Posted Date: May 20, 2001
Institutionalizing Gender Equality: Opportunities and Constraints
Institutionalizing Gender Equality: Opportunities and Constraints
In reflecting on my own experience with the theme of institutionalizing gender equality, both in USAID and in the OECD, I am struck by the many parallels between the evolution of policy and practice in the United States and the changes evident in the broader international community. This parallelism reflects, to some extent, a history of US leadership and influence. I also believe this history shows that our government can be a force for good, and that public and political support are needed if our nation is to be an effective leader in the pursuit of gender equality and other development goals.
USAID established a Women in Development (WID) office in 1974, and the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the OECD formed an Expert Group on WID a few years later. And, as USAID had adopted a WID policy in 1982, the DAC adopted guiding WID principles for donors in 1983. Through the 1980s, both in USAID and in the broader donor community, it appeared that the focus remained largely on incorporating WID expertise, projects and activities into development programs of donors. It would be an unfair oversimplification to say that the challenge was seen in terms of the inclusion of women in traditional donor programs. But there was too often a sense that gender was being added on rather than being built in to programs. And there was too often a sense that gender was more of a concern of the donors than an issue for the developing countries’ own policies and strategies.
The 1990s saw a real shift toward emphasizing gender equality as a shared development objective and international support for local efforts to mainstream gender analysis and gender-aware policies in the strategies of developing countries. This basic shift in approach was recognized in the Fourth World Conference on Women. It is an important component of continuing international trends toward a comprehensive view of development, the encouragement of results-oriented partnerships and an emphasis on poverty reduction as a leading international goal.
For the future, I attach great importance to the DAC’s current work on guidelines for poverty reduction. Women have disproportionate representation among the poor. Realistic guidelines on poverty reduction will have to take into account the differing roles and challenges of women and men. In this regard, a major US contribution to the DAC’s poverty work has been to make available gender expertise to inform the deliberations and the resulting guidelines.
Turning to USAID, the integration of gender in the Agency’s work is demonstrated in the database for the annual results review and resources request (R4) reporting for FY 2000. The current R4 guidance explicitly requires reporting on gender. The data, available on the USAID website, show that one or another of the words "gender, women, female, girls" appears in more than 80 strategic objectives of bureaus and missions, and in 228 program performance indicators. The R4 database is too new to permit comparison of these statistics with previous years over a long time.
I want to emphasize the importance of having gender built into the USAID’s strategic framework and its goals for human capacity development; population, health and nutrition; economic growth; and democracy and governance. This framework is the basis for supporting bureau and mission strategies. It is also the basis for this year’s award-winning report by USAID, under the Government Performance and Results Act. The basic data for the annual performance report is derived primarily from the Agency’s R4 procedure.
The integration of gender is also evident in the sectoral programs of USAID. The Latin America and Caribbean Bureau of USAID are working to help give practical effect to the commitment to gender equality expressed in the declaration of the 1998 Summit of the Americas. The Africa Bureau is doing important work to strengthen human and institutional capacities of women in Africa. The Bureau for Europe and Eurasia (E&E) adopted a new overall strategy in 1999, which notes that gender considerations are being integrated into USAID programs "to ensure that the United States is promoting equal access and opportunities, equal rights and equal protection in its assistance programs." Under this strategy, gender is being included in all new country strategies, with support from a Bureau gender working group and a cross-sectoral gender group in each mission.
The parallels between USAID experience and that of the broader donor community offer guidance for the future. As we learned in the DAC, we can see that the consolidation of gender equality in USAID will require a combination of: 1. Demonstrated high level commitment to a clear policy (and it was encouraging to hear Administrator Anderson speak so forcefully on the theme of gender equality this morning); 2. Information sharing, especially of best practices; 3. Training to enhance skills on how to put available information to best use; and 4. Reporting, monitoring and evaluation (an area of particular relevance for ACVFA).
Clearly, we still have a long way to go in advancing gender equality as a worthy goal in its own right and also as an essential factor for development. We face challenges of resource limitations, of societal attitudes and bureaucratic skepticism and inertia. However, the practicalities of working for sustainable partnerships and poverty reduction will provide an environment conducive to further progress for mainstreaming gender equality as a key agent and a key objective of development. With continued collaboration from ACVFA and other partners, I believe we are well positioned in USAID to demonstrate impressive results in the coming years.
— This is an edited speech that James Michel, Counselor for USAID, delivered at a May 10 Public Meeting of the Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid.
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