REPORT TO CONGRESS
 

September 11,2009
 

GENDER INTEGRATION AND PROGRAMMING
 

This report is submitted in compliance with the following directive in the Omnibus 

Appropriations Act, 2009 (RR 1105; PL 111-8): the U.S. Agency for International 

Development (USAID) "is directed to report 180 days after enactment ofthis Act 

on the steps taken to better integrate gender considerations into its economic 

developnlent portfolio, and describe current and future planned programming that 

promote women's economic opportunities, including the outcomes associated with 

these programs disaggregated by gender." 

The report discusses relevant USAID actions in FY 2008 and FY 2009. It includes 

both a discussion of institutional changes within USAID to strengthen the 

integration of gender throughout the Agency's programs and exanlples of the types 

of interventions in the field that promote women's economic opportunities. 

I. Gender in USAID's economic developnlent portfolio 

Ensuring that gender is taken into consideration in all aspects of economic 

development has been a longstanding concern of USAID. In 1973, an amendment 

to the Foreign Assistance Act offered by Senator Percy and enacted into law asked 

for" ... particular attention to those programs, proj ects and activities which tend to 

integrate wonlen into the national economies of foreign countries, thus improving 

their status and assisting the total development effort." 

USAID's recently adopted strategy for economic growth, Securing the Future 

(April 2008), recognizes that the drivers of economic growth, such as business 

regulation, property rights and the rule of law, and other aspects of economic 

governance relevant to entrepreneurial ability, shape the incentives for productive 

effort. Without supportive drivers in place, incentives to enable growth -- such as 

the availability of credit, assistance to micro, small and medium enterprises, 

u.s. NiJerof for International Development 

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education and workforce development, or improved infrastructure - may fall short 

oftheir long-term potential. 

The economic growth report, Securing the Future, consistently highlights the need 

to pay particular attention to women's needs and rights. At the outset, the report 

states that, "Broad-based growth is growth that includes all major income groups, 

ethnic groups, and women." The report goes on to highlight that USAID' s 

economic growth objectives are to "enhance access to productive opportunities for 

the poor, women and other disadvantaged groups to help ensure that they benefit 

from growth." The report then exanlines challenges to growth from various 

perspectives, financial, legal, structural, etc. In each of these sections, the report 

identifies particular problems faced by women and actions USAID has taken to 

overcome these impediments. In the financial arena, the report identifies the 

particular challenges poor women face. "In many poor countries, poor householdsand poor women in particular-lack safe places to keep their savings, lack access to 

credit due to their inability to offer collateral, and cannot obtain insurance to 

protect themselves or their businesses...Microfinance programs of USAID 

continue to address these problems, with a particular focus on women." In terms 

of property rights, again the economic growth strategy specifically highlights the 

need to focus on women's rights. It states, "Lack of secure tenure to land is a 

particularly large threat to the poor, and especially for women, who own less than 

2 percent of all land in developing countries...Women often suffer an additional 

disadvantage, holding fewer legal rights than men in key economic areas such as 

land ownership and inheritance. USAID works to strengthen judicial systems and 

encourage equal rights for women." 

In addition to addressing the legal and structural impediments women confront, 

social and cultural factors also frequently limit the extent to which women are able 

to benefit from economic growth opportunities. USAID's challenge is to ensure 

that its operating units around the world, working in diverse cultures, address the 

fundamental constraints affecting the ability of women and men to contribute fully 

to, and benefit fully from, opportunities for economic growth. Through its central 

and mission programs, USAID is advancing these efforts by building its own 

internal capacity, as well as the capacity of its partners, to meet this challenge. 

Economic opportunity for women not only allows them to participate in the 

economic growth oftheir societies, but also renders them less vulnerable to 
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exploitation, abuse, poverty and even human traffickers. However, often, women 

do not encounter a level playing field. For example, lack of legal rights can 

preclude women from accessing capital and resources or circumscribes their 

mobility and in these cases, interventions must address women's specific needs. In 

other cases women are not prohibited from working or starting businesses, but 

cultural norms may prescribe other roles and responsibilities which may take 

precedence over their economic activities. These types of cultural changes require 

community buy-in and longer term efforts. 

In addition, USAID supports policy-level changes that promote women's 

economic opportunities: in financial, business, and employment policies, 

particularly as they relate to trade, and in legal systems that ensure and protect 

women's ability to accumulate and hold on to assets in their own right. Women's 

title to land and livestock, as well as their control over financial assets, is the focus 

of several programs discussed below. Such systemic initiatives help enable longer 

term transformational change to occur. 

II. USAID Leadership on Gender in All Sectors 

In 2007, USAID's Office of Women in Development (WID) monitored 

compliance with Agency guidance on gender by reviewing the extent to which 

Country Strategic Plans and procurement solicitations incorporated gender 

concerns. This review provided a baseline for tracking progress on the integration 

of gender throughout all sectors and geographic regions. A significant finding of 

this review was that Missions improved their treatment of gender in Country 

Strategic Plans following explicit guidance issued in 2003. Specifically, the study 

showed that integration of gender into Strategic Objectives on economic growth 

increased from 240/0 in 1997-2002 to 37% in 2003-5. Gender integration into 

economic growth procurements from May, 2006 to February, 2007 also revealed 

higher levels of inclusion of gender in procurements related to agriculture and 

private sector competitiveness. As a result of this work, and with heightened 

Administration interest, USAID has recently taken additional actions that further 

strengthen the focus on gender in USAID economic development programs. 
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A.	 General guidance 

•	 On May 4,2009, the Acting Administrator issued a General Notice on 

Integrating Gender. The guidance from the Administrator states, "I 

want to remind all USAID staff of the critical importance of integrating 

gender considerations into all stages of planning, programming, and 

implementation of development assistance. This is not only a priority 

of the Administration, but also an essential part of effective and 

sustainable development." The guidance further notes that gender 

issues must be addressed in procurement documents and evaluation 

criteria. The guidance states that, "the responsibility of linking gender 

equality to development results belongs to all of us. Without the 

integration of gender concerns, our development goals will not be fully 

achieved." Finally, the guidance lists specific actions USAID is taking 

to strengthen gender sensitive development efforts, including 

incorporating gender into training programs for staff, including gender 

equity and gender-based violence in the key issues section ofthe 

Foreign Assistance Coordination and Tracking systen1 to improve 

USAID's reporting on gender issues, and continued support from the 

Women in Development Office to provide technical assistance to the 

field and to track USAID's gender response. 

•	 USAID is currently reviewing Agency policy toward addressing gender 

concerns throughout the portfolio, strengthening requirements for 

gender analysis at various stages of strategic planning and project 

design. Recommendations for policy improvements will also 

strengthen provisions covering the treatment of gender in the 

solicitation process. 

B. Training 

To improve understanding of gender issues among the surge ofForeign 

Service officers coming into USAID, the WID office developed a gender 

awareness training overview for all new officers as well as other interested 

staff. Between early June and August 31,2009, 120 officers - 66 women 

and 54 men - received the training, which familiarizes participants with 
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basic gender concepts and USAID' s approach to gender integration. An 

additional 120 officers are expected to receive this training by the end of the 

calendar year. Under USAID's current hiring authority for new Foreign 

Service officers (Development Leadership Initiative - DLI), up to 300 

additional officers are expected to join the Agency by 2012. They will also 

receive mandatory gender training. Armed with this awareness and 

understanding of USAID's approach, new officers are expected to assist in 

promoting gender-based development at their new posts. 

C. Technical leadership and assistance 

Technical assistance offered through USAID's WID office has been 

instrumental in helping USAID Mission and Regional programs understand 

and address gender and women's issues. In 2008-9, technical assistance was 

provided to seven countries in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Central 

America. Services provided cover a broader technical spectrum than 

economic growth per se, often focusing on multi-sectoral integration of 

gender issues in a Mission portfolio. An evaluation report issued in 

September 2008 found that, on the whole, 950/0 of missions receiving 

assistance rated the WID services as "very good" or better. 

This evaluation also noted that gender assessments and other WID-related 

technical assistance have had a broad impact in the Missions receiving this 

assistance. Some Missions reported that after receiving the technical 

assistance, they were able to provide expertise to the UN, implementing 

partners and groups such as community health workers on mainstreaming 

gender into their work. The Mission in Indonesia reported that following its 

2009 gender analysis, they incorporated gender recommendations into their 

Mission Strategic Plan, their PMP, and project design documents, 

USAID's Regional Bureaus also provide advice on integrating gender to 

their respective Missions. In addition to regular support on gender issues, 

the Africa Bureau is working intensively with three countries (Mali, 

Tanzania, and Zambia) to integrate gender throughout their portfolios. 

Given limited economic growth resources, identifying cross-sectoral 

synergies is critical to being able to focus on improving women's economic 
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opportunItIes. The Africa Bureau is also promoting the use of genderrelated performance indicators adapted to each country's situation. 

As part ofthe Administration's Global Engagement Initiative, the Asia and 

Middle East Bureau recently initiated an effort to identify programming gaps 

that affect women in Muslim-majority communities, focusing on Indonesia, 

Jordan, and Nigeria. 

III. USAID Leadership on Gender and Economic Growth 

A. Guidance 

USAID is drafting guidance for Missions planning to design agriculture 

programs in 2010. Missions will be requested to document women's 

equitable access to agricultural and related economic opportunities in their 

countries. 

B. Training 

In addition to a robust entry-level training effort, USAID continues to offer 

workshops for USAID staff and partners on key gender-related topics that 

affect women's economic opportunities, for example: microfmance, 

microenterprise development, and value chain relationships; land tenure and 

property rights including the impact ofHIV/AIDS on women's property 

rights; agriculture; and trade. 

C. Technical leadership and assistance 

Operational research sponsored by USAID in recent years has developed 

extremely useful analytical approaches and tools for analyzing gender issues 

that can be adapted to individual country situations. Of particular relevance 

to women's economic opportunities: 

•	 The Greater Access to Trade Expansion (GATE) project produced a 

methodology and training materials on gender and pro-poor value chain 

analysis, as well as illustrative gender integration strategies for various 

aspects of trade development. GATE researchers also formulated 
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gender-sensitive indicators that Missions can use or adapt for their 

performance monitoring plans. Collaboration between GATE and 

USAID's ongoing Accelerated Microenterprise Assistance Project 

(AMAP) deepens the impact of AMAP's broad effort to promote 

economic growth by linking large numbers of low-income 

entrepreneurs - a majority of whom are women - into better markets 

and increasing their productivity and competitiveness. 

•	 The WID office, in collaboration with USAID's Economic Growth 

office, is adapting USAID' s Commercial Legal and Institutional 

Reform (CLIR) methodology in order to improve in-depth 

understanding of the impediments specific to women in a country's 

overall business environment. The CLIR methodology examines 15 

areas of commercial law and trade that mirror the 10 areas included in 

the World Bank's "Doing Business" Reports. Each substantive area is 

looked at from two perspectives: the laws and regulations governing 

that area and the institutions implementing and supporting those laws 

and regulations. Finally, the examination considers the social dynamic, 

particularly the capacity of society to influence and adapt to change and 

to incorporate new concepts with respect to the institutions and laws 

associated with commercial law and trade. 

•	 The Property Rights and Resource Governance (PRRG) project. 

continues the thrust of previous work and looks specifically at the 

distinguishing characteristics ofwomen's property rights and at the 

policy, administrative, judicial and institutional options that exist for 

strengthening women's rights to land and resources within the context 

of respect for local institutions and customs. These rights are 

fundamental to women's ability to take advantage of economic 

opportunities. The project is developing and refining an analytical 

framework to help additional countries address this complex issue. 

Information on these tools and projects is posted on the USAIDIEGAT/WID 

office website. Information about these programs is also disseminated in 

various other ways, both inten1al and external to USAID. For example, 

GATE held a successful videoconference in July, 2009 with USAID 

Missions in Peru, Albania and Kenya to allow them to share their GATE 
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experiences with each other and with USAID staff from various bureaus in 

Washington, DC. GATE also conducted a public information dissemination 

event in May, 2009 entitled "Women, Trade and the Global Financial Crisis. 

Past Perspectives, Future Directions - Lessons from the Greater Access to 

Trade Expansion (GATE) Project," which was attended by over 150 people. 

Information is also disseminated to and through other donors. For example, 

publications ofthe GATE project are referenced in the World Bank's 

Gender and Agriculture sourcebook. 

IV. Illustrative Mission Programs That Link Gender and Economic Growth 

In the latest (FY 2008) joint State and USAID Performance Planning Report, 55 

Missions entered information in the optional section on gender equity and some 

noted that they address gender dimensions across the board in their portfolio. 

Entries include programming that bears on women's economic opportunities, in 

spite of often limited economic growth funding. This section covers a selection of 

relevant Mission programs that link gender and economic growth. 

A. Legal rights of women, including property rights 

Legal rights affect women's ability to own property - real or in kind, such as 

livestock, provide collateral, operate businesses, or generally receive 

recognition as independent economic actors. In the era of HIV/AIDS and in 

conflict and post-conflict situations, property and inheritance rights are 

particularly critical for widows, whose numbers are increasing. Missions 

reporting on the legal rights of women approach this topic from a variety of 

perspectives that correspond to the country's social and economic 

development. In many cases these rights are related to ensuring economic 

opportunity for women. 

Land- and property-related issues are being addressed in over 20 Missions. 

In Taj ikistan, women suffer from inequitable access to property and womenled households are denied the right to acquire land, despite the fact that 

women bear the largest burden in cotton farming. In response to this 

discrimination, USAID's Land Reform Project is supporting public 

education, legal aid, and rural activism to identify gender abuses and find 

solutions. 
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In Ethiopia and Rwanda USAID's work on land tenure issues is leading to 

policy changes that help women gain or retain title to land. In Ethiopia, an 

independent assessment ofthe land registration system found that women's 

land rights were strengthened through the joint registration of land in the 

name ofthe husband and wife. In Rwanda, USAID's pilot efforts on land 

rights have been used as models and replicated by other donors, among them 

the UK's Department for International Development (DfID). 

In September, 2008, USAID commissioned an assessment of women's 

property and inheritance rights in Kenya and Tanzania to determine the 

impact ofseveral small one-year grants that were given to local 

organizations in 2001. (The original proj ect provided grants to 20 

organizations in 8 countries in Africa and Asia.) The study showed that 

organizations in Kenya and Tanzania were perceived by multiple 

stakeholders as having contributed to increased awareness about won1en's 

legal property rights among communities, local authorities, policymakers 

and judges; increased capacity ofwomen to defend their property rights -­

including bringing their claims to courts; and more respect for women's 

rights at local levels. Kenyan organizations faced the greatest challenges 

when it came to advocating for changes in national law. Tanzania, by 

contrast, has more progressive laws on women's property rights. The study 

also noted behavioral and cultural changes. For example, community 

paralegals trained by one grantee in Kenya initially confronted resistance 

from local authorities when they tried to raise local awareness on property 

rights and assist women in claiming their rights. However, once the center 

began training local chiefs, paralegals and their clients found chiefs more 

supportive, with some even allying themselves with paralegals to help 

women. 

In Jordan's economic growth portfolio, the fiscal reform project's gender 

analysis is resulting in initiating the revision of many tax policies to make 

them more gender equitable. At the same time, the democracy portfolio 

supports women's civil society organizations' campaigns to amend the 

Personal Status and Labor laws to ensure fair and equitable treatment of 

women. 
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Montenegro and Serbia, as part oftheir preparation for accession to the 

European Union, are working on National Plans for Gender Equality. 

USAID/Serbia's economic growth portfolio includes public awareness of the 

implications of pension reform for women as well as support to women 

entrepreneurs. USAID-provided key training, technical assistance and 

awareness to the Government of Serbia which helped the country move 

forward on mandatory and voluntary pension systems and our assistance 

resulted in a partnership between USAID and the Ministry of Labor to 

conduct research regarding the Serbian pension system and the status of 

women. 

USAID also participates with other donors in the Serbian government led 

Gender Equality Synergy Group to help create conditions that will enable 

implementation of equal opportunity policies and respect for human rights. 

B. Micro, small, and medium enterprise support 

Microenterprise programs have long been central to USAID's approach to 

poverty reduction and women's advancement. They have progressed from 

an initial emphasis on n1icro-credit and limited business development skills 

and have now expanded to include backward and forward linkages through 

the value chain approach that links large numbers of low-income 

entrepreneurs into better markets and increases their productivity and 

competitiveness. This approach stimulates development of many different 

kinds of production and service-based businesses. Forestry, agribusiness 

and tourism, as well as textiles and handicrafts manufacturing and 

marketing, can generate substantial income-earning opportunities for women 

- as long as the economic, social, political, and cultural conditions exist in 

the community and society permit women to devote the time necessary to 

develop their skills and pursue those opportunities. 

In Peru, USAID expanded financial services and access to credit to more 

than 345,000 impoverished clients, 64% of them women. In Haiti's microfinance programs, more than 75% ofthe borrowers are women. 

Business services, entrepreneurship training, market information, access to 

improved technologies, simplified investment procedures, and access to 
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credit are among the enabling factors that help firms grow and move up the 

enterprise continuum. But to "graduate" from micro-financing to 

commercial banks, access to collateral is essential. In Ethiopia, limitations 

on women's property rights curtail women's ability to put up collateral for 

larger loans and thus the lack of collateral acts as a barrier to expansion of 

women's enterprises. In order to facilitate commercial bank financing for 

women entrepreneurs, USAID/Ethiopia plans to establish a loan portfolio 

guarantee in partnership with Bank of Abyssinia. This will enable the bank 

to reduce collateral requirements for women borrowers and will promote 

lending exclusively to women-owned Small and Medium Enterprises 

(SMEs). In time, USAID hopes to demonstrate that women-owned SMEs 

are a viable and profitable sector. 

c. International Trade 

Facilitating the access of small-scale producers with export potential to 

international markets can make a significant contribution to economic 

growth and poverty reduction for women as well as men. The development 

record indicates that rapid growth in exports is typically associated with 

increased demand for labor, higher wages, and more and better employment 

opportunities. However women, especially poor women, are often in a weak 

position to take advantage of these opportunities because of inadequate 

education and skills. In addition to efforts to improve education and 

workforce development (as well as promoting competitive enterprises that 

generate employment), USAID actively promotes well-functioning labor 

markets that recognize and address gender concerns. 

The gender and economic growth training materials designed by the Greater 

Access to Trade Expansion (GATE) project equip USAID and partner 

development practitioners and analysts with tools that can be adapted to an 

individual country's circumstances. These tools assist in identifying gender 

challenges - structural as well as socio-cultural, asking gender-related 

questions, finding the necessary data and assistance to answer the questions, 

and developing appropriate program interventions. For example, research in 

Bangladesh identified the fact that a large proportion of women working in 

shrimp cultivation and export tended to have temporary or casual (and 

lower-paid) jobs, rather than more secure employment - just one example of 
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the complex, often unanticipated and unintended, effects of trade 

liberalization. In Peru, where USAID focuses on trade-led growth as a 

means to achieve poverty reduction, GATE has identified specific gender 

constraints to market access and suggested solutions. One ofthese 

recommendations is to train government staff on how reforms can be 

implemented to benefit the poor and women. USAID/Peru designed and 

conducted an intensive training program for new inspectors from the 

Ministry of Labor, many of whom are women, to enable them to enforce the 

new, more equitable, labor law adopted in the context of U.S.-Peru free trade 

agreement negotiations. The majority of inspectors will serve in the 

provinces, where enforcement of labor regulations has been historically low. 

D. Association building and cooperatives 

Independent associations and worker/farmer cooperatives can help their 

members access inputs and technologies, increase bargaining power, and 

also serve as platforms to advocate for improved policies and regulations. In 

Guatemala, USAID program partners actively encourage and work with 

women so that they can assume leadership positions, for example, on the 

boards of directors ofthe community associations and producer cooperatives 

that have traditionally been roles exclusively for men. Support for rural 

cooperatives in Russia also promotes women's leadership and helps women 

compete more effectively and actively in business life. Similarly, in Timor 

Leste, in order to promote women-owned businesses and encourage greater 

involvement of women in business, USAID assisted in the establishment of 

a business association that is well on its way to financial sustainability. In 

Jordan, USAID supports the two maj or businesswomen's associations and 

strengthened their capacity to establish women-friendly work environments 

and establish a network ofwomen power-brokers to support rising women 

leaders. With the Jordan Nursing Council, USAID carried out a public 

awareness campaign to highlight the employment opportunities that exist in 

the nursing field for young women. In Afghanistan, the US supported the 

establishment of 10 women's business associations, provided 13 of them 

with grants for equipment, capacity building, and improving member 

services, and continued support for the Afghan Women's Business 

Federation, now serving 69 associations and 28,000 members. 
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v.	 Program outcomes and sex disaggregation 

With such a variety of program approaches implemented in diverse countries, it is 

a challenge to identify indicators that lend themselves to meaningful aggregated 

reporting across countries on outcomes related to women's economic 

opportunities. Unlike child immunization, for health, or school enrollment, for 

education, gender issues are not easily rolled up into a representative indicator of 

economic growth. One exception is in the microenterprise area, where the 

recently-issued FY 2008 Report to Congress shows that the percentages of women 

microfinance clients and business development clients exceeded planned 

performance targets. The target for women microfmance clients of 60% was 

exceeded by 2% and the target for women business development clients of 30% 

was exceeded by 6%. 

Sex-disaggregated reporting is necessary, but not sufficient to understand the type 

ofprogress being made in any particular country situation. Knowing the numbers 

of women and men alone, without additional information to provide context and 

permit analysis, is of limited use. For example, sex-disaggregated information on 

numbers of loans provided through the formal banking system is interesting, but 

not sufficient in and ofitselfto fully understand the underlying economic and 

social dynamics at work and whether or not the statistics represent developmental 

change. 

The following illustrative information is gleaned from reports on gender equity 

contained in the FY 2008 Performance Planning Report (expanded, for 

Afghanistan, with information from the August, 2009 Assessment of USAID' s 

Programs and Policies to Improve the Lives of Women and Girls.) 

•	 Afghanistan: In the agriculture and alternative development program, the 

US has created income generating and marketing opportunities for 

women who must work from home. In FY 2008 and 2009, over 23,100 

women received agriculture training; over 5,500 women received 

marketing/business training; and almost 1,100 women participated in a 

poultry-raising program. USAID also helped establish 27 women 

business associations and supports the Afghan Women Business 

Federation, an umbrella organization for approximately 87 women's 

associations. Among the newly established business associations was the 
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first women's shopkeepers association which is working to build the 

capacity of its members through business training. In 2008 and 2009, 

31,282 ofthe Agriculture, Rural Investment and Enterprise Strengthening 

program's 70,000 active microfinance borrowers are women. 

•	 Belarus: Job skills and job search training benefited 980 women and 181 

men. Entrepreneurship training benefited 103 women and 39 men - of 

which 23 women and 1 man received further support for business plan 

development. 

•	 Burkina Faso: Women represented 39% of the beneficiaries ofthe 

Catholic Relief Services agriculture program in 2008 (2,168 women and 

5,591 men). Of the 740 market garden fanners, 42% were women, and at 

a new market garden site, 50% ofthe fanners will be women. 

•	 Guatemala: Women's participation increased by 18% in the perishable 

products supply chain sector - most work in the area of quality control. 

Seven of the 114 producers certified by EureGAP (Good agricultural 

Practices) are women. Of 260 producers, 34 women (or 13 %) are in line 

to be certified in FY 2009 by an independent third party. 

•	 Nepal: Vocational training provided 462 women with skills in nontraditional trades such as masonry, plumbing, and wiring in an effort to 

maximize high-value job training. This vocational training also provided 

literacy classes that led some back into the fonnal schooling system. 

•	 Sierra Leone: Women comprised 53% of the fanners in the USsupported fanner field schools; women account for about 75% of the 

business training participants and recipients of small enterprise start up 

grants. 

•	 Timor Leste: Two-thirds of nearly 1,600 microenterprise clients 

receiving business development services in FY 2008 were women while 

nearly 80% of the almost 900 economically active adults enrolled in 

USG-supported literacy and numeracy program were women. The 

women served in these programs are overwhelmingly poor women from 

interior areas ofthe country. 
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VI. Future planned programming 

Greater integration of gender issues by USAID Missions into their economic 

growth portfolios is occurring on a more holistic basis - not just from the 

microenterprise perspective which has served the cause of women's empowerment 

so well over recent years. Issues such as property rights are being analyzed 

through a gender lens, demonstrating the importance of designing different 

approaches for women and men in order to achieve the changes desired. This has 

also been the case in the health sector, where helping men to understand their role 

as supporters and facilitators of improved health for women (in addition to being 

direct beneficiaries themselves of improved health systems) plays an important 

part in ensuring positive women's health outcomes. 

In its FY 2008 Performance Planning Report, USAIDlPakistan recognized that 

women have not been equal beneficiaries of USG assistance in the areas of 

agriculture, private sector competitiveness, and economic opportunity. The 

Mission intends to increase targets for women's participation in its programs as 

well as to introduce women-specific activities in order to improve women's 

position as entrepreneurs and in the workforce, at all educational levels. 

USAID intends to take advantage of opportunities such as the Administration's 

new emphasis on global engagement and women's equality, following President 

Obama's speech in Cairo on June 6, 2009. Selected programs are being reviewed 

in order to improve gender-sensitive programming and to serve as models for an 

effort to increase outreach to women in Muslim-majority communities. 

In continuing work on gender-based violence, USAID will increase its attention to 

forging linkages with economic and social programs that mitigate women's 

vulnerability by providing women with the knowledge and skills to compete in the 

workplace and reduce their dependence. 

The Food Security Response initiative and the renewed interest in support for 

agriculture programs are leading to a transformation in the way USAID does 

business: addressing gender inequality and valuing both men's and women's full 

participation will be an integral part of USAID' s Food Security Response. 
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Supporting women and families in agriculture will be a specific focus of the 

administration's re-engagement in agriculture development. 

Women and men act and are affected differently by issues related to climate 

change, energy, and the environment because of their societal roles and 

expectations, livelihoods, status and economic power. USAID is working to 

ensure that program design in these areas takes account of gender-differentiated 

impacts in order to design and target n10re effective interventions. In the Peru 

From Glaciers to the Coast project, improved gender approaches will result in 

better conservation strategies and actions that are grounded in the interests, the 

social conditions and the cultural identity of the men and women involved in the 

project. 

Unfortunately, while advances favoring economic opportunities for women have 

taken place recently in many countries, the consequences of the current global 

financial and economic crisis are likely to take a severe toll, particularly in those 

countries that rely on export-led growth. Textile and agriculture or natural 

resource-based exports are particularly vulnerable to changes in external demand, 

exchange rate t1uctuations, and increased input costs. They are also sectors that 

attract a high proportion of women who are often concentrated in less secure and 

lower-paid positions. A drop in demand for exports and/or tightened markets for 

small-scale credit can be expected to have a disproportionately large effect on 

reducing women's and household income. Combined with an expected drop in 

remittances, this increases the risk of a resurgence in poverty. 

Research has also shown that women's incomes have an intergenerational effect 

because women save more than men and also spend more of their savings on 

children's nutrition and education. For the most vulnerable households, a decrease 

in women's incomes could mean an increased risk ofpoverty and lower human 

capital for the next generation. USAID will continue to monitor this situation and 

work to improve women's equitable engagement in the labor market and their 

returns from economic growth and development.