, work plan and M&E plan, it is undertaking a gender integration process.

1 Caro D. A manual for integrating gender into reproductive health and HIV programs: from commitment to action.

2nd ed.
2nd ed.

Washington, DC: Population Reference Bureau, USAID IGWG; 2009.

Available from: http://www.igwg.org/igwg_media/ manualintegrgendr09_eng.pdf.

2 Caro D. 2009.; Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Global Fund strategy in relation to sexual orientation and gender identities.

Washington, DC: Global Fund; nd.

Available from: www.theglobalfund.org/documents/ core/strategies/Core_SexualOrientationAndGenderIdentities_Strategy_en/ .
3 Caro D. 2009.; Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Global Fund gender equality strategy.

Washington, DC: Global Fund; nd.

Available from: www.theglobalfund.org/documents/core/strategies/Core_GenderEquality_ Strategy_en/ .

4 Global Fund, nd.

5 Caro D. 2009.


FHI 360 GENDER INTEGRATION FRAMEWORK 7 Gender mainstreaming: the process of incorporating a gender perspective into policies, strategies, programs, project activities, administrative functions and the institutional culture of an organization.
It entails making women’s and men’s concerns and experiences an integral dimension in the planning, design, implementation and M&E of policies and programs so that institutional practices promote greater equality between men and women.6 For example, when a program or organization addresses gender inequality in its own hiring and HR practices, it is undergoing gender mainstreaming.
Women’s empowerment: improving women’s status to enhance their decision-making capacity, agency and autonomy at all levels.7 For example, a women’s empowerment approach might provide female sex workers with training and classes on how to save and manage money.
Constructive men’s engagement: involving men to actively promote gender equity; increasing men’s support for women’s and children’s empowerment and advancing the health, education and economic well-being of men, boys, women and girls; and promoting equitable sharing of household decisions and responsibilities.
Ideally, constructive men’s engagement initiatives engage men as clients and beneficiaries, supportive partners of women and agents of change to promote equitable norms and relationships.8 For example, a constructive men’s engagement approach might educate young men about how gender norms encourage them to engage in risky sexual behaviors and support the young men to challenge those norms and enact safer practices.
Gender identity: each person’s deeply felt internal and individual experience of gender, which may or may not correspond with the sex assigned at birth, including the personal sense of the body (which may involve, if freely chosen, modification of bodily appearance or function by medical, surgical or other means).9 Because gender identity is internal and personally defined, it is not “visible” to others.10 For example, people born biologically female are likely to identify as a women, but sometimes they think of themselves as men (whether or not they dress, behave and so on as a man).
A person whose gender identity does not match his or her biological sex may or may not choose to identify as transgender, which is an umbrella term reflecting a broad spectrum of persons experiencing their gender in different ways.

Gender expression: all of the external characteristics and behaviors that are socially defined as either masculine or feminine, such as dress, mannerisms, speech patterns, and social interactions.
A person’s gender expression may or may not match his or her gender identity or his or her biological sex.

For example, for a male person who dresses and behaves like a woman in his or her culture, that person’s gender expression is that of a woman and thus different from the person’s biological sex.

This person may identify him/herself as a woman, man, third gender or transgender or more than one of these identities.

6 World Health Organization.


Strategy for integrating gender analysis and actions into the work of WHO.

Geneva: WHO; 2009.

Available from: http://www.who.int/gender/documents/gender/9789241597708/en/index.html; Caro D. 2009.

7 Caro D. 2009.

8 Caro D. 2009.; Greene M, Levack A. Synchronizing gender strategies: a cooperative model for improving reproductive health and transforming gender relations.

Washington, DC: Population Reference Bureau, USAID IGWG; 2010.
Available from: http://www.prb.org/igwg_media/synchronizing-gender-strategies.pdf.

9 Adapted from Yogyakarta Principles http://www.yogyakartaprinciples.org/principles_en.htm 10 IGWG.

IGWG sexual orientation and gender identity-related terms and concepts.

Washington, DC: USAID IGWG; nd.

Available from: http://igwg.org/igwg_media/Training/SexOrientIdentityRelTerms.pdf.
FHI 360 GENDER INTEGRATION FRAMEWORK 8 Sexual orientation: each person’s capacity for profound emotional, affectional and/or sexual attraction to, including sexual relations with, individuals of the same gender, a different gender or more than one gender.11 Sexual behavior may or may not be consistent with sexual orientation.

For example, a person’s sexual orientation may be heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual.
However, in many cultural contexts, some men identify as heterosexual yet have sex with both women and men.

Sexual minorities: persons whose sexual orientation does not conform to the heteronormative standard of heterosexuality.
Many societies reinforce the supremacy of heterosexual identity and behaviors and apply sanctions, including criminalization and the death penalty, against sexual minorities.12 For example, sexual minorities might include men who have sex with men and transgender, bisexual, gay and lesbian populations.
Heteronormativity: the presumption that everyone is heterosexual and/or the belief that heterosexual people are naturally superior to homosexual and bisexual people.13 For example, a sexual health education program that only discusses sexual health as it applies to heterosexual people is operating with a heteronormative bias.

FHI 360 FRAMEWORK FOR GENDER INTEGRATION The remainder of this document provides guidance and tools for FHI 360 to fully integrate gender into programs and research.
It includes the following components: Gender Integration Continuum: a conceptual framework that illustrates the different approaches to gender integration and their potential consequences Introduction to Gender Analysis: an overview of the process of collecting and analyzing information on gender to inform program or research design Gender Integration in Programs: the process of integrating gender considerations throughout the program cycle, including planning and proposal development; program design; implementation and management; M&E; reporting, documentation and dissemination; and research utilization Special Considerations for Gender in Research: how researchers can contribute to the growing knowledge base on gender and a full range of development issues, and on effective programmatic approaches, including gender considerations for the process of conducting research The Science of Improving Lives: Putting the Framework into Action: a variety of actions that we can take to implement the framework and integrate gender into our work 11 Yogyakarta Principles 12 Global Fund nd.
13 Caro D. 2009.

FHI 360 GENDER INTEGRATION FRAMEWORK 9 GENDER INTEGRATION CONTINUUM To demonstrate how our projects and research should integrate gender to address inequalities, FHI 360 uses a conceptual framework developed by the USAID Interagency Gender Working Group (IGWG), known as the Gender Integration Continuum.

This framework categorizes approaches by how they treat gender norms and inequality in the planning, design, implementation and M&E of a program or policy.

Figure 1.
Figure 1.

The Gender Integration Continuum14 The term gender blind refers to the programs and policies that do not consider how gender norms and unequal power relations will affect the achievement of objectives, or how the program or policy will affect gender norms and relations.

In contrast, gender aware refers to programs and policies that deliberately examine and address the anticipated gender-related outcomes during design and implementation.
Gender awareness is an important prerequisite for FHI 360 projects.

The continuum itself (the shaded arrow) classifies projects according to the way in which they respond to or address gender inequality: whether they seek to exploit, accommodate or transform inequitable gender norms and roles.

Figure 1.

The Gender Integration Continuum 14 Gender Integration Continuum How does your work address gender?
GENDER BLIND Ignores gender norms GENDER AWARE Reinforces or takes advantage of inequitable gender norms Works around existing norms Fosters critical examination of gender norms Strengthens equitable gender norms Changes inequitable gender norms GOAL: Gender Equality Gender exploitative approaches take advantage of inequitable gender norms and existing imbalances in power to achieve program objectives.
For example, a condom ad that portrays men as sexually aggressive or promiscuous exploits harmful norms related to men’s sexuality in order to sell condoms.

Another example would be a project that expects women to participate in time-intensive development activities without compensation or direct benefit to themselves.

This activity exploits women’s unpaid labor and may thus deepen their economic vulnerability.
Using a gender exploitative approach may seem expeditious in the short run, but this approach is unlikely to be sustainable, and it can result in harmful consequences and undermine the program’s intended objective.

Gender exploitative approaches are unacceptable for integrating gender.

Gender accommodating approaches acknowledge the role of gender norms and inequalities and develop actions that adjust to and often compensate for them.
Although such projects do not actively attempt to change norms and inequalities, they try to limit any harmful impact 14 IGWG.

Gender Integration Continuum.

(Draft PowerPoint presentation) Adapted from IGWG training materials; 2012.

FHI 360 GENDER INTEGRATION FRAMEWORK 10 on gender relations.

For example, a condom ad that portrays men as the primary consumers of condoms acknowledges the dominant gender norm at play in order to sell more condoms, but it does not challenge that norm.
Another example of a gender accommodating project is a basic education project in a community with wide gender inequalities in access to education that incorporates messages about the importance of education for girls in their community mobilization activities but does not challenge the underlying gender issues that keep girls out of school.
A gender accommodating approach may be a missed opportunity, because it does not deliberately contribute to increased gender equality or address the underlying structures and norms that perpetuate gender inequality.

Gender accommodating approaches can, however, provide a sensible first step to gender integration in contexts when gender inequality is deeply entrenched and pervasive in a society.
As unequal power dynamics and rigid gender norms are recognized and addressed through programs, a gradual shift toward challenging such inequalities should take place.

Gender transformative approaches actively attempt to examine, question and change harmful gender norms and the imbalance of power between women and men as a means of reaching development and gender equality objectives.
Gender transformative approaches encourage men’s and women’s critical awareness of gender roles and norms; promote the status of women; challenge the distribution of resources and allocation of duties between boys and girls and men and women; or address the power relationships between women and others in the community, such as service providers and traditional leaders.
For example, in a context where men tend to be decision makers about sexuality, a condom ad may portray a man and woman deciding together to use a condom, thereby questioning dominant norms about men’s aggression and women’s passivity related to sex and offering a more equitable, healthful alternative.
Another example of a transformative approach would be a food security project that engages female and male advocates for women farmers’ land use rights in a context where women lack rights to own or inherit land.

This approach challenges inequitable norms and policies by strengthening women’s voice and influence in public institutions while increasing food security for women, children and families.
A third example of gender transformative programming would be a program that sensitizes health care providers to gender-related stigma and discrimination faced by men who have sex with men and transgender clients and trains the providers to provide appropriate services without stigmatizing those clients.

This challenges normative thinking of health care providers, reduces gender-based stigma and mistreatment and improves health outcomes for these clients.
At a minimum, FHI 360’s planning and program design processes should be gender aware.

Gender-blind planning processes are highly unlikely to result in gender transformative projects; rather they are most likely to either exploit or accommodate inequitable and harmful gender norms, roles or practices, however inadvertently.

This is why, in the graphic, gender blind programs are separate from the continuum arrow itself.
On the other hand, gender aware programs are deliberate about where they fall along the continuum, which is why we advocate at least a gender aware approach for all FHI 360 projects.

The ultimate goal of development programs is to achieve program outcomes while transforming gender norms toward greater equality.

Thus, FHI 360’s programs should endeavor to transform harmful gender norms whenever possible.
(Examples of gender transformative approaches can be found below and in Guidance and Resources for Integrating Gender into Proposals at FHI 360 [Appendix G].)

As noted above, however, it may be necessary for some components of a program to be accommodating as a first step toward transforming gender norms, roles and relations.

Under no circumstances, however, should programs take advantage of harmful gender inequalities to pursue health or development outcomes.
FHI 360 GENDER INTEGRATION FRAMEWORK Gender-based inequalities can pose barriers to achieving health results.

For example, women’s lack of access to financial resources may be a barrier to uptake of family planning services.

Equitable gender norms and relations (or willingness of women and men to enact more equal relationships and behaviors), on the other hand, can be opportunities for achieving health outcomes.
For example, if a gender analysis finds that many men are willing to discuss family planning with their female partners, this may be an opportunity to promote communication, shared decision making and equitable allocation of financial resources within couples and families.

12 INTRODUCTION TO GENDER ANALYSIS Gender integration in research and programs must be guided by information on how gender inequality affects development and the intended outcomes of the programs.
Gender analysis is therefore the foundation of strategic and effective gender integration processes and should be planned and budgeted for as early in the project design process as possible.
It refers to a systematic way of examining the following: • • • • the different roles and norms for women, men, girls, boys, heterosexuals and sexual and gender minorities the different level of power that they have in society the different needs, constraints and opportunities of each group the impact of these differences in their lives A gender analysis first identifies the gender norms and inequalities between these groups that are likely to affect the achievement of sustainable results.
That information then helps to determine how to address the inequalities and development consequences.

Gender analyses in the context of development programs should use locally relevant data to answer two basic questions: • How will gender norms affect the achievement of sustainable project results?

• How will the proposed project results affect the relative status of men and boys, women and girls and sexual and gender minorities (including possible unintentional positive and negative outcomes)?
Gender analyses can and should take place at every stage of the project and research cycle.

At some stages (especially in project design), a formal gender analysis is needed.

Sources of data for formal gender analysis include: • • • published research studies and other existing quantitative and qualitative data about gender norms in the project context (for example; DHS surveys, journal articles, national surveys on gender-based violence.
For more details, see Appendix C) gender-related policies in the project area primary data on gender norms and practices related to the project or study focus (for example, data obtained through focus groups and key informant interviews) When resources are constrained or when a formal gender analysis has already been conducted earlier in the project or research cycle, conducting a more informal gender analysis using as much information as is easily accessible can be useful.
This analysis might include published or unpublished studies; quantitative or qualitative data; feedback from study or project participants; or even the experiential knowledge of the staff, target community or other stakeholders.

To understand gender relations better, both formal and informal gender analyses should be systematically organized by exploring gender norms, inequalities and relations within specific aspects of social and cultural relations in a given context.
Gender experts have developed a number of analytical tools to guide you through this process.15 FHI 360 endorses a gender analysis methodology adapted from the Liverpool Gender Analysis Framework by the IGWG.

15 An illustrative list of tools is provided in the reference section of Caro D. 2009.

FHI 360 GENDER INTEGRATION FRAMEWORK 13 This methodology analyzes the following domains:16 • Access to resources: one’s ability to use financial and other resources/assets.
Having access to resources and control over them is fundamental to being a fully active and productive (socially, economically and politically) participant in society.

Resources and assets include national and productive resources, information, education, income, services, employment and benefits.

• Knowledge, beliefs and perceptions: beliefs, perceptions, knowledge and social norms of women, men, girls and boys; and beliefs and perceptions about women, men, girls, and boys.
Boys, girls, women and men are privy to different types of knowledge and experiences.

Thus, boys, girls, men and women have diverse beliefs and may perceive situations differently.

This domain also includes beliefs and social norms about women’s and men’s acceptable behavior, how they are differently valued in society, and what they are capable of.

• Practices and participation: peoples’ behaviors and actions in life and how they vary by gender.
The domain encompasses gender differences in freedom of movement or autonomy to enable participation, types of activities and practices, how people engage in development activities and allocation and availability of time to participate.

• Legal rights and status: how people of different genders are regarded and treated by the customary and formal legal codes and judicial systems.
This domain includes the right to vote, enter into legal agreements and contracts, be a legislator, own property and make reproductive choices.

It also includes entitlements to health care, representation, due process and family formation or recognition.

Gender-based differences in legal rights and status may affect girls, women and sexual minorities particularly.

• Power: the capacity to control resources and to make autonomous and independent decisions free of coercion.
Gender norms influence the extent to which individuals can make and act on decisions about acquiring resources; beliefs; one’s own body; children; occupations; affairs of the household, community or state; voting; running for office; legislation; entering into legal contracts; and moving about and associating with others.

Power is a part of each of the above domains, as well as a domain in its own right.
To conduct a gender analysis, identify within each domain: (1) key gender relations, (2) the ways in which those key gender relations create barriers to and opportunities for achieving project results, and (3) the ways in which the proposed project or activity is likely to exploit, accommodate or transform gender relations.

Appendix B contains a worksheet to guide you through the gender analysis process.

16 Caro D. 2009.
16 Caro D. 2009.

FHI 360 GENDER INTEGRATION FRAMEWORK 14 GENDER INTEGRATION IN PROGRAMS Gender analysis is the foundation of gender integration—it informs gender integration at each stage of the project cycle (proposal planning and development, design, implementation and management, M&E, reporting, documentation and dissemination) and in research utilization.

As previously noted, FHI 360 staff can and should integrate gender into their program or research study at all phases of the project cycle.
PLANNING AND PROPOSAL DEVELOPMENT Today, most funder requests for proposals (RFPs) explicitly ask that respondents consider gender as a cross-cutting issue and expect them to clearly integrate gender considerations throughout the proposal.

This is often the case even in requests that are not focused specifically on gender issues.
To ensure responsiveness, FHI 360 design teams should abide by the following guidelines: • Become familiar with the donor’s policies, expectations, language and priorities related to gender and the development issue, such as those listed in Appendix A.

• Become familiar with FHI 360’s Gender Integration Framework, capacity, demonstrated strengths and experience related to gender.

• Become familiar with the technical and geographical gender contexts relevant to the proposal.
• Propose and budget for evidence-based or innovative project elements and activities that strive to transform gender norms and increase equality, including building the capacity of staff and partners.

• Plan to measure the impact of the proposed project on gender-related outcomes, such as changes in gender norms and women’s status.

• Ensure the proposal is reviewed carefully for its gender-relevant content.
• When possible, nominate a gender focal point in the country of implementation to ensure gender integration across all the components and activities of the proposal.

At the time of proposal development (or earlier when design teams have an advance draft of an RFP), a gender analysis should be undertaken to gather information on gender norms, relations and inequalities that affect the health and development goals of the project.
For proposals, the gender analysis should particularly emphasize the policy, target community and stakeholder environments.

To assess the policy environment, proposal team members should ask what laws and policies support or hinder achievement of the project’s objectives.

Examples might be laws and policies regarding women’s status, gender-based violence, heteronormativity or the constructive engagement of men and boys.
These might include international commitments or national, constitutional, regional, local, customary and clinic-level policies.

For the stakeholder environment, proposal team members should ask who are the relevant actors and agencies that the project might engage as partners in order to achieve project objectives related to or affected by gender and sexuality.
Such groups could include women’s organizations or other community groups; nongovernmental organizations; lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender FHI 360 GENDER INTEGRATION FRAMEWORK EXAMPLES OF GENDER TRANSFORMATIVE APPROACHES • Engaging communities in discussions of gender inequality and its consequences for women, men, boys and girls • Encouraging women’s meaningful participation and leadership in all development projects • Preventing and responding to gender-based violence • Ensuring that girls and boys have equal access to school, have support systems that will facilitate their retention and completion, as well as quality learning outcomes • Incorporating safe-sex negotiation and communication skills training emphasizing equitable relationships between women and men • Introducing behavior change campaigns that discourage men’s sexual risk-taking and violent and controlling behaviors, or that demonstrate the benefits of equitable partnerships between women and men • Supporting girls’ and women’s empowerment (especially economic empowerment) so that they can better advocate for their rights • Reducing gender-based stigma and violence against groups marginalized by sexual orientation or gender behaviors and increasing access of these groups to health and development resources and services • Engaging men in supporting the health needs of their partners and in challenging harmful gender norms EXAMPLES OF GENDER-RELATED MEASURES • women’s mobility • women’s control over their earnings • couple’s decision making on family planning • men’s and women’s attitudes toward gender roles and norms • men’s and women’s attitudes toward gender- based violence • men’s willingness to participate in domestic chores and child rearing • health-related knowledge of boys and girls • homophobic attitudes • stigmatizing attitudes and discriminatory practices toward sexual and gender minorities “Pullquote goes here—ATTRIBUTION 17 advocacy groups; ministries; and local government agencies.
If time permits, information gathered through literature reviews, policy analysis and stakeholder identification and discussions can be augmented with focus groups or key informant interviews with target populations and other influential community members.
More information on gender integration in proposals can be found in Guidance and Resources for Integrating Gender into Proposals in Appendix G. PROGRAM DESIGN Program design provides an opportunity to address gender through the objectives, goals and activities of the programs.

Program design should take into account the findings of a gender analysis.

The process for identifying and addressing gender issues at this stage includes the following steps: 1.
Identify gender-specific barriers to or opportunities for achieving the objectives.

2.

Within project objectives, articulate or strengthen synergy between gender and health and development goals.

3.

Identify specific strategies and approaches to address harmful norms, behaviors and structures and to promote the equitable participation of women and men in programs as appropriate.

4.

Incorporate the identified strategies into the project design, activities and work plan.

5.
5.

Identify ways to measure the impact of the strategies on gender equality and health and development outcomes (see M&E section below).

As with any other part of the project design process, FHI 360 should undertake gender integration in collaboration with the project’s implementation partner(s) and program beneficiaries.
Together, strategies and activities should be locally relevant and appropriate so that they address gendered structural issues (for example, policies and health systems) as well as gender norms and practices at the community and individual levels.

This process can also serve as a component of an advocacy strategy to raise awareness and dialogue of gender issues in the broader community.
After the project has been designed, project members should review the draft to assess whether and how proposed activities will affect existing gender norms, behaviors and structures.

Do activities unintentionally reinforce or intensify harmful norms?

Will they promote gender equality or increase the status of women and girls?

Do activities address existing negative gender relations but potentially pose new gender challenges?
The Gender Integration Continuum (see Figure 1) can help staff assess the potential impact of the project on gender norms.

In addition to the overall project design, program materials, including training, communication and educational tools, should be field-tested for gender sensitivity and revised accordingly.

As noted above, project design should promote gender transformative strategies whenever possible.
At a minimum, however, projects should be gender aware and should avoid reinforcing or exploiting harmful norms.

See Appendix D for more resources on gender integration during project design.

FHI 360 GENDER INTEGRATION FRAMEWORK 18 IMPLEMENTATION AND MANAGEMENT Project implementation and management strategies are essential opportunities for promoting gender equity and, ultimately, gender equality.
Project members should ensure that men, women, girls and boys (as appropriate) participate fully in program design and implementation, and that they benefit from the program equitably.

The perspectives of people of all relevant genders and sexual orientations should be taken into account as work plans are created, reviewed and updated.

Program implementers should note that the presence of women or other marginalized groups does not always mean their voices are heard or taken seriously.
In areas where certain groups are very marginalized, implementers should also ensure that participation in program activities does not put individuals at increased risk of violence, ridicule or other ill treatment.
Implementers should ask questions such as the following: Examples of gender-related measures women’s mobility women’s control over their earnings couple’s decision making on family planning men’s and women’s attitudes toward gender roles and norms men’s and women’s attitudes toward gender-based violence men’s willingness to participate in domestic chores and child rearing health-related knowledge of boys and girls homophobic attitudes stigmatizing attitudes and dis- criminatory practices toward sexual and gender minorities • Are marginalized voices and perspectives heard in meetings and in decision making?
• Are girls and boys being engaged in youth activities?

• Is there a balance in representation and leadership between youth, men and women?

Is the program being implemented in a way that provides safe access to sexual minorities and other marginalized or stigmatized groups?

• Management of programs provides an important opportunity to increase gender equity and gender mainstreaming in FHI 360’s work.
At a minimum, program staff and implementing partners should be adequately trained in gender integration and mainstreaming to carry out their program responsibilities.

Management can sustain commitment to such capacity by including performance criteria that are related to competencies and excellence in gender integration.
In addition, it is imperative that project activities and governance structures—such as project management structures, mobilization of peer educators or outreach workers, community task forces and other leadership structures—strive to include equal and fair numbers of women and men, as appropriate, and to enable their equitable influence.

Measures to increase the meaningful representation of women may be necessary (for example, affirmative action procedures, paid child-care and literacy support).
Best practices for gender mainstreaming also highlight the importance of implementing gender equality policies and practices within organizations.
Though such an internal process is important to achieve sustainable gender-integrated programming, it is possible to advance gender mainstreaming in technical or project work prior to embarking on gender mainstreaming at the organization level.17 Further consideration of best practices and guidance to support gender mainstreaming within FHI 360 as an organization is necessary, but it is beyond the scope of this framework and its focus on gender integration within FHI 360’s technical programming.
MONITORING AND EVALUATION At a minimum, gender integration during project M&E means disaggregating data by sex in order to measure differential effects on males, females and, as appropriate, other sex or gender categories.

Incorporating gender considerations into M&E should, however, go much 17 Mehra R. Gupta GR.

Gender mainstreaming: making it happen.

Washington, DC: International Center for Research on Women; 2006.
FHI 360 GENDER INTEGRATION FRAMEWORK Examples of gender-related measures women’s mobility women’s control over their earnings couple’s decision making on family planning men’s and women’s attitudes toward gender roles and norms men’s and women’s attitudes toward gender-based violence men’s willingness to participate in domestic chores and child rearing health-related knowledge of boys and girls homophobic attitudes stigmatizing attitudes and dis- criminatory practices toward sexual and gender minorities IMPLEMENTATION AND MANAGEMENT Project implementation and management strategies are essential opportunities for promoting gender equity and, ultimately, gender equality.
Project members should ensure that men, women, girls and boys (as appropriate) participate fully in program design and implementation, and that they benefit from the program equitably.

The perspectives of people of all relevant genders and sexual orientations should be taken into account as work plans are created, reviewed and updated.

Program implementers should note that the presence of women or other marginalized groups does not always mean their voices are heard or taken seriously.
In areas where certain groups are very marginalized, implementers should also ensure that participation in program activities does not put individuals at increased risk of violence, ridicule or other ill treatment.

Implementers should ask questions such as the following: • Are marginalized voices and perspectives heard in meetings and in decision making?

• Are girls and boys being engaged in youth activities?
Is there a balance in representation and leadership between youth, men and Is the program being implemented in a way that provides safe access to sexual minorities and other marginalized or stigmatized groups?

• • women?

Management of programs provides an important opportunity to increase gender equity and gender mainstreaming in FHI 360’s work.
At a minimum, program staff and implementing partners should be adequately trained in gender integration and mainstreaming to carry out their program responsibilities.

Management can sustain commitment to such capacity by including performance criteria that are related to competencies and excellence in gender integration.
In addition, it is imperative that project activities and governance structures—such as project management structures, mobilization of peer educators or outreach workers, community task forces and other leadership structures—strive to include equal and fair numbers of women and men, as appropriate, and to enable their equitable influence.

Measures to increase the meaningful representation of women may be necessary (for example, affirmative action procedures, paid child-care and literacy support).
Best practices for gender mainstreaming also highlight the importance of implementing gender equality policies and practices within organizations.
Though such an internal process is important to achieve sustainable gender-integrated programming, it is possible to advance gender mainstreaming in technical or project work prior to embarking on gender mainstreaming at the organization level.17 Further consideration of best practices and guidance to support gender mainstreaming within FHI 360 as an organization is necessary, but it is beyond the scope of this framework and its focus on gender integration within FHI 360’s technical programming.
MONITORING AND EVALUATION At a minimum, gender integration during project M&E means disaggregating data by sex in order to measure differential effects on males, females and, as appropriate, other sex or gender categories.

Incorporating gender considerations into M&E should, however, go much 17 Mehra R. Gupta GR.

Gender mainstreaming: making it happen.

Washington, DC: International Center for Research on Women; 2006.

19 further.
19 further.

Programs and their subprojects ought to be evaluated in terms of their impact on gender-related outcomes in addition to the health- or development-related outcomes that are the project’s primary focus.

Although the outcomes measured should be linked to program objectives, as appropriate, M&E plans should include indicators that measure changes in gender norms or relations, access to services and resources, and women’s and men’s status and power.
A number of gender-related scales have been validated and can be adapted and incorporated into project M&E plans (see Appendix D).

CASE STUDY LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE AMBASSADORS GIRLS SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM One of the most visible impacts of the AGSP Mentoring Program has been the prevention of early marriage among school-age girls.
In the final year of the AGSP in Katanga Province of DRC, the mentoring program was credited with preventing ten cases of early marriage, enabling these girls to continue attending school and furthering their education.
While sustaining the provision of scholarships and school supplies on a scale comparable to AGSP will not be possible in the absence of significant external funding, many communities have demonstrated that they can sustain mentoring activities for very little cost, and have mobilized local resources to continue supporting girls’ mentoring activities, in some cases even expanding into new schools or communities.

This shows how much the mentoring is valued by local communities.
AGSP provided support in the form of scholarships, mentoring and parent and community awareness programs to promote and support girls’ education, and HIV and AIDS awareness activities to prevent and mitigate the spread of HIV/ AIDS.

A multi-country assessment conducted by AGSP in 2010 found that AGSP helped girls successfully complete primary school when it was “against the odds” to do so according to national-level statistics.
For example, in DRC, at the national level, girls’ primary completion rates are approximately 20% lower than boys’, but the assessment found the opposite to be true for AGSP schools.

In all of the AGSP schools included in the two-province study, the completion rate was higher for girls than for boys, in some cases as much as twice the completion rate of boys.

Another notable finding was that AGSP has had a tremendous impact on attendance rates.
Attendance rates of AGSP scholars in DRC were close to 100% across all schools and across all years of the study (Equateur and Bandundu provinces 2004–2009) as compared to the national average of 52% net attendance rates for DRC students (UNICEF 1996–2004).

FHI 360 GENDER INTEGRATION FRAMEWORK 20 Evaluation strategies should also track the project’s effectiveness in identifying and addressing gender-related obstacles to program success.
Gender-related activities should be monitored regularly throughout the project to determine whether they are achieving their objectives.

They should then be modified as necessary to ensure successful gender and public health outcomes.

Gender integration into M&E is also crucial for identifying a program’s unintended negative consequences related to gender.

See Guidance and Resources for Integrating Gender into Proposals (Appendix G) for more resources on gender integration in M&E.
U.S. Government Gender Equality and Female Empowerment Indicators According to the USAID Policy on Gender Equality and Female Empowerment, the following indicators should be used in Performance Management Plans to track progress in reducing key gender gaps: 1.

Number of laws, policies or procedures drafted, proposed or adopted to promote gender equality at the regional, national or local level 2.
Proportion of female participants in USG-assisted programs designed to increase access to productive economic resources (assets, credit, income or employment) 3.

Proportion of females who report increased self-efficacy at the conclusion of USG-supported training and programming 4.

Proportion of target population reporting increased agreement with the concept that males and females should have equal access to social, economic and political opportunities.

5.
5.

Number of laws, policies or procedures drafted, proposed or adopted with USG assistance designed to improve prevention of or response to sexual and gender-based violence (GBV) at the regional, national or local level 6.

Number of people reached by a USG-funded intervention providing GBV services (such as health, legal, psycho-social counseling, shelters, hotlines, other) 7.
Percentage of target population that views GBV as less acceptable after participating in or being exposed to USG programming REPORTING, DOCUMENTATION AND DISSEMINATION As FHI 360 continues to build its reputation as a leader in gender and development research and practice, it is increasingly important to report and promote our gender-related strategies, approaches and results.
FHI 360 is particularly well poised to contribute to the broader gender and development community through our capacity to generate evidence regarding the effect that gender norms and inequalities have on health and development and the ways in which gender-integrated programs and approaches can reduce gender inequality, raise women’s status and improve health and development outcomes.
Gender results should therefore be reported, documented and disseminated along with health or development results, including in the context of health- and development-related publications and fora.

FHI 360 GENDER INTEGRATION FRAMEWORK 21 RESEARCH UTILIZATION FHI 360 should take a leading role in promoting evidence-based practices for integrating gender into development programming.
As the evidence base on gender’s influence on health and development expands, it is important to synthesize and package the best available evidence on effective gender transformative programming.

Furthermore, we should advocate for utilizing this evidence to inform the development and scale-up of gender transformative policies and programs.

SPECIFIC CONSIDERATIONS FOR GENDER INTEGRATION IN RESEARCH FHI 360 has a longstanding commitment to research on gender and development issues.
This commitment has substantially contributed to the growing body of evidence driving the current international focus on gender.

FHI 360’s leadership in gender research is demonstrated by large initiatives, such as the Women’s Studies Project, and smaller formative and operations research studies on approaches for transforming gender norms and promoting equitable development results.

(For an example, see the side bar on the Ujana Project.)
FHI 360 must continue to be at the forefront of using cutting-edge research methods (both quantitative and qualitative) to answer three broad questions: (1) How do gendered norms, practices, inequitable status and access to information and services affect the relative health and well-being of women, men, boys, girls and sexual/gender minorities?

(2) What programmatic approaches are effective in increasing gender equality and improving the status of women and sexual and gender minorities?
(3) What effect does gender transformative programming have on development outcomes?

Research in these areas is critical to inform programmatic work undertaken by FHI 360 and its partners in the field.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES ON GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT Through its capacity to conduct clinical, behavioral, social science and programmatic research, FHI 360 is strategically poised to advance the science around gender and development.
With a research portfolio that spans the health, education, economic development, environment and governance and civil society sectors, FHI 360 can increase understanding of the relationship between gender and development progress, test interventions and strategies for improving gender- and development-related outcomes, and contribute to the evidence base of gender transformative best practices.
Illustrative examples of how FHI 360 has contributed to the evidence base of the ways in which gender, health and development intersect: • • • explored the effect of family planning on the lives of women and men in different settings studied ways to increase men’s engagement in reproductive health programs tested and advocated for female-controlled HIV prevention methods FHI 360 GENDER INTEGRATION FRAMEWORK 22 CASE STUDY UJANA PROJECT IN TANZANIA Applying gender-focused research to existing programs and clinical trials is one of FHI 360’s strengths.
FHI 360’s Ujana Project in Tanzania provides an example of how gender-associated data were used to shape an existing program.

Ujana project leaders investigated how school-related gender-based violence negatively affected education and health outcomes, including reductions in student attendance, retention and performance; increases in unwanted pregnancy; HIV incidence; student self-esteem; sexual risk- taking behaviors; and rates of depression.
Findings from this basic research identified several key areas for intervention (such as addressing transportation concerns and forced and transactional sex between male teachers and female students).

These data were later used to design interventions that are being piloted and systematically evaluated.
• • • • explored how gender dynamics relate to the use or non-use of contraception and HIV prevention technologies studied gender norms among youth that contribute to unintended pregnancy, STIs, HIV/AIDS, sexual violence and coercion and early sexual debut and marriage validated scales for measuring gender norms and their relationship to outcomes of public health interventions evaluated girls education programs for their impact on girls’ enrollment and retention in school and prevention of early marriage New research at FHI 360 might focus on the following gender-related areas and knowledge gaps: • Despite the ever-growing body of work on gender norms in the literature, the number of rigorously evaluated gender transformative programs remains small.18 Intervention research that assesses the impact of development programs on reducing gender inequality should be explored.
• Cost-effectiveness studies, studies to explore scale-up and replication of programs proven to work, and sustainability analyses to measure how long proven changes last and what is needed to support sustained change are needed.19 • As we become more integrated across technical areas, FHI 360 should advance research to better understand how different forms of inequality relate to one another (such as how women’s health relates to their economic status or their levels of influence in government) and on how multi-sectoral interventions can best reduce gender inequality.
In addition, questions related to gender can be integrated into research that is not focused on 18 Barker G, Ricardo C, Nascimento M. Engaging men and boys in changing gender-based inequity in health: evidence from programme interventions.

Geneva: World Health Oganization; 2007.

Rottach E, Schuler S, Hardee K. Gender perspectives improve reproductive health outcomes.

New evidence.

Washington, DC: Population Reference Bureau, USAID IGWG; 2009.

19 Rottach.

2009.
19 Rottach.

2009.

FHI 360 GENDER INTEGRATION FRAMEWORK 23 gender.

For example, evaluations of interventions can incorporate questions about whether and how gender norms and inequalities pose barriers to and opportunities for achieving the desired program outcomes and also measure differential impacts of intervention on women and girls versus men and boys.
Finally, FHI 360 researchers will continue to consider gender not only in the content of its research, but also in the way in which it conducts research.
When working with marginalized groups or researching sensitive subjects (for example, gender-based violence), it is especially important to consider the gender-related implications of participants’ involvement and as part of overall ethical considerations.20 Considering gender when designing the research methodology can improve the effectiveness of participant recruitment and increase understanding of the research issue and the likelihood of drawing correct conclusions from findings.
For instance, FHI 360 has applied gender-focused formative research in the design of its HIV prevention clinical trial research, resulting in better recruitment and retention methods, improved services for participants (such as HIV prevention counseling and care and treatment algorithms) and increased understanding of the dynamics between trial participants’ drug adherence and the context in which participants live.
Incorporating gender into research can also have a transformative impact on the community, particularly when community members are engaged in the research and dissemination process.

THE SCIENCE OF IMPROVING LIVES: PUTTING THE FRAMEWORK INTO ACTION This framework lays out the ways in which FHI 360 can significantly improve lives by integrating gender into our work.
The framework builds on the international community’s increasing support and a growing evidence base to make our work more rigorous, effective and transformative.

The framework also contributes to existing FHI 360 Strategic Initiatives by strengthening scientific and technical leadership on gender-related concerns, staff capacity building, program performance improvement and enhanced knowledge management through sharing of best practices in gender integration and analysis.
In that spirit, FHI 360 must continue to: • • • generate and disseminate evidence on the effect of gender norms on women’s and men’s knowledge, behaviors and vulnerabilities; access to resources and services; use of technologies; and development progress contribute to the evidence base of effective interventions and strategies for improving gender- and development-related outcomes prioritize stand-alone gender projects to maintain FHI 360’s leadership on a variety of gender-related issues such as girls’ education, GBV, human trafficking, gender and health, women’s and girls’ leadership and women’s and girls’ economic empowerment 20 World Health Organization/Department of Gender, Women, and Health.
Putting women first: ethical and safety recommendations for research on domestic violence against women.

Geneva: WHO; 2001.; World Health Organization, PATH.

Researching violence against women: a practical guide for researchers and activists.

Geneva: WHO; 2005.

FHI 360 GENDER INTEGRATION FRAMEWORK As part of its organization-wide Quality Management System (QMS), FHI 360 will set standards of performance for itself in terms of gender integration into its proposals, research and programs.
FHI 360 will use existing mechanisms such as technical and data quality assessments and mid-term project and portfolio reviews to measure performance against our standards and use the results of those assessments to further build FHI 360 capacity in gender and improve program outcomes.

The standards and processes and tools for measuring performance on gender will be added to the next version of the framework.
24 • • • • strengthen the use of gender-integration tools and approaches in the design, implementation, and monitoring of development programs enhance the measurement of gender’s influence in development research and evaluations accelerate the uptake of gender-related research findings into policy and practice expand the pursuit of gender transformative policy and programming for women, men, girls and boys The following are practical steps that FHI 360 projects, offices or departments can take to fully integrate this framework into FHI 360’s work across the organization: 1.
Identify gender focal points for country or project offices and organizational departments.

Gender focal points help a country or project office or a department to focus its efforts around gender integration, facilitate staff access to up-to-date resources on gender, build the capacity of staff and implementing agencies to integrate gender into programming and facilitate the exchange of information between the country or project office or department and the Gender Working Group.
Gender focal points should be mid- or senior-level program or technical staff with experience or interest in gender.

It is important that gender focal points have the mandate, time and capacity to make an impact on the country/project office’s or department’s efforts on gender.

2.

Build plans for a formal gender analysis into the current project or program-level work plan.

As noted above, gender analysis can take place at any phase of the program cycle.
Formal or informal, gender analysis is critical to integrating gender into FHI 360’s work.

3.

Explicitly budget resources in new and existing projects for formal gender analysis, integration and related capacity building.

This includes finances and time for staff capacity building and ongoing resources for gender analysis and integration.

4.

Incorporate gender-related objectives and indicators into the Performance Monitoring Plan.
Measuring the impact of programs on gender norms, practices and the status of women is important to ensuring that programs are on track and to improving their effectiveness.

5.

Report and disseminate key gender research and program results.

As FHI 360 becomes known for its commitment to gender integration, reporting and disseminating our gender-related findings and results is just as important as reporting and disseminating other health and development findings and outcomes.

6.
6.

Develop specific country or project office or department strategies for integrating gender into their work.

7.

Identify gender-related technical assistance or capacity-building needs and request support from the Gender Department.

The Gender Department and sector specific gender focal points are available to provide technical assistance with any of the above action steps.
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