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HomeOur Priorities...Foreign Assistance Programs

# Foreign Assistance Programs

## 								Programs							

        - Women’s Economic Security (WES) Programs
        - Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Programs
        - Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Programs

## Approach

S/GWI foreign assistance programs center on evidenced-based, holistic, inclusive, and participatory approaches.Local women and civil society organizations are empowered, and their voices reflected throughout project design, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, and learning. Recognizing that women and girls’ safety, participation, and leadership are inextricably intertwined, S/GWI uses community-centered frameworks and mainstreams GBV prevention and response, rights-based approaches, psychosocial support, and social inclusion principles across all its programs.

Projects are informed by a participatory gender analysis that partners report against and update to ensure their efforts are tailored to evolving contexts.

S/GWI advances knowledge sharing and learning through consultations and events.S/GWI shares insights, analysis, learning, and best practices throughout the Department of State and U.S. Government to ensure the perspectives of women and girls are included in the formulation and conduct of U.S. foreign policy.

## Priorities

### Women’s Economic Security (WES) Programs

S/GWI promotes women’s economic security by addressing barriers to women’s full participation in the economy – including GBV, unequal or restrictive laws and regulations, and harmful norms that undermine gender equality – through work with local women’s business networks, chambers of commerce, microfinance institutions, civil society organizations, and the private sector. Activities increase women’s access to finance, markets, networks, and information and improve the enabling environment for women’s economic security.Initiatives include:

**The Gender Equity and Equality Action (GEEA) Fund******

The Gender Equity and Equality Action (GEEA) Fund advances economic security for women and girls by increasing their access to resources, services, and leadership opportunities and by addressing the barriers that limit their ability to participate fully in the economy. The Fund invests in partners around the world, prioritizing programs that address the disproportionate impact of COVID-19, climate change, conflict, and crisis on women and girls. The GEEA Fund aligns with the U.S. National Strategy on Gender Equity and Equality and the U.S. Strategy on Global Women’s Economic Security. Additional information on the GEEA Fund’s priorities and guiding principles can be found on USAID’s website.

The GEEA Fund is managed by USAID’s Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Hub (GenDev) within the Bureau for Inclusive Growth, Partnerships, and Innovation (IPI), and implemented by USAID and the Department of State. The GEEA Fund’s priorities are guided by a U.S. Government-wide Steering Committee whose membership includes the USAID Senior Coordinator for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment and the U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for the U.S. Department of State Secretary’s Office of Global Women’s Issues (S/GWI), with the Executive Office of the President joining in an observer role.

The State Department’s GEEA Fund activities complement the Department’s broader diplomatic engagement, programming, and public diplomacy efforts to advance women’s economic security globally.

**Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi)**

Launched at the G20 Summit in 2017, by the United States and 13 other donor countries, We-Fi is a groundbreaking fund that aims to increase women’s access to finance by engaging private sector financing to catalyze increased lending and investment for women’s businesses in developing countries. We-Fi combines financing with complementary technical assistance, such as financial and business training, networking, and government regulatory review, to enable women-owned and women-led small and medium enterprises to thrive in their local and global marketplaces. The U.S. government supported We-Fi with $50 million, and with international partners has galvanized more than $354 million in direct contributions to advance women’s entrepreneurship around the globe.This is expected to mobilize over $3 billion in investment in women-owned and women-led small and medium enterprises.On December 4, 2023, the United States announced its intention to work with Congress to provide $10 million in funding for We-Fi, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of the Treasury

**Equal Stake in the Soil**

Around the world, land is foundational for security, shelter, income, and livelihoods. But rights to land are not equitably held. This is especially true for women, who still encounter persistent barriers to securing land, property, and housing rights.Implemented by Landesa, the central aim of the Equal Stake in the Soil (ESS) project is to catalyze the efforts of national and local civil society organizations to create the enabling environment necessary to realize women’s land rights (WLR) in Bangladesh and Colombia.The project does this by shifting public attitudes; increasing the commitment and ability of government service providers to recognize, protect, and promote women’s land rights; and increasing the knowledge, agency, and social recognition of women so that they can exercise their land rights. Equal Stake in the Soil is a part of Landesa’s global Stand for Her Land Campaign.

**S/GWI’s WE-Champs Program******

WE-Champs (Strengthening the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem by Networking Regional Women’s Chambers of Commerce and Business Associations) supports women’s chambers of commerce and business associations to strengthen services for women entrepreneurs and address barriers to their economic participation. WE Champs is developing regional networks of women’s chambers of commerce and business associations across Europe, Central Asia, and West Africa to share best practices, mentoring, and training to strengthen the advocacy and functioning of women’s chambers and business associations.Implemented by the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), WE-Champs programming is underway in Europe, and Africa.

### Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Programs

GWI advances women’s meaningful participation and protection in peace, political, and decision-making processes in areas of conflict and crisis. This includes dedicated support to women and girls at risk from violent extremism and conflict. Activities strengthen the organizational capacities and leadership networks of women’s civil society organizations; deepen relationships between women leaders in civil society and political office; and foster collaboration between local activists and policymakers on peace and security issues.WPS projects include:

**Supporting Her Empowerment: Women’s Inclusion for New Security (SHE WINS)**

The SHE WINS initiative, announced at the Summit for Democracy, supports the leadership of local women and local women-led civil society organizations in addressing peace and security challenges in their communities.Implemented by Search for Common Ground and Global Network for Women Peacebuilders, SHE WINS builds the capacity of local women’s organizations to support peacebuilding initiatives in seven countries – Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Papua New Guinea, Uzbekistan, Lebanon, and Yemen. SHE WINS includes aRapid Response Fund (RRF)which provides agile support in the form of small, easy to access funds to small civil society groups advancing the role of women peacebuilders.

**Women Preventing Violent Extremism (WPVE)**

In partnership with the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), the WPVE project supports civil society women’s capacity to influence national policies and community approaches to preventing and countering violent extremism in the Sahel and Horn of Africa regions. Programming fosters dialogue between communities and national decisionmakers and builds regional platforms of women leaders to develop programmatic solutions and influence decision-making processes that reduce the conditions that enable violent extremism.

### Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Programs

S/GWI advances holistic, survivor-centered efforts to prevent and respond to GBV. Activities include improving legal protections and access to justice for survivors through support to civil society and survivor-led advocacy; strengthening community-based GBV service providers; and partnering with women’s groups using rights-based approaches to prevent and respond to conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) and technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV). Projects include: 

**SHE’s GREAT! 2.0**

SHE’s GREAT 2.0! (Support Her Empowerment – Girls’ Resilience, Enterprise, and Technology Initiative) works with adolescent youth, their families, schools, and communities in mitigating harmful norms that undermine gender equality as well as promoting girls increased economic skills and opportunities.The project focuses on supporting science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, youth leadership skill development, and community and family engagement. SHE’s GREAT! 2.0 will be implemented in the Dominican Republic, Jordan, Kyrgyz Republic, and Liberia.Alumni are a network of like-minded youth who want to create positive behavior change around gender equality within their communities and globally. 

**Voices Against Violence: The Gender-Based Violence Initiative (VAV)**

**Voices Against Violence** is a DRL-managed Public-Private Partnership, co-funded and coordinated with S/GWI, and in cooperation with the Avon Foundation. The VAV provides emergency assistance, including medical, psychosocial, livelihood, and legal services, to survivors of extreme forms of GBV. Through support from the Avon Foundation, the VAV provides justice trainings to provide further protection to survivors. The VAV provides an innovative and holistic approach to combating gender-based violence, especially in areas of crisis and conflict, including engaging men and boys as partners.The VAV aims to strengthen the capacity of local partners responding to the needs of GBV survivors and those at urgent risk in their communities through technical and financial assistance.

**SHE LEADS**

In furtherance of the Global Partnership for Action on Gender-Based Online Harassment and Abuse, *Supporting Her Empowerment: Leading Engagement and Digital Safety to Stop TFGBV (SHE LEADS!)* is a new initiative that the Department awarded in September 2023 to improve safe and inclusive digital use and elevate awareness, response, and campaign to reduce technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) in South and Central Asia. SHE LEADS! – which is led by Search for Common Ground with a consortium of local partners – will advance women-led and multisectoral prevention, protection, and response to TFGBV to foster safe, meaningful online engagement and participation of diverse women and girls in South and Central Asia. Through a range of targeted activities, the project seeks to increase TFGBV-related capacities and networks among civil society and digital stewards to make online spaces safer; strengthen civil society and digital community steward-led TFGBV identification, prevention, mitigation, and response efforts; and amplify multi-sectoral engagement and collaborative outreach to address TFGBV.

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