Feed the Future Advancing Women’s Empowerment—Semiannual Report

The program provides support to USAID Missions in the areas of gender integration, gender-sensitive design, implementation programming, and knowledge management. The program's focus is on agriculture, with a goal of enhancing Feed the Future programming by increasing the meaningful engagement of women, improving women's returns from agricultural activity, and improving women's empowerment in the Gender Integration Framework domains. The AWE Program has three objectives: (1) evidence-based analysis and learning on gender are applied to Feed the Future project designs, activity designs, and work plans; (2) activities address women's empowerment deliberately and at scale, emphasizing one or more Gender Integration Framework domains; and (3) evidence on good practices to address women's empowerment in agriculture and food systems is expanded. The program promotes a cycle of learning by capturing technical best practices, generating practical resources for gender equality and women's empowerment, developing practitioners' capacity, and widely sharing information and resources. During the semiannual reporting period from August 22, 2022, to February 22, 2023, the AWE Program achieved several successes. The Virtual Learning Series was launched, which provides guidance on how to intentionally integrate inclusion across the project life cycle of agricultural growth and market systems development programs. The series began with a kickoff webinar attended by 211 participants and will conclude with a summary brief. The first learning burst of the virtual learning series was published and disseminated, which included a deep dive on how to find "common ground" for women's empowerment with the private sector. The AWE Program also published and disseminated mission profiles from USAID/Colombia and USAID/Kenya, which shared how they engage the private sector for women's empowerment. Additionally, summaries of the learning events were released, providing further information on the topic. The program's efforts aim to promote women's empowerment in agriculture and food systems, and to provide practical resources and guidance for practitioners working in this area. The AWE Program's activities are focused on several key areas, including knowledge management, monitoring, evaluation, and learning. The program also conducts challenges and lessons learned, including the Call Order 1 Learning Series, the AWE Midterm Evaluation, and the Dissemination of knowledge and resources. The program's planned activities for the remainder of Option Year 4 include the General Management and Knowledge Management (CO1), After Action Reviews Call order 7 and Call Order 4, Virtual Learning Series (CO1), Gender-Based Violence RoundTables (CO1), Agrilinks Gender Theme Month (CO1), and Gender and Social Inclusion Training for USAID Bureau for Resilience and Food Security (CO5). The AWE Program's geographic focus is on several regions, including Latin America and the Caribbean, East Africa, and South Asia. The program's timeframes are focused on Option Year 4, with a semiannual reporting period from August 22, 2022, to February 22, 2023. The program's recommendations are focused on promoting women's empowerment in agriculture and food systems, and on providing practical resources and guidance for practitioners working in this area. The AWE Program's achievements and lessons learned are documented in several annexes, including Annex A: AWE Web Page Analytics, Annex B: Products Shared through the AWE Newsletter, and Annex C: PMP Metrics. These annexes provide further information on the program's activities, outcomes, and lessons learned.