Last March, USAID released its Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment Policy, a huge step in ensuring the agency's efforts are integrated, evidence-based, and support the world's women and girls. A few days ago, USAID further strengthened its internal efforts to promote gender equality by releasing ADS-205 - Integrating Gender Equality and Female Empowerment in USAID’s Program Cycle.
Since many international development and relief organizations take their cues from donor agencies, these advances within USAID can have a huge impact on how gender is addressed in global development initiatives. Here's a piece I wrote about ADS-205 for Mercy Corps' internal newsletter The Globe - take a look to learn more about this new release from USAID:
For anyone who has implemented a grant from USAID, ADS is likely a familiar resource -- it contains the policies and procedures that guide USAID's programs and operations.
Now the ADS has a new chapter, and it's very relevant to our work because it has to do with gender. "This is a positive sign that USAID continues to prioritize the integration of gender concerns into its programs," says Global Gender Advisor Sahar Alnouri. "They are on a parallel track with Mercy Corps, in the sense that we both have recognized a gender gap and decided to focus on gender as a topic -- and now both Mercy Corps and USAID are at the stage of integrating gender into everything we do."
The new ADS chapter, called "Integrating Gender Equality and Female Empowerment in USAID's Program Cycle," provides guidance for promoting gender equality across USAID's efforts. As a sign of its continued commitment to gender integration, ADS 205 outlines USAID's various polices on gender -- most importantly its Policy on Gender Equality and Female Empowerment -- and explains how they should be implemented in all phases of programming.
The release of this chapter is intended to strengthen the development of USAID's comprehensive gender strategy by providing concrete steps and activities for incorporating gender into the agency's initiatives. Accordingly, gender analysis and integration are now required throughout USAID's program design and implementation, solicitations, performance monitoring and evaluation, reporting and budgeting. ADS 205 applies to all USAID bureaus and missions, as well as policy and operations in Washington and the field. As a result, Mercy Corps can expect to see more sophisticated requests for gender integration moving forward. Learn more about USAID's gender approach.
Since many international development and relief organizations take their cues from donor agencies, these advances within USAID can have a huge impact on how gender is addressed in global development initiatives. Here's a piece I wrote about ADS-205 for Mercy Corps' internal newsletter The Globe - take a look to learn more about this new release from USAID:
For anyone who has implemented a grant from USAID, ADS is likely a familiar resource -- it contains the policies and procedures that guide USAID's programs and operations.
Now the ADS has a new chapter, and it's very relevant to our work because it has to do with gender. "This is a positive sign that USAID continues to prioritize the integration of gender concerns into its programs," says Global Gender Advisor Sahar Alnouri. "They are on a parallel track with Mercy Corps, in the sense that we both have recognized a gender gap and decided to focus on gender as a topic -- and now both Mercy Corps and USAID are at the stage of integrating gender into everything we do."
The new ADS chapter, called "Integrating Gender Equality and Female Empowerment in USAID's Program Cycle," provides guidance for promoting gender equality across USAID's efforts. As a sign of its continued commitment to gender integration, ADS 205 outlines USAID's various polices on gender -- most importantly its Policy on Gender Equality and Female Empowerment -- and explains how they should be implemented in all phases of programming.
The release of this chapter is intended to strengthen the development of USAID's comprehensive gender strategy by providing concrete steps and activities for incorporating gender into the agency's initiatives. Accordingly, gender analysis and integration are now required throughout USAID's program design and implementation, solicitations, performance monitoring and evaluation, reporting and budgeting. ADS 205 applies to all USAID bureaus and missions, as well as policy and operations in Washington and the field. As a result, Mercy Corps can expect to see more sophisticated requests for gender integration moving forward. Learn more about USAID's gender approach.
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