The USAID Gender Equality and Female Empowerment Policy: A Report on Implementation | Annexes

The policy aimed to integrate gender equality and female empowerment throughout the Agency's Program Cycle and related processes, including strategic planning, programming, project design and implementation, and monitoring and evaluation. The policy laid out a series of requirements related to gender integration at USAID, including the designation of a Gender Advisor or Point of Contact and a Mission Order on gender, reporting against the four gender key issues in the annual Operational Reports (OPs) and Performance Plan and Reports, and the use and reporting on nine standard indicators on gender. The policy also required gender analysis to be carried out while developing USAID country strategies (CDCSs) and while designing projects, and staff to receive basic gender training. In 2013, the release of ADS 205 provided concrete guidance on how to carry out the gender requirements, including a detailed description of how to conduct a gender analysis at the CDCS and project level. The policy included a requirement for USAID to assess the implementation of the policy using appropriate performance benchmarks in 2015. The assessment of the policy's implementation will consist of a series of data gathering exercises that examine whether and how attitudes and behaviors have changed as a result of the requirements in the GE/FE Policy (and ADS 205). The assessment will also gather information about perceptions of and experiences demonstrating the impact of the policy on USAID's programming and related development outcomes. The assessment will be carried out using a variety of mechanisms and people, both inside and outside of the Agency. This includes the design and administration of an online survey to gather information from Missions and DC operating units, key informant interviews with a select group of USAID staff, interviews or focus groups with key stakeholders outside of the Agency, an analysis of the degree of gender integration in a sample of solicitations, and several case studies involving USAID field missions. The survey and interview questions will examine the level of awareness of the content of the GE/FE Policy and ADS 205, what has changed in how the Agency "does business" since the Policy was released, the successes, challenges and barriers that have been encountered while implementing the Policy, and perceptions of the impact of the Policy on Agency programming and related outcomes. The assessment will provide valuable insights into the implementation of the GE/FE Policy and will help to identify successes, challenges, and gaps in Policy implementation. The information gathered will be used to strengthen the Agency's work on gender equality and female empowerment moving forward.