Integrating Gender
USAID has been working to reintegrate ex-combatants from the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) into peaceful occupations. Among those trained, a group of women ex-combatants has received training to become active participants in implementing the program, and in several cases, to become commercial seaweed farmers.
ASIA BUREAU GENDER PROGRAMS
Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, East Timor, India, Indonesia, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, and Sri Lanka
CONTACTS
Vijitha M. Eyango, Ph.D.
Senior Gender Advisor
Tel: (202) 712-1048
Email: veyango@usaid.gov Overview
USAID
integrates gender within its overall development strategies and goals. It
ensures that gender equity is at the core of all fields—health, education, agriculture, economic growth,
and democracy and governance. Many countries in Asia have made enormous strides
in improving gender equity in school enrollments, reducing maternal mortality
rates, increasing training and literacy opportunities for women and supporting women’s
political and economic participation
Programs
Increasing Academic Opportunities
Gender inequity in secondary
and higher education enrollment is prevalent in the majority of countries in
the Asia region. USAID is addressing this concern through a variety of programming
interventions. For example, the USAID-supported Women in Science, Technology
and Engineering Program is a U.S.-Pakistani institutional collaboration aimed
at increasing women’s access to academic opportunities in the fields of science,
technology and engineering.
Empowering Civil
Society through Anti-Trafficking
Trafficking
of women, girls, men and boys is a critical issue of concern in the region.
USAID’s East Asia Pacific Women’s Initiative on Trafficking and Violence
Against Women fosters bilateral and regional coordination, capacity building,
and empowerment of civil society organizations, especially women’s
organizations. The initiative also encourages the sharing of lessons learned in
order to accelerate progress in combating trafficking and violence against
women.
Providing Professional Training
USAID
programs provide job training to women, giving them skills that will prepare
them for full participation in the workforce. At the USAID-supported Women’s
Teacher Training Institute in Kabul, Afghanistan, women have a safe place to
live while they train to be teachers. After their training, they return to
their provinces and train more teachers, producing a cascading impact. The
Institute has trained nearly 500 women to be teachers since it opened in
September 2004.
Supporting Economic Empowerment
USAID’s
economic growth programs recognize that ensuring the independent economic
empowerment of women has a dramatic impact throughout society. In East Timor, a
USAID-supported private sector development project includes a
financial services component that expands access to finance among East Timor's
entrepreneurs, most of whom manage microenterprises. In 2007, USAID-supported
microfinance institutions had nearly 27,000 clients, of whom over 20,000 were
women.
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