Posted Date: May 20, 2001
NGO Women Leading Gender Assessment of USAID
NGO Women Leading Gender Assessment of USAID
Is USAID hiring high-level staff who are knowledgeable about women in development? Has the agency given contracts to organizations with women’s issues expertise? Has it involved women clients at the field level? What are the most successful programs helping women at the field level? These are some of the questions being investigated by the Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Assistance (ACVFA), a Presidential commission created as a link between non-governmental organizations and USAID.
ACVFA is in the process of interviewing NGO leaders in the United States and around the world about USAID’s gender work. Their report will be available in March 2000, in time for Beijing + 5 activities. Beijing +5 is a follow-up to the United Nations Women’s Conference.
The effort is led by Elise Smith of Winrock International and Peggy Curlin, President of the Centre for Development and Population Activities. Smith is the chair of ACVFA’s Working Group on Gender, and Curlin sits on that committee. "Until 1996, there had never been an action plan to institutionalize gender issues within USAID," said Smith. About five years ago, Smith and Curlin began working with USAID to develop a Gender Plan of Action, which was released in 1996 (see sidebar).
Despite the existence of the action plan, "it was clear that women were not being integrated into AID’s programming and were not receiving equal resources," said Smith. Curlin and Smith began pushing for an assessment of the plan. ACVFA has hired Sandy Vogelsegang, former US ambassador to Nepal, to conduct the assessment.
Vogelsegang and her team are interviewing staff at USAID, NGOs, the World Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank to find out their views on AID’s implementation of its Gender Plan. Vogelsegang will also send a survey to every AID mission director. Finally, she will personally travel to four countries -- Guatemala, Uganda, Morocco, and the Ukraine – to interview officials as well as the grassroots women being served.
"I’m going to ask the women questions like, ‘what are your priorities?’ " Vogelsegang said. " ‘How would you assess the work of USAID? Was it a waste of your time? How involved have you been when donors come into your country?’ This is the way to find out what programs have really been successful."
Smith agreed about the importance of involving women at the field level. "USAID is going through a re-engineering process in which the clients will be driving the programs. It’s very important to make sure that women have equal involvement."
The report produced by Vogelsegang will be available to the public. "We want to make sure NGOs know about USAID’s Gender Plan of Action," said Smith, "because that way NGOs can hold USAID accountable for its work on gender issues." Smith said she is hopeful about USAID’s commitment to its gender plan. "The USAID Administrator, Brady Anderson, has said that when he was working in Africa, he was affected by seeing the struggles of women and girls."
If you are interested in sharing your insights about AID’s work on women in development, have ideas about best practices, or have materials that might be helpful to this assessment, please e-mail Sandy Vogelsegang at everest.associates@erols.com.
Sidebar
USAID’s Gender Plan of Action
The Gender Plan of Action, released in 1996, calls for USAID to:
Modify the Agency’s strategic objectives to include women in development.
Appoint a senior policy advisor on women in development.
Hire staff with women in development expertise.
Contract with organizations who show gender expertise to implement AID programs.
Evaluate AID programs in terms of their impact on women and gender issues.
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