(10) to employ a multisectoral approach to pre-
venting and responding to gender-based violence 
globally, including through activities in the eco-
nomic, education, health, protection, nutrition, and 
legal sectors; 
(11) to ensure protection against sexual exploi-
tation and abuse by humanitarian actors; and 
(12) to include the active leadership and par-
ticipation of women and girls in humanitarian pro-
gram design, implementation, and evaluation. 
SEC. 4. SAFE FROM THE START AUTHORIZATION. 
(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Secretary of State, in co-
ordination with the Administrator of the United States 
Agency for International Development, is authorized to es-
tablish an interagency effort, to be known as the ‘‘Safe 
from the Start’’ program, to— 
(1) coordinate efforts to prevent, mitigate, and 
address gender-based violence in humanitarian cri-
ses; and 
(2) provide assistance to international and local 
non-governmental organizations to carry out Safe 
from the Start programming. 
(b) PROGRAMMING EFFORTS.—The Secretary shall 
support efforts to prevent, mitigate, and address gender- 
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based violence through Safe from the Start, including the 
following efforts: 
(1) Building capacity to recognize, prevent, and 
address gender-based violence in humanitarian set-
tings and to support survivors and those at risk. 
(2) Promoting women’s leadership and partici-
pation in humanitarian response activities, including 
the design, implementation, and evaluation of hu-
manitarian responses. 
(3) Ensuring quality protection for survivors of 
such crises beginning with the onset of the emer-
gency, by developing technical capability for advo-
cacy, monitoring, data collection, evaluation, and 
communications, including timely gender analyses, 
throughout the United States Government, recipient 
country’s government, local nongovernmental organi-
zations, and international non-governmental organi-
zations. 
(4) Increasing and improving empowerment ac-
tivities for survivors of gender-based violence, includ-
ing women’s and girls’ access to economic opportuni-
ties and livelihoods, education and skills, and leader-
ship roles. 
(5) Building and improving international stand-
ards and evidence-based best practices with respect 
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to gender-based violence prevention, monitoring, and 
response, through support to programs, evaluations, 
research, and the development of innovative new 
practices. 
(6) Developing safe spaces for the safe disclo-
sure of incidents of gender-based violence, meaning-
ful dialogue, psycho-social interventions, and cul-
turally-specific support. 
(7) Safeguarding against sexual exploitation or 
abuse by humanitarian personnel by prioritizing ac-
tivities that ensure that Federal employees and con-
tractors delivering United States humanitarian as-
sistance are equipped to address sexual exploitation 
and abuse in settings of humanitarian aid delivery, 
including by strengthening guidelines, training, re-
porting mechanisms, and remedies that both recog-
nize and address the risks within the humanitarian 
aid context that can create vulnerabilities for sexual 
exploitation and abuse. 
(c) PROGRAMMING IMPROVEMENT OF PROTECTION 
MECHANISMS.—The Secretary shall improve the delivery 
and quality of United States assistance to protect sur-
vivors of gender-based violence, through the Safe from the 
Start programming described in subsection (b), by improv-
ing assistance activities, including activities carried out 
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under the Safe from the Start program, in the following 
areas: 
(1) Access to and quality of comprehensive 
medical services for survivors and at-risk populations 
in line with the international standards described in 
subsection (b)(5), including— 
(A) post-rape and post-sexual assault med-
ical care; 
(B) psycho-social and mental health serv-
ices; and 
(C) hygiene and dignity kits. 
(2) Service delivery to hard-to-reach popu-
lations, prioritizing services that reach— 
(A) survivors of natural disasters; 
(B) refugee and internally displaced person 
camps and settlements; 
(C) active conflict zones; and 
(D) refugees and IDPs living in urban 
areas. 
(d) IMPROVING STANDARDS AND GUIDELINES.—The 
Secretary shall support global efforts to develop guide-
lines, toolkits, reporting mechanisms, and other institu-
tional response and accountability measures in order to 
incorporate effective gender-based violence prevention and 
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response activities across all humanitarian assistance pro-
grams and projects, including through— 
(1) the promotion of minimum standards, indi-
cators, and metrics to assess the adequacy of inter-
ventions relating to gender-based violence, taking 
into consideration the ‘‘Guidelines for Integrating 
Gender-Based Violence Interventions in Humani-
tarian Action’’ published by the Inter Agency Stand-
ing Committee in 2015, the findings of the evalua-
tion of the Real-Time Accountability Partnership on 
Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies in 2016, and 
the ‘‘Minimum Standards for Child Protection in 
Humanitarian Action’’ published by the Alliance for 
Child Protection in Humanitarian Action in 2019; 
(2) support to international organizations and 
nongovernmental organizations, with the establish-
ment and implementation of standards, protocols, 
and accountability mechanisms for preventing and 
addressing sexual exploitation or abuse perpetrated 
by personnel delivering humanitarian assistance; and 
(3) assistance for the development of moni-
toring tools across all humanitarian assistance pro-
gramming to standardize monitoring and account-
ability relating to gender-based violence prevention 
and response. 
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(e) CAPACITY BUILDING SUPPORT.—The Secretary 
shall provide support for capacity-building of organiza-
tions seeking to prevent, mitigate, and address gender- 
based violence, including by— 
(1) building capacity of on-the-ground organiza-
tions to recognize, prevent, and address gender- 
based violence in humanitarian settings and to sup-
port survivors and those at risk, including through 
training and deploying female humanitarian aid 
workers; 
(2) performing on-the-ground gender-based and 
gender-based violence analyses and otherwise rapidly 
assessing and communicating the needs of women, 
girls, and other populations that are vulnerable to 
gender-based violence in crises; 
(3) improving technical expertise and the avail-
ability of dedicated gender advisors in international 
organizations to prevent and respond to gender- 
based violence in humanitarian settings through the 
Gender Based Violence Area of Responsibility of the 
United Nations Populations Fund and across sectors 
of humanitarian action, including through training 
and sensitization of humanitarian aid workers on 
support for survivors of gender-based violence; 
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(4) promoting supportive partnerships between 
local humanitarian actors and nongovernmental or-
ganizations, including for women’s leadership and 
participation in humanitarian response; and 
(5) training for nongovernmental providers of 
international development assistance during the 
onset and subsequent phases of a humanitarian cri-
sis, so that such providers are equipped to continue 
relief, recovery, and reconstruction work that is sen-
sitive to the prevention and mitigation of gender- 
based violence after the immediate humanitarian en-
gagement has finished. 
SEC. 5. REPORTS REQUIRED. 
(a) PROGRESS REPORT.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after 
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary 
of State, in coordination with the Administrator of 
the United States Agency for International Develop-
ment, shall submit to the appropriate congressional 
committees a report on the progress made by the 
United States and by partners, including inter-
national organizations, in the implementation or de-
livery of humanitarian assistance to prevent, miti-
gate, and address gender-based violence in humani-
tarian emergencies. 
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(2) ELEMENTS.—The report required by para-
graph (1) shall include each of the following: 
(A) An aggregation and examination of 
data and research regarding the key drivers of 
gender-based 
violence 
during 
humanitarian 
emergencies, the critical needs of and services 
required by survivors or those at risk of such 
violence, and successful program models to ad-
dress, prevent, and mitigate such violence. 
(B) A detailed description of the programs, 
diplomatic efforts, and other activities under-
taken by the United States to implement the 
Safe from the Start programming focus de-
scribed in section 4, including specific descrip-
tions of— 
(i) the steps taken to integrate pre-
vention, mitigation, and response to gen-
der-based violence into the delivery of hu-
manitarian assistance, the development of 
humanitarian standards, and responses to 
specific humanitarian crises; 
(ii) the progress made, as of the date 
of the submission of the report, toward 
achieving specific objectives, metrics, and 
indicators for implementation of Safe from 
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the Start programming, disaggregated 
where appropriate by gender, age, and type 
of violence; 
(iii) a list of the projects funded or 
supported through the Safe from the Start 
programming focus, with specific details on 
levels of funding or assistance and impacts 
of such projects, disaggregated where ap-
propriate by gender, age, and type of vio-
lence; 
(iv) an assessment of the extent to 
which consultations with nongovernmental 
organizations, including local actors, and 
intergovernmental actors, have led to the 
development of programs, standards, and 
interventions to combat gender-based vio-
lence; 
(v) a list of the policies or programs 
implemented by international or multilat-
eral organizations receiving funding from 
the United States Government to improve 
capacity and internal protocols to identify 
signs of gender-based violence, including 
sexual exploitation and abuse, and inte-
grate initiatives to prevent and respond to 
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gender-based violence into all programs of 
the organization; and 
(vi) a description of any diplomatic 
action taken bilaterally, multilaterally, or 
with international organizations to encour-
age international organizations and the 
governments of other countries to adopt 
policies to prevent and respond to gender- 
based violence in emergency situations, in-
cluding any diplomatic efforts to strength-
en the Global Call to Action on Protection 
from Gender-Based Violence in Emer-
gencies by increasing the number of gov-
ernments participating in and contributing 
to its gender-based violence prevention and 
response activities. 
(3) CONSULTATION REQUIRED.—In developing 
the report required by paragraph (1), the Secretary 
of State and Administrator of the United States 
Agency for International Development shall consult 
with the Assistant Secretary for Population, Refu-
gees, and Migration of the Department of State and 
the Associate Administrator for Humanitarian As-
sistance of the Agency for International Develop-
ment. 
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(4) FORM.—The report required by paragraph 
(1) shall be submitted in unclassified form but may 
include a classified annex. The unclassified portion 
of such report shall concurrently be published on a 
publicly available website of the Department of 
State. 
(b) BUDGET REPORT.—Not later than 120 days after 
the submission of each budget submitted to Congress by 
the President under section 1105(a) of title 31, United 
States Code, after the date of the enactment of this Act, 
the Director of the Office of Management and Budget 
shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees 
a budget crosscut report that— 
(1) displays the budget proposed, including any 
planned interagency or intra-agency transfer, for 
each of the principal Federal agencies that will be 
carrying out activities through the Safe from the 
Start programming focus described in section 4(a) in 
the fiscal year for which such budget is submitted; 
(2) separately reports the amount of funding to 
be provided pertaining to Safe from the Start activi-
ties authorized pursuant to section 4(a), to the ex-
tent such plans are available; and 
(3) to the extent practicable, identifies all as-
sistance and research expenditures at the account 
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