Posted Date: May 20, 2001
ACVFA Meeting Emphasizes Incorporating Gender Into "Fabric" of Institutions
ACVFA Meeting Emphasizes Incorporating Gender Into "Fabric" of Institutions
The US Agency on International Development’s Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid (ACVFA) on May 10, focused its quarterly meeting on strategies for gender equality in international development, contributing to dialogue stimulated by the upcoming UN review of the Fourth World Conference on Women. The meeting, drawing over 300 representatives from government, NGOs, foundations, and multilateral organizations, addressed a key area of the UN Platform for Action: how "mainstream" development organizations can incorporate a gender perspective into their policies, programs, and budgets. ACVFA also released the findings from the assessment of USAID’s Gender Action Plan.
ACVFA is a non-governmental body that advises the US government on the relationship between the voluntary sector and the official foreign affairs community. The 22 ACVFA committee members include representatives from NGOs, universities, and businesses.
USAID Administrator J. Brady Anderson opened the meeting with a declaration on the importance of women in AID programs. Since 1995, Anderson noted, USAID has placed a special emphasis on women’s issues, specifically examining what impact each program has on women. In particular, Anderson emphasized the value of investing in girls’ primary education. "The baby of a woman with four years of basic education is twice as likely to survive as the baby of a woman with no education. . . . It would take $7 to $8 billion per year to provide primary education to every child. This sounds like a lot, until you realize that the Fairfax County (Virginia) education budget is $1.3 billion. It can be done."
Dr. Lincoln Chen, Vice President of the Rockefeller Foundation, presented a keynote address on Globalization and Feminization: An Agenda for Women in Development". Chen’s asserted that the "forces of globalization are changing the playing field of gender….The tremendous explosion of the private market is generating enormous wealth, but it is an unequal wealth," he said. "Globalization has led to new forms of gender inequality, such as the commodification of people" as evidenced by sweat shops and sex-trafficking. Chen also commented on the rise of counterculture extremism, such as the Taliban in Afghanistan and the resurgence of Confucian cultures of China and Vietnam.
But, Chen contended, "globalization also offers unprecedented opportunities to advance gender equality. How can we use powerful forces – how can we flip globalization, as in jiu jitsu -- to make globalization work powerfully for gender equality?" Chen said that "NGOs represent such a powerful force. How can we gain more muscularity through creating coalitions and alliances? We must build upon Beijing, Cairo and Vienna. The widespread availability of information can help with public education on social issues."
Chen explained that the Rockefeller Foundation is in the midst of thinking about how globalization affects gender equality, and how these forces can be used to further, rather than impede, gender equality. In response to a question from the audience, Chen admitted that the Rockefeller Foundation "has been less gender sensitive in the past than other foundations." Recalling his earlier work at the Ford Foundation, Chen cautioned that institutional changes takes years. "The Ford Foundation used to be much more traditional in terms of gender issues," said Chen. "The transformation took five years."
The first panel of speakers from the US State Department, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the World Bank, presented insights on institutionalizing gender equality drawn from their own experiences. Theresa Loar of the President’s InterAgency Council on Women, began by discussing her approach in the State Department. Lear started her job as an advocate for gender issues, by "knocking on the doors of Assistant Secretaries," and gradually shifted to "serving as a policy consultant to help other people in the Department solve gender problems." Anne Richard of the US State Department underscored the importance of moving from an advocacy role to "infiltrating the entire Department." In order to do this, Loar focused on two issues: trafficking of women and women’s political participation. She convened meetings with State Department leaders and educated them about these issues, "working herself into the fabric of the State Department." The State Department Bureau of European Affair’s decision to implement a public education campaign to warn women about trafficking was one indicator of success. The Bureau now has a coordinator of gender issues. "Gender is now a regular part of the work they do," said Richard.
Mayra Buvinic, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), discussed the challenges and successes of the IDB in incorporating a gender perspective into its work. "We have made the most progress in incorporating gender into new portfolios," she said, because "with new projects, there is an openness to new ideas." She described a criminal violence program that started three or four years ago. "As the Bank began working on this area, we immediately made the connection between domestic violence and street violence. The Bank has done two violence loans, and the subjects of domestic violence and gender issues were automatically incorporated." The most challenging area has been convincing governments to request loans for gender-related issues, instead of relying on grants. "We must change governments’ attitudes from seeing this as assistance to women, to seeing it as an investment in women," said Buvinic.
Gita Gopal said gender mainstreaming at the World Bank, "requires every project to consider whether it may disadvantage women" and to take remedial action if this is the case. In 1994, the Bank instituted a policy to assist countries in ensuring that their development efforts have an equitable impact on women and men. "Gender and gender mainstreaming are complex issues," Gopal said. "We have not found any institution that has achieved gender mainstreaming." The issue is further complicated, said Gopal, because the World Bank deals with countries and regions with different priorities and needs. "How do we formulate a global policy that addresses all these differences?" posed Gopal. She said it is critical that the development community pay more attention to the question: "what is the gender impact of our assistance?" "Without knowing that, it will be difficult to come up with gender policies," Gopal pointed out.
Following the panel, the focus shifted to USAID, with Ambassador Sandy Vogelgesang presenting the findings of the assessment of USAID’s Gender Plan of Action. ACVFA and USAID jointly sponsored the study, which was carried out over nine months and included extensive interviews and several field visits. Overall, the study indicated that while the Action Plan was not widely known within USAID, the federal agency made some strides in gender integration, such as in procurement. The assessment also pointed out some "options" for action for the agency. ( See "Gender Mainstreaming" article on p. XX for more details.)
The afternoon panel featured two speakers from the foundation community. Shira Saperstein from the Moriah Fund pointed out that while several foundations fund family planning, few focus on gender issues as a whole. "Much education needs to be done." She emphasized that foundations learn from the proposals they receive, and recommended that NGOs "bring [gender issues] up again and again." In response to a question about the creative efforts of foundations, Anastasia Posadskaya-Vanderbeck of the Soros Foundation stressed that "boldness helps get things done. No one gives you a mandate for global women’s empowerment unless you demand that."
The meeting ended with small-group strategy sessions to identify more ideas to "elevate gender equality as a national and international priority." ACVFA is compiling these recommendations to help guide USAID’s efforts for effective gender integration.
For more information about the May 10 meeting and ACVFA, contact Noreen O’Meara of USAID at 202-712-5979.
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