Delivering on USAID’s Gender Equality Policy’s ambitious vision, principles, and objectives is a shared Agency responsibility that depends on the contributions and collective commitment of the entire workforce and proactive Agency leadership. To advance gender equality and make our development interventions more effective, USAID must strengthen the Agency’s operations including in relation to its operational planning and key issue attributions, the establishment of gender equality Mission orders or Bureau standard operating procedures, and gender equality working groups.
One important measure is USAID’s attribution of funding in each fiscal year to all applicable Gender Key Issues. This includes Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (Primary and Secondary), Gender-Based Violence (GBV) including Child, Early, or Forced Marriage (CEFM), Women’s Economic Empowerment, and Women, Peace, and Security (WPS). This information is tracked by USAID/Washington and Operating Units for many purposes, including implementation of USAID’s Gender Equality Policy, and for reporting results against other gender-related policy documents. Key Issue narratives and uptake of gender indicators are used to learn about and take accountability for whether USAID’s programming is achieving intended results and closing gender gaps, to ultimately contribute to overall reporting, congressional engagement, and program planning.
Gender Equality Mission Orders or Bureau Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are used by Missions and Bureaus to plan, guide, and track action towards meeting gender equality goals. The Gender MO/SOPs should also define roles and responsibilities within the Operating Unit for gender integration in planning, design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation.
Lastly, all USAID Operating Units should house a Gender Equality Working Group. The objective of a Gender Equality Working Group is to bring together Mission/Bureau representatives to facilitate the implementation of USAID’s Gender Equality Policy and to further integrate gender equality and women’s empowerment in ongoing programming and operations, including through enabling improved coordination.
