Gender at USAID
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USAID's commitment to the full inclusion of women dates back to 1973.
Photo Credit: Richard Nyberg, USAID Senegal |
USAID's effectiveness is directly linked to its ability to recognize and address the gender-related issues that are holding back progress in developing countries.
Societies that discriminate on the basis of gender pay a hefty price-in greater poverty, lower levels of economic growth, weaker governance, and an overall lower quality of life.
—The World Bank
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When gender-based constraints are considered as a part of programming, development programs are more likely to achieve their desired outcomes, result in greater social equity and lead to lasting transformational development.
As a cross-cutting theme throughout Agency programming, it is the responsibility of each operating unit to address gender considerations when setting overall priority goals.
As the central point of technical leadership and expertise on gender issues within the Agency, the role of the Women in Development (WID) Office is to maintain and increase USAID's institutional capacity to address gender-related issues and to find new approaches and solutions for gender-related obstacles to development.
The Office of Women in Development (WID)
USAID's commitment to the full inclusion of women dates back to 1973, when the United States Congress passed the "Percy Amendment", requiring that particular attention be given to integrating women into national economies to improve their status and to assist the overall development effort.
The WID Office has responsibility for:
- technical leadership on gender-related issues within USAID and the wider development community;
- support to field missions;
- identification of new and emerging gender-related issues and development of multi-disciplinary approaches through which to address them; and
- proactive actions to facilitate and promote greater responsibility for and institutionalization of gender considerations throughout the Agency.
The WID Office focuses on several broad substantive issues:
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