DOCUMENT RESUME

ED 385 465 SO 024 963

TITLE Women in Development. Report, FYs 1991 and 1992.

INSTITUTION Agency for International Development (IDCA),Washington, D.C. Office of Women in Development.

PUB DATE 92

NOTE 87p.; Several charts and photos may not copy well.

AVAILABLE FROM Office of Women in Development, Bureau for Researchand Development, Room 714, SA-18, U.S. Agency forInternational Development, Washington, DC20523-1816.

PUB TYPE Reports Descriptive (141)

EDRS PRICE MF01/PC04 Plus Postage.

DESCRIPTORS Continuing Education; *Developing Nations;Developmental Programs; *Economic Development;Economic Impact; *Females; Human Capital; HumanResources; Labor; *Labor Force Development;Sustainable Development; *Womens Education; *WomensStudies

ABSTRACTThis report describes the progress made by AID

(Agency for International Development) in mainstreaming attention to

gender throughout its strategies and programs to increase the overall

effectiveness of its development assistance. The highlights from

fiscal years 1991 and 1992 illustrate both the impact achieved andthe momentum gained. Divided into two parts, part 1, "Strengthening

Gender Focus throughout A.I.D.," contains the following: (1) "The WID

Office: Women in Development"; (2) "A.I.D. Regional Bureaus andMissions (including Bureaus for Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin American

and the Caribbean, and the Near East)"; and (3) "Monitoring and

Evaluation: Making Women Count." Part 2, "Applying Lessons Learned,FYs 1991-1992," includes: (1) "The Private Sector: Expanding Women'sIncome Options (Women and Microenterprise and Women and

Agribusiness)"; (2) "Education: Closing the Gender Gap"; (3)

"Environment and Natural Resources Management: Gender Issues"; (4)

"Democracy and Governance: Increasing Women's Participation"; (5)

"Health and Nutrition: Focusing on Women's Needs"; (6) "Population:

Women, Men, and Families"; and (7) "Participant Training." (EH)

************************************************************************ Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made* from the original document.***********************************************************************

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BEST COPY AVAILABLE

Re ort,FYs 11991 and 1992

Prepared by the Office of Women in Development

Bureau for Research and Development

U.S. Agency for International Development

3

Copies of this Report are available from:

Office of Women in DevelopmentRoom -1-1, SA-18U.S. Agency for International DevelopmentWashington. D.C. 20523-1816Fax 202-8-5-4633

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Table of Contents

Foreword I) the AdministratorWID I fighlights. FYs 1991-1992Introduction

I. Strengthening Gender Focus ThroughoutA.LD.

The Will Office: WoMen in DevelopmentAID. Regional Bureaus and Missions 8

Bureau for Africa 9

Bureau for Asia 12

Bureau for Europe 16

Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean 20

Bureau for the Near East 23

Monitoring & Evaluation: Making Women Count 26

II. Applying Lessons Learned, FYs 1991-1992

The Private Sector: Expanding Vbmens Income Options 34

Women & Microenterprise 35

Women & Agribusiness 39

Education: Closing the Gender Gap 44

Environment and Natural Resource Management: Gender Issues SO

Democracy and Governance: Increasing \Mitten's Participation S7

I lealth and Nutrition: Focusing on Vbmen's Needs 62

Population: \Xbmen, Men. Families 68

Participant Training 74

0 n behalf of the LS. Agency for InternationalDevelopment, I am honored to present thisReport on Women in Development (WM) forFiscal Years 1991 and 1992.

The importance of integrating women into A.I.D.'sprograms cannot be overemphasized. Recognizing andacting upon women's central roles in the developmentprocess is a decisive element in achieving sustainableimprovements in the economic and social well-being ofdeveloping countries. Our efforts to achieve dynamic.long-lasting growth will only succeed if our resourcesempower women as well as men to seize opportunitiesand make a difference for themselves. their families,and their communities.

In the 1990s. the importance of women's contribu-tions to the development process is more evident thanever before. Women are the sole breadwinners for anincreasing number of households. They hold keypositions as community organizers and are forging theirroles in emerging democracies. They account for morethan one-half of the developing world's micro-entrepreneurs and provide most of the labor in theagricultural sector, which remains the backbone ofvirtually all developing economies. The contributions

Foreword

Women make to economic productivity. food security.environmental conservation, health. and nutrition areindispensable to meeting development objectives.

Today. as the U.S. foreign assistance program adjuststo the needs and priorities of the post-Cold War era,women's participation in and contribution to A.I.D.'sprograms is paramount. As we assist countries toachieve their own sustainable development. womercsknowledge. expertise. and leadership will he central tothis process. As we tackle such global challenges asoverpopulation, the AIDS epidemic. and environmentaldegradation. women's decision-making roles andaccess to resources will have a powerful influence onour success.

For 20 years, A.I.D. has been a world leader in effortsto integrate gender concerns into the developmentprocess. Still, much more canand mustbe accom-plished. This Report documents the breakthroughs thatA.I.D. has made in taking account of the different roles.rights, and responsibilities of men and women in thedevelopment process. It is now our task to build on au,progress. Incorporating women, their special expertise.and their particular needs throughout our strategies andprograms will he a clear priority for A.I.D.

J. Brian AttmodAdministrator1 '.S. Agency for Intemanonal Development

"47:7-1,47,4t

This report describes the progress made by A.1.D.in mainstreaming attention to gender throughout itsstrategies and programs to increase the overalleffectiveness of its development assistance.The following highlights from FYs 1991 and 1992 illustrateboth the impact achieved add the momentum gained .

Institutionalizing Gender Considemliolis1. A women in development perspective hasbeen incorporated from the start into A.1 .1).'stwo new strategic emphases: the DemocracyInitiative and programs Of AIDS preventionand care.

2. Intensified training of A.I.D. headquartersand field staff On women in development issueshas greatly strengthened the inclusion of gen-der concerns in the Agency's strategic planning.sectoral activities. :Ind ongoing projects.

3. Field requests for technical assistance ongender issuesfor project design. implemen-tation. and evaluationnearly doubledbetween FY 1990 and FY 1992.

4. A new readiness of individual A.1.D.regional bureaus and country missions to usetheir own budget resources to address genderconcerns is evident in the fact that. by 1992.WID Office resources averaged only CO percentcoverage of each activity funded on a matchingbasiscompared to percent in 1990.

5. The Agency has increased its capacity toaddress gender issues by reinforcing its opera-tional expertise. Four of five regional bureausnow have \V11) advisers, and most have specialWID action groups. Each country mission now

vi

has a \\'M officer devoting some portion oftime to gender issues.

6. In less than two years. as Part of theEvaluation Initiative that it launched in 1991.the Agency has laid a sound basis for usinggender analysis and sex-disaggregatedindicators to improve: its overall developmentassistance results. This involves the use ofnew monitoring and evaluation tools and pro-cedures that incorporate state-of-the-artknowledge of the specific circumstances.responsibilities, and rights of both womenand men.

7. The first round of new EvaluationInitiative's accomplishments in relation togender includes:

Strengthened existing systems of reporting.decision making. monitoring, and evaluation:Increased knowledge and skills in the use ofgender analysis and sex-disaggregated data:andNetworks in place for collaboration andcoordination of A.I.D..vork with that Ofother t*.S. and international agencies anduniversities to improve gender-disaggregatedstatistics worklwide. to exchange data andlessons learned, and to avoid duplicationand waste.

7

A Sampling of Sectoral AchierementsMost A.I.D. programs and projects arc designed.implemented. and funded with other partnerst -.5. -based non-governmental organizations.international research and operational agencies.host-country official and non-governmental

agencies, and universities. These valuablepartnerships, too numerous to specify in thisbrief summary of recent accomplishments.are detailed throughout the report itself.

Prirrite Sector Pcirlicipation

1. In 1991, women entrepreneurs mostly

owners and operators of home-based businessesin trade and servicesreceived 56 percent ofthe loans. technical assistance, and training in

microenterprise program.

2. In A.1.1).-assisted credit programs inKenya. Bolivia, South Africa. and Indonesia.women accotmt for 60 percent to over 90 per-

cent of the borrowers: the Agency's researchon the features of credit programs that assurewomen's access to credit programs hascontributed to these and other successes.

3. To assure that women benefit from A.I.D.'semphasis on agribusiness as a major thrust of its

private sector and agriculture programs. sex-disaggregated data collection and evaluationprocedures are a major component of theAgency's work in this sector. In Africa. fOr

example. this gender approach characterizes theGhana TIP Programan innovative programlinking agribusiness, private sector trade andinvestment opportunities, and policy reform.

4. In several Near Eastern countries, A.I.D. issupporting local efforts to promote omen'sparticipation in the labor force, includingmicroenterprise and agribusiness. and simulta-neously reinforcing these efforts with assis-tance for women's literacy and training as wellas women's legal rights awareness.

Education1. A.1.1).'s Basic Education Program nowgives priority to girls' and women's education.The rationale for this is not only the importanceof equal opportunity. but the positive impact ofgirls' and women's education on a range ofdevelopment results from improved health toincreased economic production and lowered

fertility rates.

2. In Ghana, Guinea. l'ganda. Benin, Namibia.

Swaziland, and Yemen. A.I.D.-supportedgender-disparity analyses contributed directly to

the design of new field programs and to policy

dialogue with governments.

3. In Egypt, A.1.1).'s ongoing Basic EducationProject has helped increase girls' primary schoolenrollment rates in rural areas from 36 percentto .42 percent. and girls' rural secondary schoolenrollment from 180.000 to over -00,000.

4. In Guatemala, A.I.U. assistance led to the

creation of an influential and brod-basedNational Commission anti Forum on Girls'

8

Education. The Commission's recommendationsin turn prompted the Ministry of Education toadopt new policies to strengthen female educa-tion and to target all of its new I991 teachingpositions for innovative rural education pro-grams for girls.

5. In Mali. sponsorship of ceremonieshonoring schools that had made the most

progress in promoting girls' education has ledto regional plans of action to address the gendergap in enrollment and school continuation.

6. In Bangladesh. an A.I.D.-funded evalua-tion of a highly successful program has pro-duced lessons about increasing girls' schoolenrollment and continuation that may he replic-able in other countries.

Enviiymment and Natural Resource Management

1. In the Brazilian Amazon. the A.I.D.funded Global Climate Change Program isworking to secure overall maximum impact byrecognizing and incorporating women's tradi-tional roles as collectors, processors. and mar-keters of non-timber forest products such asfruit pulps. gums. resins, spices. and wicker.

2. In Malawi. the A.I.D.-supportedAgricultural Research and Extension Projectintegrated women farmers and extension agentsinto ongoing extension, credit, and trainingprograms. A marked increase in the number of

women participating in farmers' credit clubs isone indicator of the program's success.

3. In western Kenya. an A.I.D.-assisted pro-gram is involving womenwho traditionallycontrol family use of water as well as care forthe illin a campaign to eradicate the region'ssevere sanitani. nutritional, and health problemslinked to very poor water qualit,.. The programis focusing on educating women about the linksbetween water quality and diseaseand thewomen in turn are using their knowledge tomobilize their communities to give priority toimproving the quality of the water supply.

Democracy and Governance

1. The four focal areas of A.I.D.'s newDemocracy Initiativerepresentation, humanrights, lawful governance. and democraticvaluesare greatly expanding and intensifyingthe Agency's attention to long-standing barriersto women's participation in and benefits fromdevelopment.

2. A.I.D.-supported local programs aimed atenhancing women's knowledge of their existinglegal rights and promoting their political partici-pation are under way in countries across LatinAmerica and the Caribbean. Asia. Africa. theNear East. and Central and Eastern Europe.

viii

3. A.I.D. support of the work of the Womenin Law and Development in Africaa regionalnetwork active in 15 countriesis enhancingwomen's status through programs strengthen-ing legal rights awareness and promoting legalreform.

4. In Latin America. A.I.D. suppport for theWomen and Municipalities Project, which oper-ates in 9 countries, is improving the quality oflife of local populations and the advancementof social reforms by helping assure the inclu-sion of gender considerations in municipal-leveldecision making.

WID Highlights, FY s.1991 -1992

5. In Afghanistanwhere 91 percent ofwomen are illiterate A.LD.'s democracyprogram is giving high priority to literacytraining for women to encourage their civicparticipation.

6. In Eastt 7.urope. A.I.D. assistance isaddressing s(.., new gender disparity side-effectsin political participation. employment.and other areasthat have emerged in themidst of the region's fast-paced transitions.

Health. Nutrition. and family Planning

1. Worldwide, A.I.D. assistance is increasinglycombining its approaches to the provision ofquality health. nutrition, and family planning ser-vices. There is evidence that comprehensivereproductive health care maximizes the impact ofassistance on lowering maternal and infant mor-tality. preventing the spread of AIDS and othersexually transmitted diseases, and improvingwomen's health and their families' well-being.

2. As taco incidence of AIDS rises precipitous-ly among women in the developing worldand as new evidence shows that women are upto 10 times more susceptible than men to con-tracting the HIV virus through heterosexualintercourse A.I.D. has made reaching womena major emphasis of its health assistance tocombat the spread of the pandemic.

3. To identify factors that put women at riskof HIV infection as well as opportunities forHIV prevention. in 1992 began funding

projects in Sub-Saharan Africa. 5 in Asia andthe Pacific. and 4 in Latin America and theCaribbean.

4. Over 90 percent of the beneficiaries ofA.I.D.'s nutrition programs arc women andchildren. While women of reproductive agecontinue to he a major target group. the Agencyis placing special emphasis on adolescent

girlsboth to reduce the risks of pregnancy-related malnutrition and to educate girls tomake the most of available resources in carry-ing out their traditional family nutritionresponsibilities.

5. In Nepal, A.I.D.-supported health, nutri-tion. and family planning strategies are con-verging to bring down the country's very highmaternal mortality rate and to raise its very lowfemale lift: expectancy.

6. In Bolivia, which has the highest rates ofboth maternal and infant mortality in LatinAmericacombined with a high fertility rateA.I.D.'s health and child survival program isreaching over 51.000 mothers and nearly twiceas many children each month with healthservices, training, and supplementary feeding.At the same time, A.I.D.'s reproductive healthservice program is increasing the use of bothmodern and scientific natural family planningmethods.

7. In Romania. a major achievement ofA.I.D.-funded family planning assistance is thegreat increase it access to services createdthrough work with the Ministry of Health toallow gerktral practitioners. many of whom arewomen (rather than only gynecologists obstetri-cians most of whom are men), to provide arange of modern family planning services.

ix

his year marks the 20th anniversary of thePercy Amendment to the Foreign Assistance

Act. In 19-3. this historic piece of legislationestablished the United States as a leaderamong donors in its formal recognition of

women's vital roles in the development processToday. the United States maintains its position in the

forefront of gender-integrated development initiatives.

The involvement of women is recognized throughoutA.I.D.'s programs as a critical factor in achieving

effective and sustainable development.

This report describes progress made by the Agencyfor International Development in this area during

FYs 1991 and 1992. It documents both the impactachieved and the momentum gained. The information

provided is intended for those working in the develop-ment field, those interested in the U.S. foreign assistance

program. and those concerned about the situation of

women worldwide.

The Percy Amendment calls for U.S. assistance

programs to -be administer,I so as to give particular

attention to those programs. projects. and activities

which tend to integrate women into the national

economies of foreign countries. thus improving their

status and assisting the total development effort.- In

passing this legislation. the United States became one

of the first donor countries to implement a policygiving particular attention to women's roles in the

development process.

In 1982. A.I.D. issued its Policy Paper on Women in

Development. which further detailed the reasons for

and strategies lc ) achieve women's full participation:

"IPtirstungl a development planning strategy without

a women in development focus would he wasteful

and self defeatingwasteful. because of the potential

loss of the contn')ution of vital human resources and

self-defeating hi cause development which does not

bring its benefits to) the whole society has failed. .

For to undertake an effective strategy that pro-

nuttes halanced economic development. a focus on

Introduction

the economic participation of women in develop-

ment is essential."

Over the past two decades. A.I.D.'s overall WID pro-

gram has moved beyond its emphasis on the promotion

of women-sPecitic protects toward a strategic approach

that is incorporating gender analysis into the main-

stream of A.I.D.'s programs to enhance both the impact

and sustainahility of development assistance initiatives

in their entirety. The Agency's overall WID approachstrives to ensure that the division of labor. rights. andresponsibilities between women and men is taken into

account in all A.I.D. assistance.

A.I.D.'s WID policy recognizes that misunderstanding

of differences between men's and women's roles insocietiesand their unequal access to resourceswilllead to inadequate planning and design of developmentprojects. resulting in diminished returns on investment.

The policy mandates that all relevant data he disaggre-

gated by sex, that country strategies and planningdocuments explicitly describe strategies to involve

women, and that A.I.D. consultants address women indevelopment issues in their work Or the Agency.

All A.I.D. bureaus and many field missions now have

WID working groups to identify and act on genderissues across sectors. All of A.1.1)..ti missions have

designated WID officers to address gender concerns in

programs and protects. Sex-disaggregated data is being

incorporated into the new Agency-wide monitoring and

evaluation system. Training in gender issues has cumin-

tied to accelerate on a global scale. strengthening the

competency and effectivene,s of not only A.l.D. staff

but also contractors. host-country counterparts. other

major development agencies. and international and localnon-governmental groups working in development.WID advisors are now on hoard in most regional

bureaus to assist in designing programs and protects

that are sensitive to gender issues. As this report

documents. : \.l.1). ;ilso maintains a leading role in

conducting research on the impact of gender considera-

tions on development strategies.

Si 11BEST COPY AVAILABLE

This report is organized into two major parts. The firstfocuses on the headway gained in sharpening A.I.D.'sattention to gender issues in its development operations.The second takes a sectoral approach. examining keyareas of A.I.D.'s assistance program in which attention tothe gender division of roles, rights. and responsibilitiessignificantly enhances the chances for success.

More women than ever before are participating inand benefiting from development assistance. Inreturn. U.S. development assistance is benefiting morethan ever before from the expertise, advice. andinvolvement of national- and community-level womenleaders and local women program participants andbeneficiaries themselves.

:LLD. Overall Obligations lbrnmen in Development ProgramsThe Agency's overall spending on WID activitieswell over 30 times greater than the rising budgetof the \VID Office itselfhas been growing steadily. The data presented below have been gath-ered from the Agency-wide tracking system into which all A.I.D. missions are required to reportthe allocation of funds for women's projects and women-integrated projects. The Agency is takingsteps to improve the tracking system. which currently understates the amount obligated forwomen in development activities.

'992=$317.3 millionEnvironment11.9 million Democracy

Basic Education 17.9 million

23.9 million

AIDS23.7 million

Agriculture29 7 million AIDS

24.2 million

1993=$327.4 million

Basic Education30.0 million

Population89 3 million

Child Survival26.1 million

Non-AgriculturePrivate Sector

31.3 million

Other63 5 million

Environment11.6 million Democracy

12.7 million

Agriculture27 9 million

Non-AgriculturePrivate Sector

33.0 million

Population105.0 million

Child Survival28.0 million

-Other. includes education other than basic education. healthother than child suri.tral and AIDS. energy. and miscellaneous

Other*55 million

BEST COPY AVAILABLExii 1.2

StrengtheningGender FocusThroughout A.I.D.

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The Office of \X'omenin Developmentt WID) was estab-lished by tlie 1.S.Agency fi wIntern:Mc ma 1

I )evelopment ( 1.1.D. iin 19-4 to guide the integration ofwomen into I' S. bilateral develop-ment assistance. Since that time. the

WID Office has made considerableprogress toward assuring thatwomen participate fully and benefitequally from l'.5. bilateral develop-ment assistance efforts. This in turnhas made A.I.D. programs becomemire effective and better focused onthe specific target groups that canhelp achieve dynamic. sustainabledevelopment.

14

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Today, the ID Office not onlyprovides services such as trainingand technical assistance on womenin development issues to theAgencys bureaus and overseasmissions. but also operates as a cata-lyst. It helps to identify, design. andsupport activities that can then serveas gender-sensitive program or pro-ject models throughout the Agency.

A Paanership ApproachThe WID Office works with theAgency's regional and sectoralbureaus, its overseas missions,

and its partner private voluntary orga-nizations ( I'N'Osf. The Office con-tributes its broad technical expertiseand commits its financial resources toensure that gender roles. women'sdevelopment contributions. andwomen's economic and sck.ial needsare considered at all stages of A.l.l).'spolicies. programs. and projects.

The WID Office works in closecollaboration with Women's groupsin A.I.D.-assisted countries: itdepends on their ideas and participa-tion to successfully target the needsand concerns of local women.Several A.I.D. missions have recruit-ed host-country professionals tocoordinate Wit) activities. Theknowledge that these foreign servicenationals bring to the Agency aboutthe situation of women and the workof national women's associations intheir countries strengthens the over-all \VII) program.

The W'I1) Office also coordinatesits work with other bilateral donoragencies that are implementing theirown WID programs. It serves asA.I.D.'s representative on the ExpertGroup on Women in Developmentof the Development AssistanceCommittee ( DAC) of theOrganisation for Economic Co-oper-ation and Development (OECD). Inthis capacity. the Wit) Office in1992 took on a leading role in sev-eral important DAC Expert Groupactivities. For example. the \VII)

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Office completed an assessment ofhow well member countries arcimplementing DAC statisticalmethodology to monitor theirwomen in development activities. Inaddition, the United States andSwitzerland are conducting a coun-try-by-country assessment of howwell gender issues are addressed inall DAC member states' develop-ment assistance programs. Andthrough the DAC. the WID Office isalso playing a major role in DACcoordination of preparations for the199'S United Nations \\'orldConference on Women.

The Sectoral AgendaIn Pi's 1991 and 1992. the WIDOffice began work in two new pri-ority sectorsdemocratization and

health (with particular focus onwomen and AIDS)refiecting theincreased emphasis given theseissues by the Agency as a whole.A.1.D.'s Democracy Initiative,launched in December 1990, pro-

motes the strengthening of democrat-ic institutions and processes. TheWII) Office is working to promotewomen's participation in. and bene-fits h)m, the democratization processunder way in many of the countriesto which A.I.D. provides develop-ment assistance. As part of theAgency's program of AIDS education.prevention. and treatment in thedeveloping world, the \V!!) Officecontributes to the design and imple-mentation of these activities to assurethat they address the distinct situationof women in the global pandemic.

These two new areas of focuscomplement the WID Office'scontinuing work in agriculture.education, environment and naturalresource management. and privateenterprise.

Another major role of the \\'Il)Office is monitoring and evaluation.In collaboration with A.1.1).'s Centerfor Development Information andEvaluation, it is promoting the inclu-sion of gender issues in the Agency'snew performance monitoring system.

W1D OfficePriority Sectors

In FYs 1991 and 1992, A.I.D.'s WIDOffice focused on the following fivestrategic areas:

1. Private Enterprise. Althoughwomen manage up to 70 percent ofthe developing world's microenter-prises, their access to basic resourceslike credit and skills training is oftenlimited. Creating opportunities forwomen to increase their incomes asentrepreneurs and as members of theworkforce can have a major impact onhousehold well-being and a society'seconomic growth.

2. Sustranable Agriculture,EnvIzonment, and Naturalrtesource Management. Womenproduce well over half the food grownin the developing world. Their respon-sibility for fuel and water collectionand their roles in the extraction andmarketing of many natural resourcesmake them key players in any strategyfor environmental conservation orsustainable agriculture.

3. Democracy and Governance.The promotion of popular participa-tion in politics as well as in the econo-my could create unprecedentedopportunities for women to contributeto the development of their countries.

4. Health. Worldwide, women arenow being infected with the AIDSvirus at a faster rate than any othergroup. In the developing world, theAIDS epidemic has tragic implicationsfor millions of familiesan increasingnumber of which are dependent onwomen heads of households.

5. Basic Education. Enhancing girls'access to education has been identi-fied as one of the best investments adeveloping country can make. Femaleeducation has a direct positive effecton nutrition levels, household income,and fertility rates.

W1D Office Highlights, FI's 1991 and 1992

.Many mission technical offi-cers have now received

.- training on gender issues.and their continuing requests to theWID Officewhether for technicalassistance, research, or training- -assist in enhancing the Agency'sunderstanding of operational issuesin gender analysis. In FYs 1991 and1992, the WID Office responded tothe increase in requests with activi-ties that combine general training onwomen in development issues withspecific technical assistance offeredby design or evaluation teams.

Training

The WID Office's training function.managed by its Gender in Economicand Social Systems (GENESYS)Project, focuses on direct trainingfor A.I.D. staff as a key tool of theAgency's strategy to "institutionalize-gender concerns. The three maintypes of training provided corres-pond to expressed needs of bureausand missions in three principal areasof activity: .

Strategic program planning,Specific sectoral activities, andPlanned and ongoing develop-ment projects.

A major accomplishment sincethe last report to Congress has beenthe design, delivery, and evaluationof training events that include ele-ments of all three types.

The primary "client.' groups forWID training include A.I.D. direct-hire technical or professional per-sonnel and the contractors andforeign service nationals who areemployed by A.I.D. Increasingly,however, training events alsoinclude participants from outside theAgency: key private-sector contrac-tors, staff of private voluntary ornon-governmental organizations,

4 18

and counterparts from the host-countr community (government.the private sector, and local NG0s).

Another accomplishment in FYs1991 and 1992 has been the devel-opment of "core" course materialsand training methodologies thatachieve the awareness-raising andskills-building objectives of thetraining program.

To respond to the increasingsophistication of mission and bureaurequirements. the WID Office'straining staff has also developedgender-sensitive training materialsthat are sector-specific: these pro-vide technically appropriate andneeds-responsive skills in agricul-ture, environment and naturalresource management, private enter-prise, education, and democratiza-tion and governance. Functionaltraining is providedonce a trainingneeds assessment is completedincountry and sectoral analysis, pro-gram strategic planning and policyanalysis, project design and imple-mentation, and monitoring and eval-uation. Additional sectoral andfunctional foci are being developedin collaboration with bureaus andmissions.

At the start of FY 1993, theWID Office began a new traininginitiative in collaboration with theWorld Bank, the DevelopmentProgramme, the Food andAgricultural Organization, and othermajor donors. Pooling resourcesand expertise. the group is develop-ing new training materials in genderanalysis to he disseminated andused on a global scale.

Technical Assistance

The technical assistance role playedby the WID Office has increased

Women in Development

dramatically, reflecting an escalatingdemand for gender expertisethroughout the Agency and a height-ened awareness of the importance ofsuch expertise for successful devel-opment. Requests for technicalassistance nearly doubled betweenFY 1990 and FY 1992. More than fiftyfield activities were completed in FY1992 alone by the WID Office direct-ly or through programs such as theGENESYS Project; the Ecology,Community. Organization, andGender (ECOGEN) Project; theAdvancing Basic Education andLiteracy (ABEL) Project; and a newcooperative agreement with theConsortium for InternationalDevelopment (CID).

These activities included:Expert assessment of the designof projects for their appropriateconsideration of the genderdivision of labor, rights, andresponsibilities;Placement of gender specialistson design, implementation, andevaluation teams; andReview of missions' entireportfolios to identify whereaddressing gender couldenhance their overall programs.

During FYs 1991 and 1992. the WIDOffice had an annual budget of$5 million. This budget representsonly a small portion of A.I.D. fundsbenefiting women (see also p. xii ).To stimulate decentralized gender-sensitive action and investment andto "mainstream- women into Agencyprograms. $3 million of this wasspent each year on a matching basiswith funds from the Agency'sbureaus or missions.

Due to a significant increase in thenumber of activities addressing gen-

der throughout the Agency, the pro-portion of each activity covered by\VTD Office funds decreased dramati-cally over the two-year period. InFY 1990, WID Office funds covered75 percent of the cost of each activitytargeted; by FY 1992, they werecovering only 50 percent of eachactivityreflecting the greater will-ingness of individual bureaus andmissions to use their own resourcesto address gender concerns.

.1pplied Research

The WID OffiCe continues to take aleading role in the global effort toprovide data and analysis on genderissues and to identify strategies forintegrating women into overall devel-opment efforts. WID Office-spon-sored research is based on first-handinformation provided by women andmen in developing countries.Extensive interviews and data analy-sis in developing countries helpidentify specific areas to address indesigning a project or developmentprogram. A sampling of research andreports completed in FYs 1991 and1992 appears on pp. 6 and 7.

Placement of Expert PersonnelIn FYs 1991 and 1992. in response tothe rising demand for gender exper-tise within A.I.D., the WID Officeinstituted a system of co-fundingadvisors on women in developmentin the Bureaus for Africa. Asia. LatinAmerica and the Caribbean. andPrivate Enterprise.

In most cases, these advisors workfrom within each bureau to assist instrengthening specific developmentstrategies through the integration ofgender consideration. In the Africaregion, the African Women inDevelopment Project (AMID) hasalso positioned three regional WID

5

17

WID OfficeFunctional Approach

Training: Strengthening theskills of A.I.D. staff in Washingtonand in the fieldas well ashost-country counterparts andPVO staff.in the United States andoverseasLto address gender in allaspects of their work.

Technical Assistance: Providingexpert guidance and pinpointingspecific methods for the implemen-tation of a gender-sensitiveapproach to development, withthe purpose of refining Agencystrategies, programs, action plans,and projects.

Funding: Targeting projects incritical sectors with special fundingearmarked to integrate women intodevelopment activities. Throughthe WID matching fund program,60 percent of WID Office expendi-tures must be matched by fundingfrom missions or bureaus. Thisstrategy increases investment ingender-sensitive activities through-out the Agency. WID Office fundswork to mobilize other resources.

A ?plied Research: Commissioningstate-of-the-art studies to providedata and analysis to improveproject and program planningand implementation.

Placement of Expert Personnel:Co-funding gender specialists posi-tioned inside the Agency's bureausto provide regional and sector-specific gender expertise at thecore of Agency operations.

Information Dissemination:Reaching a wide audience andenhancing overall genderawareness and expertise in thedevelopment field.

Recent WID Office StudiesThe Role of Women in the EvolvingAgricultural Economies of Asia andthe Near East: Implications forA.I.D.'s Strategic Planning (1991).Examines the dynamic characteristics ofeconomic growth in these regions inagribusiness development, naturalresource managemer t, agriculturalplanning and analysis, infrastructuremanagement. and trade and marketdevelopment. Argues that investingspecifically in women is likely to achieverelatively greater benefits than similarinvestments in men. Offers recommenda-tions for field missions.

Gender and Food Aid (1992). Reviewsfood aid issues, including impact ofpolicy on women. Discusses programfood aid (concessional.sales andbilateral food grants) and various typesof project food aid.

The Economic and Social Impactsof Girls' Primary Education inDeveloping Countries (1990). Reviewsinternational literature on this subject.Discusses the link between women'shigher levels of education and improve-ments in the economic and socialwell-being of a country.

Educating Girls: Strategies toIncrease Access, Persistence, andAchievement (1991). Identifies thestrategies, practices, inputs, and factorsthat have had measurable impact inimproving the availability of basiceducation to girls.

Financial Services for WomenTools for Microenterprise Programs:Financial Assistance Section (1992).Discusses benefits of financing women'senterprises, women's special credit needsand problems. and operational issuesaffecting programs. Includes a detailedreview of available financing for womenentrepreneurs.Democracy and Gender A PracticalGuide to USAID Programs (1993).A step-by-step guide to integrating gen-der analysis into all activities underA.I.D.'s Democracy Initiative, resultingfrom a thorough analysis of regionalbureau democracy programs to date,

Women's Income. Fertility, andDevelopment Policy (1991). Provides aframework for understanding how devel-opment policy can affect women's fertility

Women in Development

advisors in the field to work directlywith A.1.1). missions in the region: afourth advisor works from withinAfrica Bureau headquarters inWashington. 1).C.

All of these bureau :idvisors coop-erate closely with their correspond-ing regional and sectoral liaisonofficers in the WID Office. Thisapproach strengthens the Agency'soverall W11) eftOrts. At the beginning()I EY 1993. a WID advisor was alsohired fOr the new Near East Bureau:thus four out of five regionalbureaus now operate with a full-timeWII) advisor.

This staffing reinforcement pro-vides needed support for the effortsof each regional bureau's WIDWorking Group. These groups aremade up of representatives fromwithin each bureau to oversee theintegration of gender across bureauactivities. Bureau VII) advisors alsocoordinate with the field missionWID officers, who dedicate a signifi-cant portion of their time directly togender issues.

This four -way approach to -main-streaming--through the operationalskills of bureau \XII) advisors.bureau WM working groups. mis-sion WID officers. and regional andsectoral liaison officers within theWID Officeprovides the Agencywith far better access to genderexpertise. While the WID Office con-tinues to lead the effort. initiatives tofurther the institutionalization ofwomen in development are now.increasingly being generated notonly in the WID t ghee but through-out All).

In I'Ys l')9l aril 1992, the WID

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Office also co-funded a gender spe-cialist at the 1.S. Bureau of theCensus to help expand and refinegender-disaggregated collection andanalysis of international data by theBureau. This work will have wide-spread impact through the census-design training that the 1..5. Bureauof the Census provides to develop-ing countries.

Inlinmation DisseminationThe wii) Offic'e's information out-reach effort facilitates the integrationof gender considerations into theAgency s policies. programs. and pro-jects. Several ears ago. the Officedeveloped (and is continually updat-ing) a global mailing list ofdirect-hire personnel. contractors.and implementing P\'Os that enablesits efficient dissemination of state -of-the -art research findings and lessonslearned to those most likely to usethem. Getting current and usefulinformation on how to integrateattention to gender into the hands ofproject designers and implementorsfrees them from having to continually-.reinvent the wheel.-

The WII) Office continues to pub-lish the It-Omen in Developmentnewsletter, which it launched in1990 to disseminate practical inkw-(nation about how and w by to inte-grate gender concern into programsand project:. The newsletter coversthe successful efforts of A.1.1). mis-sions and bureaus to reach localwomen and address their distinctneeds in development programs.Each issue lists key contact peopleand reviews new resources as theybecome available.

Gender Specialist in Bangladesh Honored A.I.D.

RAKA RASHID. V .c ) men

in Development Officer at)'SAID Bangladesh. wasnamed one of A.I.D.'s Foreign

Service National Professionals of theYear in 1992 For "consistently Out-standing, exemplary' performance...An A.1.D. employee since 1988.Ms. Rashid joined the Agency threeyears after returning to Bangladeshfrom the l'nited States, where shehad received a Master in BusinessAdministration degree (with a dualmajor in insurance and finance) fromthe Wharton School of the Universityof Pennsylvania.

In Bangladesh. Ms. Rashid devel-oped the "women's corner" concept.leading to the reservation of designat-ed sections of local markets solely forwomen traders. The approach wasseen as a breakthrough that for thefirst time allowed destitute women toparticipate in markets and sell theirgoods directly rather than throughintermediaries. Ms. Rashid's carefulmonitoring confirmed that theapproach increased the incomes ofwomen participants. Several develop-ment agencies. including Save theChildren, are replicating this model intheir own activities.

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Ms. Rashid has also transformed[SAID Dhaka's microenterprisecredit program into a sustainablecommercial initiative. As a foundingmember of the Bangladesh MajorDonors Committee on Women inDevelopment. Ms. Rashid spear-headed the incorporation of WIDconcerns into the government's cur-rent five-Year plan. She successfullyintegrated gender as a cross-cuttingksue throughout ("SAID Dhaka'sCountry Development strategystatement and transformed theMission's WID policy into an impres-sive action agenda.

Ms. Rashid says she "stumbledinto WID" as a consultant for theCanadian International DevelopmentAgency in 1985. "I was part of athree-member team designing acredit program." she remembers,and the two others, both men.

looked to me to do the \VID compo-nent. The only qualification I hadwas that I was a woman." After that.she gradually began to focus herwork on gender issues. -I learnedabout WID on the jobjust by see-ing what actually happens in thefield." she says. Her greatest satisfac-tion so far has come from witnessinggender concern fully institutionalized,u her mission: "Project officers nowcome to me to ask if I can be on adesign team."

Ms. Rashid emphasizes that one'sgender does not determine whetheror not one understands the benefitsof addressing women's concerns indevelopment. "Reaction to WID isstill an individual thing: you eitherget it or you don't. And it is manda-tor to work with those who don't(e.g.. through training' if we want tobring about change."

19

Recent Studies (continued)

through its impact on their labor forceparticipation. Includes an overview ofevidence from Asia and the Near Eastand policy recommendations.

Lessons Learned from the AdvancedDeveloping Countries (1991). Arguesthat the rapid economic growth wit-nessed in Hong Kong, Singapore, SouthKorea, and Taiwan was causally linked towomen's economic participation, and thatearly attention to female education wasimportant to this pattern of development.Discusses policy lessons for middle-income countries.

Engendering Development in Asia andthe Near East: A Sourcebook (1992)Analyzes potential strategies for expand-ing women's opportunities in privateenterprise. agriculture, natural resources.education, health, population. and nutri-tion. Presents options to increasewomen's participation in A.I.D.'s currentprograms in these regions.

Gender and Agriculture and NaturalResource Management in LatinAmerica and the Caribbean: AnOverview of the Literature;Gender and Trade and Investment inLatin America and the Caribbean:An Overview of the Literature; andWomen and the Transition toDemocracy in Latin America and theCaribbean: A Critical Overview(a111992). Each document in this seriessurveys existing findings and knowledgegaps on gender issues relating to thetheme covered.

Polar Gender Issues in theTransition to a Market Economy;and Hungary: Gender Issues in theTransition to a Market Economy(both 1991). Both studies discuss genderissues that have emerged (in Poland andHungary, respectively) in relation to thelabor force, unemployment, private sectordevelopment, and institutional change.

Women and the Law in Asia and theNear East (1991). Outlines ways inwhich the law deprives women ofautonomy and undercuts the success ofwomer.'s participation in A.I.D. projectsin these two regions. Provides a concep-tual framework for analyzing how thelaw in any given society relates towomen's lives.

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wring this reportingperiod. A.1.1).'s regionalbureaus took significantsteps to enhance theirinstitutional capacity toaddress gender issues intheir programs. Several

bureaus recruited full-time \XII)advisors to work within their head-quarters in Washington to incorpo-rate gender considerations at theground level of new Agency initia-tives. The first gender workshop tOrsenior staff members of a regionalbureauthe 13ureau for LatinAmerica and the Caribbeanwasheld in FY 1992 and is being fol-lowed by similar workshops forother bureaus. At the field level. allA ID. missions now have \VID officers who devote some portion oftheir time solely to gender issues.

In FYs 1991 and 1992, all of theregional bureaus stepped up theirefforts to incorporate gender analysisinto their monitoring and evaluationreporting systems.

At the beginning of FY 1993, theW11) Office and the task forceresponsible for the new, indepen-dent republics that were part of thefiKiner ,o..iet l'ition began prelimi-nary discussions to ensure thatgender issues are addressed inA.I.D.'s new programs in that regiont it the world.

BEST COPY AVAILABLE 1-4.

Bureau forAfricaost A.1.D. assistance toAfrica is provided underthe Development Fundfor Africa ( DFA), a con-

rho gressionally earmarkedprogram designed to address theacute development needs of theSub-Saharan African countries. MostDFA funding goes to "critical sector"priorities outlined in the DFA legis-lation: agriculture and naturalresources, health. voluntary family.planning services, education, andincome-generating activities. L'nderthe DFA, the Africa Bureau has amandate to have an impact onindividual men's and women's lives.With this mandate. the Bureau signif-icantly advanced attention to genderissues in FYs 1991 and 1992.

Each A.I.D. mission in the AfricaRegion now has a WID officer, andseveral have designated contractorsor foreign service nationals as WIDcoordinators to assist their WID offi-cers. A number of missionsinclud-ing Niger, Uganda. Ghana, Mali, andKenyahave also established V71)working groups composed of repre-sentatives of each of their technicaloffices.

During FYs 1991 and 1992,several A.I.D. missions (Kenya, Mali,Rwanda, Uganda. and Mozambique)requested training in gender analysisfor their staff, contractors, and host-country collaborators. At the requestof the African Development Bank

Add) mcwasolgly monitors.el,alltatesmaul. 1117(1V

1 leedC'd It1S1S -11V Impactson Emmen and then- familiesqf A.1 D.-assisted c' /forts toincrease women striconie-earning capac ay.

(ADB), transmitted by the RegionalEconomic Development SupportOffice (REDSO) for West and CentralAfrica, the WID Office developedguidelines for the incorporation ofgender issues in the three technicalsectors of the ADB: health and pop-ulation, industry, and agriculture.The ADB's project officers weretrained in tl.e application of theguidelines (:;ee also box on p. 11).

In addition to the support fieldedunder the AFWID Project discussedbelow, technical assistance for pro-ject and program designs. evalua-tions, and the development ofCountry Program Strategic Plans(CPSPs) was provided to the missionsin Ghana. Malawi, Uganda. Burundi.South Africa. Chad, Niger, theGambia. Rwanda, Benin. and Mali.

AFIV/D ProjectThe Africa Women in Devel-opment (AFWID) Project is athree-year effort initiated joint-

ly by the Africa Bureau and the WIDOffice and managed by the AfricaBureau. Created for the purpose ofincreasing African women's partici-pation in and benefits from develop-ment through selected A.I.D.programs and projects, the AFWIDProject hecame fully operational inDecember 1991. The Project sup-ports one Washington-basedResident Advisor and three RegionalAdvisors, who provide technicalexpertise in gender and develop-ment as well as other technicalsupport to A.I.D. missions in East,West. and Southern Africa.

The goals of the AFWID Projectare to help shape A.I.1). missionsinto models for gender-sensitivedevelopment assistance and to assistAfrican women with gaining thesocial and economic status to perpet-uate their decision-making, contrihu-

92 1

tore, and beneficiary roles in thedevelopment process. Workingtoward these ends, the AFWID fieldadvisors are also involved in build-ing networks of local women'sgroups. donor organizations, non-governmental organizations, andprofessional associations.

AFWID field advisors assisted16 missions in the Project's first six,months. The advisors are being con-sulted in project design work tointegrate gender issues prior toimplementation. They have con-tributed to the design of projectsaddressing education. trade andinvestment, private enterprise devel-opment. and a range of agriculturalactivities. The field advisors are alsobeginning to assist missions withsystematizing the collection andanalysis of gender-disaggregateddata. Incorporating gender in mis-sion monitoring and evaluation sys-tems will enable the reporting ofimpacts on women themselves andon the society as a wholeas aresult of the improved participationof women in the developmentprocess.

In FY 1992, for example; AFWIDcontributed to the design of a moni-toring and evaluation system to trackimpacts under USAID/Ghana's Tradeand Investment Program (TIP).AFWID provided assistance with thedesign by reviewing the programdocuments and consulting with thedesign team to ensure coverage ofgender issues. The monitoring andevaluation plan was consideredadvanced in its approach tointegrating gender, and the plan wasformally adopted by 17SA113/Ghanafin implementation.

A.I.D. funds also assisted Womenand Law in Southern MI Ica (WLSA),a regional group that educates andassists women on legal issues. InFY 1992. A.I.D. funds helped WLSA

Bureau for Africa

to establish an Education andAdvocacy I .nit in order to reachrural women with informationon their legal rights. The fundingenabled \NTS:\ to hire a coordinatorand an outreach worker. to developand print mtormational brochuresand posters in both English andtietswana. to conduct severalworkshops in tlaborone and thesurrounding area and to disseminateits book. Maintenance, Laws' andPraatces in Botswana. During theworkshops. government social work-ers received training on w omenslegal issues. and they in turn willtrain local community women.

A.I.D. missions that have support-ed other women's legal aid and advo-cacy organizations during the last twoYears include those in Zimbabwe.Tanzania. Lesotho. Botswana. Kenya.

.gantia. and Benin.In Washington. the AFWID

Resident Advisor began working withBureau staff to ensure that genderaspects are already integrated when

guidance to missions goes out fromWashingtonto express the Bureau sconcern about gender and to spurmissi(m state to have gender issues inmind from the outset. One oratorobjective is to assist Bureau staff tomove beyond an understanding ofWID as a mandate and equity issueonly. There is a need for staff toassimilate the more problundimplications of integrating genderconsiderations in their work and torecognize that gender analysisshould be applied in the process of.rather than after. conceptualizingindicators. strategic frameworks. andsimilar undertakings.

Over the past two years. theResident Advisor has reviewed theBureau s annual Assessment ofProgram Impacts (API) and hasnoted that gender issues are lessapparent in the coverage of theproductive sectors of the economyagriculture. business privatesector development. and naturalresourcesthan in the "traditional-

BOTSWANA

As part of their efforts to increase the attention ofA.I.D. missions to gender issues. AFWID field advisorswork closely with local women's organizations to helpthem meet the needs of women in their communities.

In FY 1992, the Southern Africa Advisor helped .

Botswana's Women in Business Association t WIBA)obtain funding from USAIR/Botswana to strengthen thegroup's institutional capacity. WIBA is a group of localbusinesswomen who volunteer their time to serve as asubcommittee under the Small Business Division ()idleBotswana Confederation of Commerce, Industry. andManpower. This fledgling association was formed topromote the success of women in business enterprisesin Botswana. It is considered to have great potential toprovide support and services to women in business,

sectors of family planning. health.and child survival. Asa result ofthese assessments. the Africa Bureauhas begun to encourage field mis-sions to include impacts by genderand to disaggregate indicators bygentler in API reporting.

Looking. beadThrough its guidance and assis-tance to missions in monitoringand evaluation. the African

Bureau is making a vigorous effort tointegrate gender into mission andbureau monitoring and evaluationsystems. AID. missions in the WestAfrica region will participate in twoworkshops co-sponsored by theRegional Economic DevelopmentSupport Office t REDSO) to train theirprogram development officers in theintegration of gentler in pmgram-level monitoring and database sys-tems. The workshops will also beused to solicit recommendationsfrom field missions on how to inte-

especially to Botswana entrepreneurs who are juststarting out. Although the group's leadership is strong,its organizational structure needed improvement.

At the recommendation of the AMID Advisor.USAID/Botswana funds in FY 1992 sponsored a com-prehensive assessment of WIBA. Women in Gaborone,Francestown, and Lohatse were interviewed in order toidentify the problems and concerns faced by business-women in Botswana. Consultants worked with WIBAleaders to map out the women's own priorities anddevise a strategic action plan. Findings from this initialactivity led to a Mission decision to provide funds tohire a short-term WIBA coordinator to work with itsmembers on a number of proposed activities.

grate gender into the Africa Bureau'sguidance on Country ProgramStrategic Plans. This integration ofwomen in development guidelineswill supersede the need for the sepa-rate WID action plans that have beenrequired of all Africa posts since1989. Each Africa mission has nowsubmitted a WID action plan. butupdates are not required. althoughseveral missions have voluntarilysubmitted them.

The Africa Bureau and the Centerfor Development Information andEvaluation (CDIE) are collaboratingon three country-specific linkagestudies on gender issues in policyreform. trade and investment. andnatural resource management pro-grams. The studies will documentand substantiate the importance ofgender integration into mission pro-grams and projects for obtainingpositive people-level impacts.

iir L'Y 1993, the Africa Bureau isfunding a three-year pilot program.Leadership and Advocacy forWomen in Africa. designed todevelop the legal advocacy skills ofAfrican lawyers to advance the causeof women's rights in their countries.Vnder this program. exceptionallyqualified law graduates from Africaare selected to study and work inwashingtun. D.C. Participantsreceive Master of Law degrees atGeorgetown University Law Centerand work as staff attorneys at publicinterest organizations in Washingtoncm various legal and policy issuesaffecting the status of women.Nlissions participating in the pilotprogram are Ghana. Namibia. andI .ganda. The program is implement-ed he the women's Law and PublkPolicy Fellowship Program ofGeorgetown l'niversity.

-".

Toward Food Security andEnvimnmental Sustainability:Strengthening Women's LeadershipThe African \Vomen Leaders in Agriculture and the Environment (AWLAF)

Project is a three-year effort (l'SS-00.000) co-funded by the WID Office and

the Bureau for Africa in FY 1992. Implemented through a grant to V'inrockInternational, the Project will prepare 100 women professional leaders in theagricultural and environmental sectors in four countries t Ivory Coast. Mali.

Uganda. and Kenya) with management. gender analysis. and strategic plan-

ning skills.AWLAE will also establish four Gender Network Centers within existing

institutions in the participating countries. The Centers will disburse annualresearch grants to promote research on Women's roles in agriculture andthe environment. One of the objectives of the Centers is to bring togetherstatisticians and researchers to increase awareness of discrepancies ingathering and analysis of national statistics on women in agriculture andthe environment. as well as to disseminate survey methodologies that produce

accurate data on women. The Centers will also provide a mentoring servicefor girls and young women who wish to pursue careers in agricultural and

environmental fields.

Gender Guidelines for theAfrican Development BankThrough USAII) Ivory Coast. the African Development Bank (ADB)requested A.I.D. assistance in enhancing the capacity of the Bank'soperational and professional staff to effectively incorporate gender issues

into the design and implementation of every Bank - funded project in three tar-

get sectors: agriculture. industry, and health and population.In a two-phase response to the ADB's request. a team of gender experts First

worked closely with key staff in the Bankincluding representatives of the

operations division and the Women in Development Unitto develop user-friendly guidelines for attention to gender in each of the three sectors.Guidelines were designed to be directly and immediately applicable in theBank's day-to-day operations. Second, in a series of sector-specific works!lops,A.I.D. gender specialists trained Bank staff in the actual use of the guidelines in

new and ongoing projects.This approach couples collaborative design of gender-sensitive and

sector-specific guidelines with training in the use of new tools. It has greatly

strengthened the Bank's effort to instilutionalize gender «msiderations it is

policies, projects. and programs.

II

Bureau forAsiaIn the Asia region. women'saccess to resources and deci-sion-making power is oftenconstrained by socio-cultural.economic. institutional. legal.

and policy-related factors. Thesefactors restrict women's capacity todetermine their levels of education.their participation in the wage laborforce. and, at a more personal level.even their decisions concerning thenumber of children they wouldprefer to have. A.I.D. views theseissues as part of larger developmentproblems rather than as justwomen's concerns.

The Bureau for Asia now Operatesin the following countries. coveringEast and South Asia as well thePacific region: Afghanistan.Bangladesh, Cambodia. India.Indonesia, Mongolia. Nepal. Pakistan.the Philippines. Sri Lanka. Thailand(including ASEAN), and the SouthPacific island countries (includingPapua New Guinea). Among theseA.I.D. programs, the mission inPakistan is in the process of phasingout, while the programs in Cambodiaand Mongolia are in their earlyestablishment, and the program inAfghanistan is scheduled to shift thethnist of its work from cross-borderhumanitarian aid to developmentassistance.

Bureau Strategyand Initiatives

To foster broad-based develop-ment, the Bureau for Asiahas adopted a three-pronged

program:Supporting democratic plural-

ism and strengthening democraticinstitutions to capture the s nergyof economic:. social, and politicaldevelopment benefits for a largergroup of citizens:

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Understanding of gender roles in subsistence agriculture societies can helpassure that projects to increase household income also enhance familynutrition and health hr reinibrcing women's hilluence within the jamil.

Targeting the role of the familyas a development focus thinuFh pro-grams in agriculture, environment.nutrition, education, family planning,housing, and small and microenter-prise development: and

Strengthening the private sector(and through it. the link betweenbusiness and development) to maxi-mize GDP growth.

In Imo' 1991. when the Bureaus forAsia. the Near East, and EasternEurope (ANE) were combined, the\VID Office and ANE co-sponsoreda conference. "Women. EconomicGrowth, and Demograr.hic Changein Asia and the Near East.- Theconference demonstrated particularopportunities presented by wc, yen'sparticipation in the labor force and in

/2 24

public life. identified constraints thatwomen face in their varied marketand non-market activities, and sug-gested ways in which women can bemore fully and effectively integratedinto development assistanceefforts in the 1990s. The conferencepapers provided state-of-the-art dataand analysis on the linkages betweenwomen's labor force participation.education. fertility. and legal status.In FY 1992, the new Asia Bureau andthe Private Enterprise Bureau (PRE).with matching funding from the WIDOffice. jointly hired a full-timewomen in Development Advisor

through the GENESIS Project. TheWID Advisor devotes HO percent ofIler time to Asia and 20 percent toPRE. In her first six months, the WIDAdvisor responded to requests for

technical assistance from the l*SAIDmissions in Indonesia, Nepal. SriLanka, and the Philippines.

The Bureau for Asia has an activeWID Committee. which in June 1991took the initiative of sending a guid-ance cable to the region's missions,urging them to: 1) "ensure that allstrategy documents include a well-defined framework that addressesgender issues appropriate to thedevelopment problems identified ineach country context,- and, 2) "to theextent possible. .. . collect gender-disaggregated data and analyzegender-based constraints andopportunities.-

In FY 1992. the Bureau's WIDCommittee collaborated with themissions on updating the WM ActionPlan for the region to reflect theBureau's ability to provide the regiongreater support under the WIDOffice's GENESYS Project. The ActionPlan encouraged missions to specifytheir plans to integrate genderconsiderations into their policies.programs. and projects: to improvestaff skills on gender analysis throughtraining workshops: to assure sex-disaggregated updating and increaseduse of their databases: and toimprove the gender sensitivity oftheir programming efforts in thr.%_sectoral areas: the private sector.democracy and local governance, andthe environment and natural resourcemanagement.

In FY 1992, the Bureau initiated a\VID Officers' Support Network toprovide selected resource materialson a regularized basis to the designat-ed Wit) officers of all missions inAsia. The Asia Bureau in this periodalso mien ied its efkwts to buildgender considerations into its strate-gic planning and evaluatiim processthrough PRISM Pr(wainPerformance Inform:Moo for StrategicManagement), the Agency-wide

impact-monitoring exercise (seep. 28). The Bureau's WID Advisorparticipated in L'SAID/Indonesia's1992 PRISM session to ensure that theMission's strategic objectives focus onboth women and menand thatindicators used to measure impact areresponsive to gender issues.

During the FY 1992 Asia RegionalMission Directors' Conference. theBureau also encouraged missions torequest assistance from the AsiaBureau's Wit) Advisor on program-matic guidance. (raining, and othersupport for their \NM-related inter-ventions in their countries. Oneoutcome of this conference was ahalf-day workshop on genderanalysis conducted for senior staff inthe Bureau.

Bureau SectoralHighlights

The Bureauresponding to pri-mar development objectivesin most missions in Asiais

focusing its sectoral gender and WMassistance on the private sector.

13

democracy and local governance.and environment and _auralresource management. The womenin development activities of individ-ual missions continue to provideassistance in a broader spectrum ofsectors on the basis of identifiedneeds in specific countries. Forexample. microenterprise develop-ment. education. and family planningare program areas in which severalmissions in the region are making asignificant impact on improving the .

lives of women.In the private sector arena, many

missions have recognized the importance of bringing women into theeconomic mainstream if their coun-tries are to flourish, as demonstratedbelow in the section on missionhighlights. In addition, a new, cen-trally funded Regional Asia BusinessProject requires implementing

Sustainable forest toner cation andforest product prcxessing requiresskilled and committed workers.Here. women in Bail: India. tendseedlings in a tree nto .'ry.

25 BEST COPY AVAILABLE

USAID/SRI LANKA

The A.I.D. mission in Sri Lanka has a history of specialattention to women in development concerns. In 1989,the Mission requested assistance from the WID Office toconduct a full review of its portfolio of programs forgender issues. In 1990, it commissioned the MargaInstitute in Sri Lanka to carry out a comprehensive studyof the status of women, with particular attention to theMission's focus areasagriculture, private sector devel-opment, natural resource management, and citizen par-ticipation in democratizationso that the findings couldbe used to strengthen the implementation of theMission's projects. In 1991, the Mission's WID Officerdeveloped a strategy paper on women in developmentfor the Mission, and in 1992, the Mission requestedtechnical assistance from the Asia Bureau's WID Advisorand the WID Office's Asia /PVO Liaison Specialist.

USAID/NEPAL

A.I.D.'s mission in Nepal, which crafted its first WIDAction Plan in 1988, continues to seek assistance tointegrate gender considerations into its activities. InFY 1990, a portfolio review of the Mission's projectsrevealed innovative and substantive commitment to theinclusion of women in USAID/Nepal's activities for rea-sons of both social equity and economic effectiveness.

The Asia Bureau's WID Advisor and the Asia/PVOLiaison Specialist from the WID Office were bothinvited to Kathmandu in mid-1992 to review progressmade toward the goals set in 1990 and to recommendways to improve mechanisms to institutionalizeattention to gender concerns.

The visit led to the creation of an active WIDCommittee, chaired by the Mission Director. The visitalso reinforced the role of the Mission WID Officer,who subsequently was authorized to dedicate 40 per-cent of her work time (up from 10 percent) to womenin development activities. Finally, the visit resulted inthe Mission's co-funding a workshop on gender consid-erations In development for the Mission's staff and itsproject implementing agencies.

In FY 1992, under its Rapti Development Project, theMission completed a two-year, intra-household Genderand Farm Commercialization Study. Co-funded by theWID Office and the Mission, the study is a gender-differentiated analysis of both incentives for and results

The Mission currently provides substantial assistancethrough the predominantly indigenous PVO communityin Sri Lanka, funding activities such as '7omen inNeed's legal aid program, the Asia Foundation's videoson dowry and domestic violence against women, andthe Agromart Outreach Foundation's three-year program($500,000) for an agro-enterprise development and mar-keting project targeted to women (see also p. 54).

The Mission has made an institution-strengtheninggrant to the Sri Lanka Women's Chamber of Industryand Commerce through its Private Sector Policy SupportProject. Under the Mahaweli Enterprise DevelopmentProject (a multi-million-dollar integrated rural develop-ment program), the Mission also has been trainingsmall- and medium-scale entrepreneurs. 25 percent ofwhom are women.

of the substitution of high-value commercial crops fortraditional cropping patterns. The findings will enablethe next phase of the Rapti Project to respond moreeffectively to specific, gender-differentiated needs of thecommunity. Recommendations from this researchinclude involving women in the training and technicalassistance activities targeting cash crop production, andmonitoring the effects of commercialization on intra-household income distribution and decision making toensure that program actions do not result in genderinequalities that reduce women's status or participation.

In other program areas, the Mission's DevelopmentTraining Project has set a target of 35 percent womenparticipants. A recent Private Sector Training NeedsAssessment conducted under the WID Office'sGENESYS Project included gender considerations fromthe outset. The Health Office continues to support theGovernment of Nepal's commitment to its experimentalFemale Community Health Volunteer Program. TheDemocracy Program is particularly sensitive to theimportance of involving women and w +rking with andfostering the growth of local NGOs. A two-week leader-ship training program for women PVO leaders was heldin April 1993 to help meet this goal. The Mission andthe WID Office also co-funded a gender in develop-ment workshop for Mission staff, contractors, NGOleaders, and government officials.

Bureau for Asia

agencies and consultants togive attention to genderconsiderations.

For the Asia Bureau.democracy and local gover-nance is a relatively new areaof emphasis. In FN. 1992. theBureau participated in anAgency-wide study ondemocracy and gender. andin FY 1993 it is funding a study ofwomen participation in democracyin Asia as a companion to the evalua-tion of the Asia Democracy Program.The Bureau's WID Advisor and theWID Office's Asia LiaisonPV0Cx)rdinator also provided technicalassistance to l'SAID. Nepal and

'SAID Sri Lanka on possible womenin development initiatives withintheir respective missions' democracyprograms. One outcome of thiswork was ('SAID. Nepal's sponsor-ship of a leadership trainingprogram for women NGO leadersin early 1993.

The Asia Bureau's regionalEnvironmental Support Project hasprovided support to CSAID missionsin tropical forest management andbiodiversity conservation, urban andindustrial pollution prevention,coastal water resource management.and energy conservation. Its succes-sor projei I will ensure even greaterattention to gender considerationsbeginning in FY 1993.

Mission Ht:gblights,Flis 1991 and 1992Al.!).. missions in the Asia regionhave enhanced the integration ofgender concerns into their work hi)tliin response to the Bureau leadershipand in pursuit of their own strategicgoals. Each mission has prepared aWID :Whim Plan in conjunction with

the development of its countrystrategy. The folkming examples givea sense of the range of missionwomen in development activitiesduring FYs 1991 and 1992.

USAID/Bangladesh l,as identifiedthe lack of developmental opportuni-ties for women as one of the coun-try's most serious developmentproblems. In FY 1992. the Missionlaunched a new five-year, SS-millionproject. Women in EnterpriseDevelopment. as a follow-on to theirWomen's Entrepreneurship Develop-ment Project implemented in the1980s. Both projects have benefitedfrom the leadership and active partici-pation of the Mission's V1D Officer,who is also one of its private sectorofficers (see also p. ').

USAID/Indonesia. t'nder itsFinancial Institutions DevelopmentProject. the Mission has been helping(since the mid-1970s) two local finan-cial institutions to become financiallysustainable in providing credit formicro and small-scale enterprises. InFY 1991, as part of the final projectevaluation, the W1D Office reviewedthe impact of these projects onimproving the lives of women. Theevaluation showed that women arestrong financial clientsboth as iior-r(iwers with good repayment ratesand as savers. The programs havehad a positive impact on the standardof living of borrower families.

USAID/Philippines. In FYs 1990and 1991. the WM Office and the

Where rural women flow,. r1111 hallSehOldS.ancl cam jiir children. coach-earning optionscar often limited to home-hased night anti,:assistance and (milt can help women(word eAploitatire forms olsoch work byofgartizing their own 1111CrOelltelprtSeS.

Mission jointly funded two studies tounderstand and improve the impactof policy reform on both women'sand men's employment andentrepreneurship. As a result.USAID /Philippines in FY 1991 com-mitted itself to develop a gender-dis-aggregated employment monitoringsystem under its Agribusiness SectorAssistance Program (see p..41).

A.I.D. in the South Pacific. InFY 1992. the WID Office also collabo-rated with the Mission's MarketAccess and Regional CooperationProgram on a feasibility study of theinternational marketing prospects ofthe Tongan giftware industry, whosebeneficiaries are mostly women-owned and women-operated smallbusinesses and microenterprises.In the same year, the Mission alsointegrated gender issues into thedesign phase of its ProfitableEnvironment Project, which identifiesways in which women can increas-ingly combine their efforts in enter-prise development with naturalresource management. 'With VII)Office support, a V'ID Advisor washired under the Project to oversee theappropriate integration of genderissues throughout the implementationstage.

Bureau for EuropeWomen play a moreactive role in theeconomies ofCentral and EasternEurope than they do

in any other region of the world.'this is in part a legacy of the socialistera. during which women Were bothencouraged and obligated to work.A.I.D. and World Bank studies showthat women comprise nearly halt thework force in Central and EasternEuropean economies ( Figure 11.At presentas the cost of livingescalates and purchasing powerdeclines while these countries carryout their varied forms of "transition"to the market system and politicalpluralismat least two sources ofincome in the family are acutelynecessary.

Despite their high level of educa-tion, most working women in thisvast region are in the relatively poor-ly paid. less prestigious occupations(Figure 2). Evidence to date suggests.moreover, that women's unemploy-ment rates are rising faster than thoseof men. In a number of countries,

job vacancy announcements specifythe gender of applicants. In additionto structural shifts in these economies.other factorssuch as gender-basedemployment regulations and adecline in the availability of subsi-dized child care servicesare jeopar-dizing women's ability to find andkeep work for which they are quali-fied. To meet the needs of theirfamilies. many women are turning tosmall business as an employmentand income-generation alternative.They are eager to gain entrepreneur-ial skills to operate in the emergingmarket economies in their countries.

The region's women face otherdifficult problems in this period oftransition. Women's political repre-sentation dropped dramatically in thefirst round of democratic elections,and women are seeking leadershipand networking skills. Violencetoward women is increasing, particu-larly in the context of political strifeover nationhood and boundaries.The special problems of widows areanother major concern. Women pre-dominate in most elderly populations

because of lower female comparedto male mortality rates at virtuallyevery age: the majority of womenover sixty are likely to be livingalone or with another family memberrather than with a spouse. WhileEastern Europe has the demographyof the aging industrialized world, ithas the income of the newly industri-alized countries. This trend has seri-ous economic and social implicationsfor large numbers of older womenand the relatives to whom they turnif they canwhen pensions are deci-mated by inflation and centralizedsocial support systems are beingprivatized.

Assistance 10

Central andEastern Europe:A ,Vet ' Approach

The Bureau for Europe, estab-lished in FY 1991, differs signif-icantly from other A.I.D.

regional bureaus in several ways thatinfluence A.I.D. assistance, including

Czecho- Hungary Poland Romania Bulgaria Albaniaslovakia

Germany Greece Italy

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Norway Spain Sweden United UnitedKingdom States

Western Europe and United States, 19880

/6 04/ 0

Source Maxine S Fong and Gillian Paul. for World Bank/CECSE. June 1992

women in development efforts, inthe region. The State Departmentrather than A.I.D. has the leadershiprole for development assistance tothe region. The number of A.I.D.field staff in the region is very limit-ed. The Regional Mission for Europeis located in Washington rather thanin the field. Programs are regionalrather than country specific. Assis-tance is being delivered by as manyas 35 I '.5. agencies and departments:thus A.I.D. is not wori:ing on theentire development front, but onlyon its allocated portions.

The first round of activities inEurope has stressed immediatehumanitarian assistance and econom-ic adjustment. The Bureau has had toput personnel and systems in placevery rapidly. As a result, plans formonitoring and evaluation are still atan early stage. Sex-disaggregation ofparticipant data ti r the Managementand Economics Education Program isin place. PVO grantees have beenrequired to disaggregate their dataand systems by gender. Participanttraining selection requirementsencourage at least 40 percent femaleparticipation.

The major emphases of theregional programs in Central andEastern Europe are:

Democratic initiativessupport for the development andstrengthening of democraticinstitutions:

Economic restructuringhelp with the transformation of cen-trally planned economies intomarket-based systems:

Quality of life .resistance withimproving the basic quality of life,including health. environmental.con-ditions. and housing.

DEllOCRATIC 1.1111.1111ES

The Bureau for Europe and theWID Office have been focusing theirefforts on:

Increasing women's par-ticipation in elected and appointedpolitical positions.

Building women's leadershipskills and enabling them to run forpublic offices, and

Protecting women from sexualabuse in refugee and displacedsituations.

Recent Highlights:Women political leaders fromCentral and Eastern Europeestablished networks. In the fall of1992, the Bureau for Europe and theWID Office co-sponsored a confer-ence in Strasbourg, France, "TheRole of Women and the Transitionto Democracy in Central and EasternEurope.- The meeting was heldunder the auspices of the Presidentof the Parliamentary Assembly of theCouncil of Europe. Participantsfrom the United States. Canada. and

Western Europe shared informationwith participants from Central andEastern Europe about the practicalchallenges of building grassrootsorganizations and developingorganizational leadership. and aboutthe use of the mass media for thesepurposes.

Vocational training increasedoptions for the children of formerpolitical prisoners in Albania. In1991. the Bureau for Europe initiatedsupport for an activity coordinatedby the Organization for EducationalResources ar :1 TechnologicalTraining (ORT). a private voluntaryorganization. Imprisonment, detain-ment, and exile were widespreadunder Communist rule. and the livesand opportunities of the families ofthe accused were generally harmedand constrained as part of the pun-ishment meted out. ORT trainedeight adult daughters of former politi-cal prisoners how to train others.These women are now teachingcourses in management, secretarialskills, architectural design, cabinet-

Czecho-Hungary Polandslovakia

7

ti

France Germany Greece Norway Kingdonitedm

Source: Maxine S. Fong and Gillian Paul. for World Bank/CECSE, June 1992.

Bureau for Europe

making. electrical repairs. plumbing.masonry. and entrepreneurial skills.lost of the trainees are also women.

It'L'SIRl

Women's participation in the neweconomic systems in Eastern Europeis not merely a matter of social equi-ty, but one of economic necessity.key areas that A.I.D. has identifiedfor ensuring women's participationin private sector activities include:

Providing training to createopponunities for women to gainmanagement and other skills neededfor operating successfully in the pri-vate sector.

Ensuring, that A.I.D. businessproject networks include women'sbusiness associations.

Adapting technical assistance toinclude sectors in which women arerepresented. such as trade-orientedservice industries.

Recent Highlights:Export promotion of crafts.Aid to Artisans, a private volun-tary organization funded by theEurope Bureau. is helpingwomen in Hungarian craftscooperatives to strengthen theirbusiness skills and adapt theirproducts for export to U.S. mar-kets. American businesses arebeing helped to develop tradeties with these producers. Thisis an important source ofemployment for women. pa nic-ulark for home-based workers.

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illa 11,1g Ittit'gleS 1. help;IStalll 111,111011 (1111.ca IS

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Advanced technical trainingfor the Albanian carpet weavingindustry. Women comprise half ofthe managers and most of the work-ers in the Albanian carpet weavingindustry. This industry representsover 3 percent of the country's totallabor force and 13 percent of thefemale labor force. Due to a varietyof factorsincluding outdated capi-tal stock. lack of investment. and aneed to update technical and mar-keting skills(inly two of twelve fac-tories were operating in 1991.: \t fullcapacity. the factories could generatean export value of S5.8 million ayearand sustain the employmentof a great number of the country'swomen workers. To overcome someof the obstacles to production. theA.I.D. Regional Mission for Europe.in collaboration with the WID Officeand the A.I.D. Office of InternationalTraining, launched a multi-year train-ing project in 1992 to upgrade pro-duction and entrepreneurial skills by

working with relevant 1..5. business-es. This training will contribute to alarger effOrt to refurbish the industrybeing undertaken as part of a collab-orative effort to which A.I.D. is

contributingan effort engaging theAlbanian government. the privatesector, foreign investors. and.donors.

Pilot study of potential forwomen-owned private food-storechains in Poland. The WID Officeand the R&D Bureaus Office ofEconomic and institutionalDevelopment supported a 1992pilot studs' on the establishment ofprivate food-store chains in theWarsaw area as a business opportu-nit for vc)men. In Poland. theformerly government -run foodstores were for the most part oper-ated 1w women. The creation ofstore chains could allow individualshop owners to work together toconsolidate their procurement ofgoods and set up a profitablewholesale mechanism.

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Activities in this focus area includedimproving women's access to familyhealth care and family planningservices and identifying vulnerablegroups likely to suffer more duringthe transition to a market economy(e.g., elderly widows. children. andYouth).

Recent Highlights:Training program improvedRomanian women's access tofamily planning and reproduc-tive health care services.In 1991. selected the Centrefor Development and PopulationActivities (CEDPA), a private volun-tary organization. to develop andimplement a program to respond toRomanian women's expressed needfor better alternatives to abortionthrough the c .tablishment of mod-ern family planning services (seep. 73 for an account of the progressof the CEDPA project).

Study of household incomesurvey identified unemployedand elderly women as vulnerablegroups. Analysis of the LuxembourgHousehold Income Survey inEastern Europe was conducted in1991 by teams from the U.S. Bureauof the Census along with EasternEuropean stati,tical offices anduniversiris:s with A.I.D. support.Fine ings indicate that small house-holds appear more vulnerable inEastern Europe because many ofthem are pensioners. Retirementages are low compared to those ofWestern Europe. Women haveconsistently higher unemploymentrates. Children arc also among thosenegatively affected. with the relativevulnerability of the old and theyoung varying across countries.

Elderly uPmen and children are among the groupsmost in need of assistance to counter the negatitv side effects

of period of rapid economic changes in manycentral and Eastern European countnes

Looking Ahead

0 ver the past year. the Bureau for Europe. the WID Office.and the Regional Mission for Europe have recognized theneed for a women in development action plan tailored to

the region's characteristics. Program and project staff in the field

and Washington will participate in women in developmenttraining. Gender disaggregation of relevant variables will be built

into the monitoring and evaluation system as it is developed. TheBureau will also introduce mechanisms for the coordination ofwomen in development policy, systems. and procedures among1.S. governmental agepf:ies providing assistance to Central and

Eastern Europe.

I9

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Bureau for

Latin America and the Caribbean

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The Bureau for LatinAmerica and theCaribbean (LAC) identi-fied two major strategicobjectives during FYs

1991 and 1992: broad-based. sustain-able economic growth and stabledemocratic societies. Within thiscontext. three major priorities wereoutlined:

Economic development, trade.and investment:Environment and naturalresource management; andDemocratic initiatives.

The strategy for integratinggender into this overall framework isset forth in the Bureau's updated\ \'lI) Action Plan, adopted inFY 1992. which calls for ensuringthat gender concerns are integratedinto prograin ohjectRes. actionplans. and performance reviews. Toachieve this, the Bureau stepped upits gender training and increased itstechnical support to field missions

on gender issues. Preliminary assess-ments indicate positive results: allmissions are now including genderin their project performancereportsa dramatic increase fromprevious years. Attention to genderimpact in program-level reportinghas also increased.

With joint funding from the WIDOffice. the LAC Bureau in early1992 hired a full-time WID Advisor.through the GENESYS Project. tocontribute a gender perspective tosetting program objectives anddeveloping program-level monitor-ing and evaluation systems. TheWID Advisor works closely withthe Bureau's WID \ \'orking Group(which includes representativesfrom its program. sectoral. andgeographic offices). WID officers,and the \XII) Office liaison for theLAC Bureau.

During 1992. the LAC Bureau sWID Advisor and staff members ofthe WID Office and its GENESYSproject provided field - level technical

20 32

In situanons economicttpheatal and jbod insecu rut%u omen S/ohs on .1 imyl fi,r-trotkinfrastructure construcnonpnwects can help assureadequate nutrition for iNghwomen and their film:lies.

assistance to 1(1 missions in theregion: this assistance ranged fromhelp with the development ofmissions' women in developmentobjectives to the design and imple-mentation of household surveyresearch. In addition. the WIDOffice provided technical assistanceto Honduras. the CaribbeanRegional Office, and Guatemalaunder the R&1) Bureau's Ecology,Community Organization. andGender (ECOGEN), Social andInstitutional Aspects of RegionalResource Systems SARSA), andDevelopment Strategies for FragileLands (DESFIL) projects.

In June 1992. the LAC Bureaubecame the first A.I.D. regionalbureau to conduct a workshop forsenior management on integratinggender into program strategic objec-tives. This workshop. carried outwith the strong support of the LACBureau leadership and the assis-tance of the WID Office. marked animportant step in implementing theBureau's women in developmentmandate. In January 1993, LACWashington staff received trainingon how to review and help improvemission program reporting withrespect to people-level and genderimpact.

Field missions iG the LAC regionreport extensive efforts to integratewomen in development and genderissues into their activities. the fol-lowing sections illustrate regionalhighlights front FYs 1991 and 1992

Economic Development.Trade, and Investment

Beginning in FY 1991,LSAID. Nicaragua and theWID Office funded a program

through the Central AmericanBusiness Administration Institute(INCAS). to increase the region'spool of professionals. includingwomen. The program is examiningand assessing existing labor statisticson the participation and distributionof women in the public and privatesectors: conducting research onselected groups of women managersin Nicaragua and Costa Rica: andproviding management training forwomen executives. In addition, theprogram will result in an action planto fully integrate gender issues intothe curriculum of INCAE, which isthe primary management traininginstitution in Central America.

In Jamaica. the A.I.D. Mission'sMicroenterprise Project, begun at theend of FY 1990, was designed toinclude a strong component onwomen in development. The Projectvery quickly developed into an effec-tive means to assist women micro-entrepreneurs with stabilizing and, orexpanding their businesses. Datafrom lending agencies shows thatalmost 04 percent of the borrowersoverall are women, and nearly 90percent of borrowers with a woman-operated lending agency are women.

In Bolivia, Pro Mujer, a privatevoluntary organization. received[SAID/Bolivia funding in FY 1992for an innovative program that pro-vides nearly 600 women in the cityof El Alto and rural areas of the high-lands with access to credit throughcommunity banks. The program alsoextends technical assistance to theWomen in Business AdministrationInstitute to make its members' cum-

USAID/HONDURAS:A Strong Focus onWomen in Development

During the last two years, USAID/Honduras has taken major steps tointegrate gender concerns into its programs. Training received by some100 Mission employees in October 1991 helped clarify the gender con-cept and reasons why the participation of both women and menshould be considered in project design and implementation. TheMission's approach has evolved from attempting to isolate and address

"women only" needs toward enriching projects through gender-sensi-tive strategies to assure that women as well as men participate in pro-

. grams as agents of change and development. The following examplesillustrate recent successes:

Employment Creation. The 1988 Honduras Census reports astrong increase in the participation of women in agriculture and fishing

activities (from 18 percent in 1974 to 33 percent in 1988). This growth

was due to the country's expanding export agroindustry, which isemploying increasing numbers of workers on shrimp farms and forvegetable and fruit packing. The Mission's Export Development andServices Project's goal is to promote the expansion of nontraditionalexports. This project, implemented by the Honduran Federation ofAgricultural Producers and Exporters Associations, has generated 8,214jobsmostly in packing, processing, and greenhouse operations;26 percent of these jobs are held by women. So far, the Federation hasdirectly helped 174 export projects, which in turn have generated over$16 million in foreign exchange earnings for Honduras and employ-ment for over 11,000 people-30 percent of whom are women.

Constructive Policy Change. The effects of the Mission's PolicyAnalysis and Implementation Project are expected to be positive andfelt at both the institutional and sectoral levels. One striking example isthe country's new Agricultural Modernization Law approved as a result

of this effort. A section of the new law eliminates discrimination againstmarried women farmers by granting them title to the land owned bytheir husbands in the event of the death or disability of their husbands.

Expanded Credit Access for Small Business. One of the mainproblems confronting the owners of small businesses and microenter-prises (especially women entrepreneurs) is that they do not have

access to commercial credit. In Honduras, over 80 percent of the totalloans in the banking system are-disbursed to men. The Mission's Small

Business II Project breaks this traditional barrier and provides creditand technical assistance to all who have viable market projects. Thefinancial institutions (commercial banks and private voluntary organiza-tions) that participate in the project have disbursed nearly 25,000 loans,

which have created over 18,700 new jobs. Approximately 55 percent ofthe loans disbursed went to women-owned or women-managed enter-prises. The project introduced methods to give women access tocredit.

For example, USAID/Honduras actively supports an income-generation

project that uses the village hank approach to assist impoverished

women to obtain short-term working capital.

2/

33

Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean

mercial activities more profitablePro Muter reaches about 1.30owomen a month with health. familyplanning, literacy, and credit pro-grams. A.1.D. funding to anotherorganization. PRODEN1. has helpedto provide thousands of women \vithloans. PRODEM has now evol\ edinto Banco Sol. the first private com-mercial bank ever created to servemicroenterprises ( see also p. 3-

Environment and.VatumI Resource_llanagement

In 1991. as part of A.1.D.'sGlobal Climate Change Project.CSAID Brazil launched an

innovative activity in the Amazonregion that relies on worsensknowledge, skills. and labor. Withassistance from the WID Office. theProject ensures the appropriateconsideration of gender throughtraining, research. and technicalassistance (see also p. .S3 ).

In Ecuador. the A.I.D. MissionsSustainable 1'ses of BiologicalResources (S1.-BIR) Project .iitiated inFY 1991, focuses on the importanceof regional ethnic characteristics anddiverse gender roles to project inter-ventions. Among other things. st 'MRseeks to alter patterns of income gen-eration for households living nearnational parks ant other environmen-tally protected areasso that localresidents can become less dependentfor their livelihood on forest extrac-tive activities. Since both men andwomen in tliese areas contribute tohousehold income and subsistence.I)( Ali were taken into ,account in pro-ject design (see also p. C3).

In FY," 1991 and 1992.1.SAID Guatemala included '01women home economists as partici-pants in several training programs in

the I'nited States on integrated pestmanagement techniques. The quitehigh number of female participants issignificant. as technical informationregarding pesticide application tradi-tionall has been the domain of maleextension agents in Guatemala. Par-ticipants learned about health andsafety issues for disposal and storageof chemical products. non-formal andadult education and extension meth-ods for target audiences of farmersand homemakers. and proper tech-niques for pesticide use. On theirreturn to Guatemala. the w omenwere able to integrate what they hadlearned into their work of promotingfamily gardens and the safe use andstorage of toxic materials in thehome setting.

Democratic Initiatives

0 \-er the past two years. theWID Office and A.I.D.'sRegional I lousing and ['than

Development Office (RI-111)01 forSouth America in Ecuador have col-laborated on a two-vear Women andMunicipalities Project with theInternational rnion cif LocalAuthorities in nine countries(Argentina. Bolivia. Brazil. Chile.Colombia. Ecuador. Paraguay. Peru.and Venezuela). The project hasbeen successful in strengthening theinclusion of gender considerations inmunicipal-level policy making (seealso p. ou).

In Jamaica. the Sustainable JusticeReform Project was initiated inFY 1992 to a) enhance the quality ofJamaica's justice system through poli-cy research assistance. bi upgradekey facilities and legal resources. andci train legal system personnelThe Pn)ject will also assist theGovernment of Jamaica with makingthe le.il system more efficient. Ananal\ sis (. onducted at the project

design stage included a deliberateemphasis on women as beneficiariesof training and as users of the threefamily courts in which domesticmatters are settled. These threecourts respond primarily to the legalneeds of women and children. andthey provide counseling to poorfamilies to prevent instances ofdomestic violence.

In Bolivia. women in policy-leveland leadership positions in thegovernment and private sector havereceived professional training overthe past two y-ears as part oft 'SAID Bolivia's Training forDevelopment Project. The Projectis designed to enhance the develop-ment of Bolivia's democratic systemand to promote the country's cnomic recovery. Women leadersparticipated in 6 long-term and 81short-term training courses inbusiness administration, finance.marketing. economics. agriculturaleconomics. and public administration.

In September 1992. USAID Boliviafunded a social policv analysis unitwithin the Bolivian Ministry ofPlanning and Coordination and con-ducted a seminar on the status ofBolivian women in various sectors,including health and education. Topgovernment officials and representa-tives of the donor community andthe private sector participated in thediscussion on key policy issuesaffecting women in development.Important questions were raisedabout womens current level ofparticipation in the national devel-opment process. The seminar con-tributed to the creation of a nationalprogram in the government to over-see the implementation of women indevelopment policies ac rosy severalsectors. Recommendations wereincorporated into three draft lawson WID policies that PresidentPaz Zamora submitted to the Bolivian

Bureau for theNear EastSocial Policy National Council forreview and implementation.

Looking AheadThere is a strong commitmentwithin the LAC Bureau tostrengthen the incorporation

of gender in the planning. imple-mentation. and evaluation of devel-opment assistance to the region.\X'ith technical assistance from theWID Office. t 'SAID Bolivia andUSA1D Ecuador funded nationalrural household surveys in FY 1992in order to formulate more effectiverural and agricultural policies andprograms. The surveys weredesigned to provide baseline dataon rural households, especially onthose segments of rural populationspreviously overlooked by policyplanners. Information on laborroles. financial responsibilities, andaccess to and control of resourceswere all sought on a gender-disaggregated basis.

The Wit) Office specialist fromthe GENESYS Project worked withthe national bureaus of the censusand other host country officials inboth countries to design the sur-veys. Data from the surveys arenow being used to improve devel-opment efforts. Information faunthe surveys is extremely importantto assessing the sociocultural andeconomic context within whichprograms must be designed andimplemented, as well as in laterreporting on project and programimpact. This kind of systematicassessment and reporting is critical

to improving development impact.'the Washington Bureau and

some field missions are also plan-ning training in 1993 for programand project officers and key con-tractors on how to integrate gentlerconsiderations into field activities.

stablished as a separateregional bureau in 1991.the Bureau for the NearEast covers thoseJ Maghreb countries and

territories of the Middle East andNorth Africa in which A.I.D. cur-rently has operating programs:Yemen. Oman. Jordan, Egypt.the West Bank. the Gaza Strip.Tunisia. Morocco. Lebanon. andIsrael.

Throughout the region. womenare playing a critical role in theircountries' social. political. and eco-nomic development. Among andwithin the region's countries.'how-ever. women's position varieswidely. Some women are maintain-ing traditional Islamic roles, whileothers are adopting Westernizedand secularized patterns of behav-ior. Many women seek some of thesocial and economic advantagestypical in the West but rejectchanges. perceived to threatenIslamic values and family ties.

The Near East Bureau's recentlyadopted general development goalswithin its strategic objectivesinclude: economic growth: highlevels of employment: effective andaccountable governance: smaller.healthier families: and more effi-cient use of water resources.Addressing the cross-cutting factorsof gender and women in develop-ment is critical to the achievementof these goals and objectives. InFYs 1991 and 1992. the Bureau col-laborated with the WID Office onseveral activities targeting women,including monitoring, research.evaluation, training, basic educa-tion, family planning. and agricul-ture. A WID Regional TechnicalAdvisor. co-funded by the WIDOffice and the Near East Bureauthrough the (;FNESYS Project.

, 4'1-'

joined the Bureau in early 1993.The \ \'1D Advisor will provide tech-nical expertise on gender issues toall Near East projects and programs.with a focus on the Bureau's workin the area of governance.

The Bureau has been providingsupport for women's needs andinterests through its field missions.most of which have active womenin development ( \VIM officers andcommittees. Several missions(notably those in Egypt. Morocco.Jordan. and Yemen) have verystrong WID programs. In FY 1991.

for example. L-SAID Yemenfocused a major portion of itsprogram on improving the statusof women, largely through activi-ties in family planning andmaternal child health. In FY 1991,CSAID Moroccotogether withthe WID Officereviewed itsentire project portfolio and devel-oped indicators to measurewomen's progress in sevcral ofits key projects as well as in itsoverall strategy. In FY 1991,L'SAID Egypt's WID Committeefocused its efforts to improvewomen's lives in three major areas:agriculture. microenterprise. andpolitical participation.

During the Gulf Crisis, manyprograms in the region were cur-tailed. and those of the missionsin Yemen. Jordan, and Tunisiawere drastically cut, vet women in

development activitiesservinghumanitarian goalsremainedactive in these missions.

Furthermore. the WID Officeand the Near East Bureau gavespecial attention to two criticalissues:

Improving women's legal statusand political participation. and .

Increasing women's economicpanicipation.

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E

1C4

1.1

Legal Status andPolitical Participation

In the area of women's legal statusand political participation, theWID Office in FY 1992 collaborat-

ed with L'SAID;Jerdan in providingtechnical suppoq to the JordanianNational Women's Committee. TheWID Office helped the Committeedevelop a national strategy and planof action. The Committee waschaired by Ifer Royal HighnessPrincess Basma Bint 'Falai andincluded several members c)f theJordanian Cabinet. leading acade-mics. and representatives of women'sgrassroots organizations. The strategyincludes specific proposals andaction steps to: (a) increase women'sparticipation in the labor force: (h)promote women's legal rights and literacy: and (c) improve women'ssocial status. The strategy is to he ini-tiated by the Committee togetherwith the Jordanian Business andProfessiimal Women's Associationbefore the 199::, I .tlited Nation',World Conference on Women.

Another A.1.1). activity waslaunched in FY 1992 in Tunisia.where the Wit) ( )tfiCe is collahorat-

vg

ing with the Mission to provide tech-nical support to the 'Won Nationaldes Femmes Tunisiennes UNFT), themajor Tunisian women's organiza-tion. The UNFT recently moved fromthe public to the private sector. Thistransformation has allowed the orga-nization to broaden its base of sup-port and to take on an advocacyrole. With AID. support. the i'NFTis conducting an opinion poll ofwomen's status and monitoringwomen's "image- in the media witha view to formulating appropriateaction recommendations.

In FY 1991. the WID Office andthe then-Asia:Near East Bureaucollaborated on a study entitledWomen and the Lau. in Asia midthe Near East. That study elucidatesthe complex. often subtle, ways inwhich the law lintits ikumen'sautonomy. their options. and theirSr cio-economic participation. Itdemonstrates that providing womenwith skills and tools to enhance theiropportunities is ineffective unlesswomen have the right to fully utilizethese abilities and benefit fromthem.. The study teColltilleticts thatAID. view women's, legal status asan independent element of its WIDstrategy, he given specific mum-

2.1 3 6

It need educattonand Mulling to. find'ohs in the industrialsectorespeciallythey hope to inolefronithe lowest paidrepetitive tasks tosuperrisorI add otherhigher-paid (cork inmanufactunng

r:Z

tion in both policy formulation andproject identification and implemen-tation processes.

Economic ParticipationThe WID Office and the Bureaualso collaborated in FYs 1991and 1992 on several activities

designed to increase womens eco-nomic participation. In Egypt. theMission and the WID Office support-ed the study. Egiptian It -omen andMicroentetprise: The halsibleEntrepreneursone of the first in-depth surveys of female entrepre-neurship. The study focused ondetermining the nature and extent ofwomen's participation in the infor-mal sector as owners and operatorsof microenterprises by examiningactivity sectors, business size, owner-ship patterns. types and numbers ofemployees. profitability. failure rates.financing, assets, production levels.and markets. The study also identi-fied gender-based constraints in theinformal sector and suggestedinterventions in the policy andinstitutional environments to alleviateconstraints faced by women entre-preneurs. 'rite study provides direc-h(m for i 'sAID Egypt's new protect

Bureau for the Near East

interventions in small and micro-enterprises and identifies changes inexisting projects that would helpaddress the needs of women entre-preneurs. l'SAID Morocco is current-ly conducting a similar year-longsurvey on women in agribusinessin Morocco. The majority of agri-business workers are unskilledwomen involved in food processingand production. As part of the survey.data are being collected on ()0 firmsin 7 economic areas, and some 1.500interviews are being conducted. Theresearch results will be utilized in theMission's Agribusiness Program.

In FYs 1991 and 1992. the \VIDOffice joined CSAID/Yemen in help-ing the Family Productive Centersdevelop a two-year plan of assistancefor training in small enterprise devel-opment and operation. Begun in1989 under the Ministr of SocialAffairs, these Family ProductiveCenters train women in productiveactivities to decrease their depen-dence on public assistance. The

training program will assist thesecenters in making sound businessdecisions about marketing and prod-uct development.

The \VID Office also worked withCSAID:Yemen to assess how theYemeni Womens Associations net-work might provide basic educationfor girls out of school. Sinceassistance to Yemen was drasticallycurtailed during and after the GulfWar, the Mission hopes that theseactivities can be carried out by otherinternational donors in Yemen. Evenwith limited resources. the Missionis maintaining its commitment towomen in development issues andwill be devoting the bulk of as fundsto enhancing women's position andpromoting their participation inYemen's economic development.

Other t: SAID missions in theregion also have also made strongcommitments to training women. InFY 1991. CSAID Morocco and theWID Office worked together toevaluate and expand the participa-

tion-of women in theMission's DevelopmentManagement TrainingProgram (see alsop. 1r, Tunisia. theMission set similargoals to ensure theinclusion of women inits private-sector train-ing activities. In bothcountries. mission staffconsider training to hean essential means ofbringing women intotheir larger privatizationprograms.

In FY 1991, the WID Office alsoworked with missions in the regionto summarize useful research find-ings and interventions that have beengenerated from A.I.D. women indevelopment work in the field overthe past 20 years. The results werepresented in EngenderingDevelopment in Asia and the NearEast: A Source Book. This sourcebook has been disseminated to allL'SAID mission staff to improve theirability to respond effectively togender issues in their projects.

Looking AheadThe \X'ID Office will continueworking with the Near EastBureau to expand its work on

women's legal status as well as toimprove women's economic andpolitical participation in the region.Although the Bureau has reduced itsinvolvement in basic education. itwill encourage the missions toinclude more women in training pro-vided under other sectoral activities.The NX1D Office also plans to assistmissions with incorporating informa-tion obtained through microenter-prise and agribusiness surveyscurrently under way into their futureproject design and evaluation. Asthese studies are completed. theBureau and the WID Office will usetheir findings to develop a Bureaustrategy and funding mechanism forpromoting women's political andeconomic participation in the region.

In the Aear Lastand other world regions.I / D. assistance rs helping local women leadenand tanner, s ()Tani:whims promote women Sliteracy and education about their legal rights.

25

3 '7

va ua to4 .

n

It has often been observedthat what is not countedgenerally goes unnoticed.To ensure that women areadequately represented indevelopment policies, pro-grams, and projects in partic-

ular countries and regions. ' e mustknow how they a re faring socially.economically, and politicalk II( Itilcompared with men and comparedwith women in other socioeconomic,ethnic. religious. and generationalgroups. much information providesa basis for effective development

..0.01111111t

A

planning, monitoring, and measure-ment of impact and sustainability.

A.I.D.1c Evaluation

Considering Gendersince 1991, the \ \1D Office hasjoined in the Agency-wideevaluation Initiative led by the

( ',enter for l)evelopment IntOrmaticmand Evaluation ((DID. The :um ofthe Initiative, launched in October1990, is to strengthen the role of

26 J0

evaluation throughout the Agency inorder to provide a basis for betterprogram and policy decisions andmore convincing performancereporting for external accountability.

The need to increase genderconsiderations in evaluation was evi-dent from recent project evaluationreports. In 1991. CI)IE's review ofthe oiverage and quality of a sampleof 268 A.I.1). project evaluations forl'Ys I 989 1900 showed a decreasein attention to gender issues andsex-disaggregated data since thepreceding two-year period. Only

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In manl. countrws. :1 I D. trorkswith local partners to collectinzlxmant data /or unprutngthe clesum cold results of asstrategies told programs.

26 percent of the evaluationsincluded gender considerations. andonly. percent reported on projectobjectives on a sex-disaggregatedbasis. Of the 0 percent of evalua-tions reporting that training hadbeen provided. only 25 percentstated that women had been trained.While 66 percent of the projectsreported direct project services andbenefits provided to people. only19 percent suggested that womenhad received services and benefits.However. 44 of the 50 evaluationswith this finding had inadequatedata to determine the share ofbenefits received by women. Theshare of benefits reported rangedfrom 1 to 3 percent. Analysis of the1991-1992 project evaluations willbegin in early 1993.

Annual Budget Submissions (ABS)could also provide a means of track-ing A.I.D. allocation of resources tokomen in development. All A.I.D.missions are required to report theallocation of funds spent on women'sprojects and women-integratedprojects under a special interest (SI)code. There is evidence. however,that the process needs improvement.A 1991 analysis of a small sampleof ABS documents from the LatinAmerica and Caribbean regionrevealed inconsistencies betweenthe semi-annual reporting of womenin development activities and thebudgetary data presented in theABS. Although women in develop-ment activities were cited in theproject revit 'Ws and supported withsex-disaggregated data. often theywere not coded in the ABS reporting.

For example. one of the missionshad established "improved basiceducation- as a strategic objective.The project review mentioned"promotion of girls' education" andinterventions designed for "disadvan-taged girls.- yet the budget reportingdid not mention any appropriationof funds for women in development.

As part of the EvaluationInitiative. A.I.D in FY 1991 increasedits attention to gender issues andsex-disaggregation of data Newmonitoring and evaluation systemsdo not yet. however, capture the fullrange and extent of the Agency'swomen in development activities. Ittakes time to design and implementmonitoring and evaluation systemsand even longer for measurableimpacts to become observable.

Since 1990, A.I.D. has beenmoving beyond tallying women indevelopment systems and procedurestoward monitoring and evaluating

the effectiveness and impact ofpartic.ilar program and projectstrategies on women as w:11 as men.The current approach encompassesthree types of efforts:

Strengthening existingsystems by incorporating genderanalysis and sex-disaggregated datainto existing reporting, monitoring.evaluation, information management,and decision making systems at thecentral, regional, and country levels.

Building knowledge andskills in the use of gender analysisand sex-disaggregated monitoringand evaluation datathroughtraining and technical assistanceto improve strategic planning andmanagement decisions at theproject, program. and policy levels.

Facilitating inter-agencycoordination through collaborationwith other agencies, bilateraland multilateral donors. and univer-sities to improve sex-disaggregated

Gender Information Tools forMonitoring and Evaluation

Gender Analysis is the assessment of men's and women's economic,social, or political roles and responsibilities as they affect their opportunitiesand obstacles to participate in and benefit from development efforts.Gender analysis is becoming a part of the design, monitoring, andevaluation analyses of all A.I.D. projects, programs, and policies.

Sex-Disaggregated Indicators of the situation of people in any givencountry present a statistical baseline picture of the comparative economic,political, and physical circumstances of women and men. This pictureenables identification of development problems and provides a means oftracking change. These indicators do not, however, provide a directmeasure of AID. performance or explain why change has occurred.

Country Program Performance Monitoring tracks Mission performancetoward achieving a focused set of strategic objectives. Where relevant,these objectives are sex-disaggregated.

39 BEST COPY AVAILABLE

Key Actors inWomen in DevelopmentPerformance Monitoringand Evaluation

1. CDIE's Systems Design Support (SDS) Division. This divisionhas developed and manages an Agency-wide program performanceinformation system (PRISM) that enhances A.I.D.'s ability to clarify pro-gram objectives, measure performance, and apply performance infor-mation in decision making at all organizational levels.

2. CDIE's Program Operations Assessment (POA) Division. Thisdivision of CUIE conducts central program evaluations of projects andprograms and of selected A.I.D. operations and management systemsto inform strategic decision making.

3. CDIE's Economic and Social Data Support Services (ESDS).Through ESDS, the Development Information Office provides access tomajor databases, including U.N. women in development statistics.ESDS also offers techni _al assistance to the regional bureaus in settingup integrated management information systems.

4. The WID Office and its Gender in Economic and SocialSystems (GENESYS) project. Activities complement CDIE's PRISMproject, particularly in providing monitoring and evaluation technicalassistance at the project level.

5. A.LD.'s Research and Development Bureau and its Women inDevelopment Action Group. The Bureau designed and continues tosupport some of the major databases, such as the Demographic andHealth Survey used by many A.I.D. missions to measure progresstoward their strategic objectives.

6. A.LD.'s regional bureaus and missions, with support fromthe regional WID advisors and WID working groups. The scopesof work for the regional WID advisors include assistance to thebureaus and missions in integrating gender considerations and sex-disaggregated data into the development of bureau guidances andthe development of mission monitoring and evaluation systems.

7. The Private Enterprise Bureau's Microenterprise ManagementSystem (MEMS). This system provides sex-disaggregated data onloans, ownership, and employment for the Agency's microenterpriseassistance.

statistics worldwide, to exchangedata and lessons learned. and toavoid wasteful duplication.

The WED Office provides leader-ship and plays a catalytic role inaccounting for A.I.D. performance inwomen in development. CDT andthe Bureau for Research andDevelopment play coordinating and

analytical roles. The vital functionsof monitoring and evaluation design,implementation. and evaluation ofcountry and regional developmentprograms are carried out by theAgency's regional bureaus andmissions, with technical assistancefrom the WID Office and bureauWII) advisors.

28

Accomplishments,n's 1991 and 1992ShrngtheningEvisthig.crstenisCountry and Agency PerformanceMonitoring. In FYs 1991 and 1992,CDIE put systems in place imr-weA.I.D.'s overall monitoring and alu-ation. The Agency is relying on (-DIEand its Performance Information tin-Strategic Management (PRISM) pro-ject to contribute substantially to themonitoring and reporting of Agencyefforts in women in development.Sex-disaggregated data and genderconsiderations are being integratedinto all aspects of the Agency'sprogram performance monitoringsystem and all components of thePRISM project for implementing andmaintaining that system. Thesecomponents include:

Guidance on selecting strategicobjectives, choosing appropriateindicators, and measuring andreporting performance. For example.in 1991. guidance to missionsrecommended stating objectives andindicators at the level of impact onpeople md sex-disaggregating themwhere .levant.

Training and workshops onprogram performance measurementand strategic planning. One 1992example was a workshop on PRISMmethods aimed at expanding thepool of people competent to partici-pate in A.I.D. technical assistance:the workshop addressed genderissues throughout.

Technical Assistance to helpfield missions and offices establishprogram performance monitoringand reporting systems. For example.gender issues were addressed in1991 and 1992 technical-assistanceteam planning sessions. and genderspecialists participated on teams.

The PRISM Database(currently drawn from mission reportsto regional bureaus) for monitoringA.1.D. program pertbrmance. In 1992,for example. CDIE analyzed missionstrategic objectives and indicators inthe database to see to what extentthey were stated in terms of impactson people and gender-oriented.

BUdding GO/de/MO/WO/Mgif/UMW/Mai 0// .Ska

Regional Bureaus. In the Africa.Asia. and-Latin America and theCaribbean regions. monitoringand evaluation were enhanced inPis 1991 and 1992 through theefforts of the recently or newlyappointed bureau WID advisors (seealso pp. 9. 12, and 20). Collaboratingwith evaluation and program officersin their bureaus. as well as with staffin CDIE and the WID Office, thebureau W1D advisors are includinggender issues and sex-disaggregationof key data in bureau programperformance measurement andother reporting guidance sent to thefield. The WID advisors have alsoprepared gender analyses of theprogram performance reported bythe missions, and they providetechnical assistance to the field onintegrating gender considerationsinto monitoring and evaluation.

The Bureau for Research andDevelopment. In 1992. the seniorstaff of the Bureau for Research anddevelopment formulat-u-d a strongWomen in Development: GenderStrategy that superseded the earlierBureau WID Action Plan. One of thegoals is "improving Bureau andAgency effectiveness by developingmethod( ilcigicis drid institutionalizinggender assessment." To accomplishthis. the Bureau s Women inDevelopment Action Group will inFY 1993 select sectoral indicatorsand develop gender assessment

Examples of Gender Orientation inCount?), Program Strategies, FY 1992

GUINEA. To achieve its strategic objective of "the growth and increasedefficiency of agricultural markets," USAID/Guinea will help improvefinancial and investment advisory services in the agricultural sector.Progress will be measured by changes in the amount of private sectoragricultural lending, client investment and repayment rates, employmentlevels, and the number of clients accessing investment and marketinginformation. These indicators will be sex-disaggregated.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. The Mission will measure progress toward itsstrategic objective of "participatory democratic reform" in terms of aware-ness and perception of an open participatory decision making processamong male and female citizens. The Mission has focused on: 1) the pro-vision of democratic education among males and females as measured bythe citizen awareness of the advantages of a participatory democraticsystem; and 2) the achievement of electoral reform as measured byWomen's and men's confidence in the fairness of the electoral process.

NEPAL. One of the Mission's strategic objectives is "increased use offamily planning, child survival, and malaria control services." Among themeans to achieve the objective is increasing the availability and qualityof child survival services in the area. Indicators of progress include thenumber of families served by women-to-women health education in fourproject districts, the number of mothers in each project district able toprepare Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT), and the number of mothers ineach project district able to correctly use ORT.

MOROCCO. Under the Mission's strategic objective of "expanding thebase of small and medium enterprises (SMEs)," women have been fullyincorporated into the program performance measurement system. Amongthe indicators to measure progress toward this strategic objective is thenumber of SME establishments created, disaggregated by gender of owner.The Mission has focused on increasing access to business financing, aswell as on strengthening entrepreneurial and business skills. Measuresinclude the value of commercial credit to SMEs, by gender; and theaverage loan size to SMEs, by gender. Strengthened skills are to bemeasured by average profitability of SMEs (in terms of return on capital,assets, and sales), by sector and gender.

methodologies. The Bureau has alsoconvened an indicators subgroupwithin the WID Action Group for thispurpose.

Training, Workshops, andTechnical Assistance. In 1992,

PRISN1 project and the \X'IDOffice conducted a workshop fortorty A.I.D. Washington staff selectedfrom all bureaus to assess the

29 41,

Agency's progress in incorporatingpeople-level data and genderconsiderations into its performancemonitoring and evaluation systemsand to explore impact indicators formajor development areasincludingeconomic growth, education, health.population, and democratization.Follow-up workshops will heconducted in the future to monitor

Trathing GenderConsiderations inField Program Strategies:

A mission's "strategic objectives" are akey element of a country programstrategy. They are statements of devel-

0opment results that a mission believesare within its manageable interest toachieve within a 5- to 8-year timeframe.An objective that addresses gendermake's specific mention of the gender(s)of the targeted beneficiaries.

To present a picture of what A.I.Dis doing in the field, CDIE in 1991 usedthe PRISM database to categorize 185strategic objectives (SOs) submitted hv55 reporting missions into fifteenprogram areas. These, in turn, weregrouped into the four broad develop-ment program themes shown in theaccompanying figure.

PRISM coverage and the resultingpicture are still sketchy. Activities inEurope and in the Newly IndependentStates (NIS) formerly part of the SovietUnion are not included. Also missingare many centrally funded programs ofthe Research and Development Bureau,the Private Enterprise Bureau, or theBureau for Food and HumanitarianAssistance.

Within the avail:able array of strategicobjectives, the strongest gender orienta-tion was registered in the humandevelopment category. (It should benoted, however, that most of the healthand population objectives are notsex-disaggregated per se, but specify 11,4

'z'vrc-,57Nr,M1

PERCENTAGES OF MISSION STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES

THAT ADDRESS GENDER(by four broad program themes and sub-themes)

1. HUMAN DEVELOPMENT (90%)

2. DEMOCRATIC INITIATIVES (15%) , .

,

3. ECONOMIC GROWTH (15%)

4. ENVIRONMENT & NATURAL

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (1%)

ti 4

g10: :20. 30..'40: 50'.-:.60 '70 80 90 100.'":':

1. HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

Improved Child Survival (70%)

Reduced AIDS/Other (38%)

Improved Health System (56%)

Improved FP Services (100%)

Improved Education (38%)

4.

.. ,

,

,

2. DEMOCRATIC INITIATIVES

Democratic Representation (7%)

Promotion/Governance (14%)

Human Rights (0%)

Democratic Values (0%)

3. ECONOMIC GROWTH

Increased Productivity (22%)

Increased Tiade (0%)

Improved Policy (10%)

Increased EconomicParticipation (50%)

. ,....

4. ENVIRONMENT & NATURALRESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Improved NR Management (12%)

Degradation & Damage (12%)

women as the beneficiaries: ideally,data on men should also be included.)Gender orientation was lowest in theenvironment and natural resourcemanagement and economic develop-ment categories. The system is toonew to have impact data: indicatorsare just beginning to be tracked.The accompanying graphs show datareported for 1992.

P11 Al Diabase. June 1992

Agency progress and to developskills to use gender data to improvestrategic planning.

The GENESYS Project of theWID Office has provided technicalassistance in monitoring and evalua-tion that complements the work ofthe PRISM system. For example.GENESYS assisted USAID, Ecuadorin developing sex-disaggregated.people-level indicators for theNlissions Sustainable Use ofBiological Resources Project and theAgricultural Research and ExtensionProject. The GENESYS project trainedmission staff and contractors inCosta Rica and I londuras in gender-sensitive monitoring and evaluation.

hitermigency

Bureau of the Census. A.I.D.missions access sex-disaggregateddata for development planning,monitoring, and evaluation fromthe statistical offices in their hostcountries. often with technical assis-tance from the 1.S. Bureau of theCensus. In Senegal, liar example.technical assistance to the StatisticalOffice in 1991 generated sex-disaggregated subsector employmentfigures from the 1988 census data.The Bureau of the Census and theGENESYS project worked withI 'SAID Bolivia and the BolivianBureau of the Census in 1991-1992to develop and analyze a gender-oriented rural household survey thattakes gender into account. The sur-vey data will he used to guide policydecisions regarding differentialimpacts of A.1.1). programming onrural men and women.

Because of the important rolethat the Bureau of the Censusplayed in 1991 as a technicalresource for A.I.1). missions. theWI ) Office collal cot'ated with the

Monitoring & Evaluation

Census Bureau and the A.l.D. Officeof Population to establish a W(maenin Development project at theCensus Bureau to provide resourcepersons and gender statistics forAID. The Women in Developmentcoordinator fix this project assiststhe Census Bureau's InternationalStatistics Program Center withintegrating gender issues and statisticsin the Center's training program.which has trained developing-country statistical office ,tati.1()r thepast forty years. The Census BureausWID coordinator also organizes aninter-agency gender statistics coordi-nation group, which includes techni-cal stalffrom the World Bank. theU.S. Department of Labor, andseveral U.N. entities, including theU.N. Statistical Office.

DAC /WID Evaluation. Atits annual High-Level Meeting inNovember 1983, the DevelopmentAssistance Committee (DAC) ofthe Organisation for EconomicCo-operation (OECD) adeoted theGuiding Principles to Aid Agenciesfor Supporting the Role of Women inDevelopment. Now. in preparationfor the upcoming tenth anniversaryof the Guiding Principles, as well asfor the 1995 L'.N. Conference onWomen, the DAC EYaluation ExpertGroup and Women in DevelopmentExpert Group decided to assess theextent to which DAC membercountries' women in developmentpolicies and strategies have beenimplemented in aid efforts andwhether they have improved the situ-ation of women. Three themes arebeing addressed in this assessment.Theme one is a review of the inte-gration of gender concerns in thework of the DAC: the review is beingconducted by the Netherlands.Theme two conducted by thel'nited States and switzerland

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43

will assess the policies and theinstitutional measures adopted lwDAC member countries to strengthenwomen in development effortswithin their development assistanceprograms. Theme three is an up-dated synthesis of DAC members.evaluation experience with regard tothe effects and effectiveness of aid inthe area of women in development.All DAC member countries willreview their own evaluations. whileCanada will coordinate the study andprovide an analytical report on theoverall evaluation experience.

lookin6o Ahead-

While significant progresshas been made in FYs 1991and 1992 in the new areas

of performance monitoring andevaluation, a great deal remains tobe done. Priorities fin FYs 1993 and199't include:

Increasing attention to genderissues in the Agency-level programimpact evaluations that providemanagement recommendations forthe Administrator:

Integrating gender issues into therevision of A.I.D. evaluation guidanceat the program and project levels:

Ensuring that program- andproject-level monitoring andevaluation address gender in aconsistent and integrated manner:

Strengthening knowledge andskills needed by Agency Manage-ment at all levels to use genderstatistics and gender analyses toimprove strategic planning andallocation of resources: and

Facilitating continued collabo-ration With other donors. U.S.agencies, and multilaterals toimprove the quality and quantityc if sex-disaggregated statisticsand to prepare for the I99-S l'.N.Conference on Women.

Applying LessonsLearnedPi's 1991-1992

e fri vaec o

x an inomen's

nco ions' .

Cie. I

Ag e a won

"4

4IPir

In FYs 1991 and 1992,tvomen in development assistance in theprivate sector emphasized women'smicroenterprise and agribusiness activities.A considerable number of programsalso focused on integrating more womeninto the trade and investmentand the housing sectors.

I

.34 45

diageir.

oat 4' //inn //)

I. Women & MicroenterpriseWomen have enteredthe labor force inunprecedented num-bers in the past tourdecades. This trendhas resulted fromincreasing levels of

female education, urbanization,evolving socio-cultural values. state-imposed obligation, and. most impor-tant. from increasing economic need.Despite the many legal. social, eco-nomic, and institutional barriers theyface. women are increasingly seekingopportunities to earn income in boththe formal and the informal econo-myeither through wage employ-ment or by creating small businessesor microenterprises (businessesemploying under ten people).

In many countries, the limitedcapacity of public sector employ-ment. as well as sex discriminationunder tough competition for jobs.continue to prompt women to lookfor work in the private sector. Incountries of rapid economic growth.such as the "Asian tigers.- mu...11 ofthe expansion of the export manufac-turing industries has beer, linked tothe absorption of the female work-force. In countries with large agricul-tural endowments. women haveentered the wage labor force in sig-nificant proportions in high-potential.high-growth agribusiness industries.

A common pattern observedacross the developing world is thegrowing presence of women in theinformal private sectoras bothmicroentrepreneurs and employees incommerce. trade, and services. Inurban areas, women have emerged inlz.rge numbers as domestic workers.

.1 1 1) cl.N.N1S1(11102 hdp..prtdircei.., hInn Iti

entetinlses to !ink up 111th (phimeet the shun/mils htuntingurban loot/ distribution ststenis

street vendors, and workers in textileand garment manufacturing. In ruralareas. they are prominent in process-ing and marketing produce as well asactive in handicraft production andmarketing. Most of these women areeither owners, operators. and/oremployees of unregistered, illegal.small businesses or microenterprises.

Women's household responsibili-ties greatly influence the types ofbusinesses that they set up. Nlost areowners or operators of home-basedenterprises in trade and services.Women's businesses are generallysmaller than men'sdue to time,space, and mobility constraints relat-ed to the home base as well as totheir more limited access to financialservices and ownership of assets. Toaccommodate their other householdroles in agriculture or child care.women's businesses are mostly part-time and seasonal. Moreover. a largepercentage of women entrepreneursworldwide have little or no literacyand numeracy skills. With limitedaccess to financial servicesbothcredit and savingsin addition tolack of appropriate business man-agement training, these women areseldom able to.reinvest their earn-ings in the growth of their micro-enterprises. To maintain a steady

I

/'

35 46

flow of income for family survival.many manage more than onemicroenterprise at a time.

In the formal as in the informalsector. women employees generallywork under insecure contractualarrangements for low wages and fewor no employment benefits, and theyendure poor working conditions.Most women employees work inlow-skill jobs utilizing their tradition-al skillswith little or no opportuni-ties for training or adancement.

A.I.B. .1licroenterpriseHighlights. 1991-1992, c

Congressional interest in A.I.D.'smicroenterprise programs in thepast several years has led to an

earmark for microenterprise. ForFY 1991, Congress required A.I.D. tocommit USS75 million to microenter-prise development. For FYs 1992 and1993, the commitment requirementincreased to $85 million annually,with at least $20 million in FY 1992and $30 million in FY 1993 sub-earmarked for poverty lending(amounts less than or equal to $300).

Congress has also mandated thatA.I.D. report annually on the statusof its microenterprise program,including project-level details about

1

A.I.D. MICROENTERPRISE LOANS. BY GENDER. 1991

23.788

12 959 14 128

10 425 Women & Microenterprise

IMEM --300 _oans>300

23 651 593

2 359 882 `ice

11 102688

Loans <= 300 Loans >300

Source A I.D and Mtementerorise 19904993

lending (i.e., numbers of loans tofemale entrepreneurs and numbersof loans above and below $300).To meet these annual reportingrequirements on a systematic basis.A.I.D. in FY 1991 developed theMicroenterprise Monitoring System(MEMS) to provide data on thenature and scope of its efforts inmicroenterprise development.

The \VID Office worked in collab-oration with the Office of Small,Micro, and Informal Enterprise in thePrivate Enterprise Bureau (PRE SMIE)to ensure from the very start that thenew, Agency-wide MicroenterpriseMonitoring System would systemati-cally and routinely collect andanalyze sex-disaggregated data On:a) the training of microentrepreneurs.I)) technical advisory support to own-ers and employees of microenter-prises. and c) recipients of loans tomicroenterprises.

According to the first NIENISReport to Congress. AID. aridMicroe, I ri Se 990 I 99.i, theAgency exceeded its S -5- million carmark for FY 1991 by near) 49 per-cent, funding a total of nearlyS 112 million in microenterprisedevelopment activities.

Women recei ed 56 percent of thes t I.5 million spent on microenter-prise loansand 05 percent of loans

below $300. Among the loans below$300, average loan size for womenborrowers was S126 (compared toS159 for men). Women received only35 percent of all loan capital. as theyaveraged smaller loans than men(54 12 compared to S949).

Nearly a fifth of the implementingorganizations reported that theirmicroenterprise programs included asavings component. Of the approxi-mately 13.000 savings-account hold-ers. 09 percent were women. Womenalso held 68 percent of the savingsby volume. The average savingsaccount size for women was S30compared to S32 for men.

In FY 1991. nearly S23 million ofthe total funding for microenterpriseactivities was for technical assistanceand training: of the 78,000 entrepre-neurs who received assistance andtraining, 50 percent were women.

The WID Office also collaboratedon several activities in FY 1991 withthe PRE, SMIE Office under theGrowth and Equity throughMicroenterprise Investment andInstitutions (GEMINI) Project. Twomicroenterprise surveys and strategydesigns were completedone forI'SAID Mali and the other for theChamber of Commerce in BurkinaFaso (through the Nlission.) Another\VID Office GEMINI project was acomparative analysis of constraintsencountered by women entrepre-neurs and of growth patterns ofwomen-owned enterprises in theSouthern Africa region. The synthesisstudy compared baseline surveyscompleted in Lesotho, Swaziland.Zimbabwe, and South Africa. Amanual. Financial Serrices fin*Ironwn. was also produced on thebasis of ,t review of the cliaracterts-tics of successful microenterprise pro-grams that either have targetedwomen. have evolved toward target_

mg women, or have a high female

,i6 47

participation rate. The manual wasproduced for worldwide use.

During FYs 1991 and 1992, theWID Office collaborated with theR&D Economic and InstitutionalDevelopment Office's AppropriateTechnology International (ATI)Project on a feasibility study for thedevelopment of a venture capital firmthat would provide appropriate tech-nology and credit to poor womeniniroentrepreneurs in North sumatra.Indonesia. [nder the Al'! Protect.the \ \'II) Office also funded anevaluation of the impact of ATVsoilseed processing technology onwomen farmers and entrepreneurs inTanzania: the findings of this analysiswill be incorporated into the designof the A.1 .D. Bureau for Africa'sRegional Oilseed Processing Protect.The WID Office and the Private andVoluntary Cooperation Office alsoco-funded the World Council ofCredit l'nions' design and imple-mentation of a training program topromote women's access to creditunion services, employment. andvoluntary leadership in the AfricanConfederation of Savings and CreditCooperative Associations (a memberorganization of the World Owned ofCredit t 'lions).

The WID Office also providedfunding to the GEMINI Project inFY 1992 to explore small businessand microenterprise opportunities inPoland and Russia.

Although A.I.D. has made signifi-cant progress in integrating genderissues into its microenterprise policy.pn)grain, and project initiatives.much remains to be done in this area.The WID Office and the PRE SNIIEOffice are continuing their closecollaboration in research, training.and field technical assistance toassure the spread of gender-sensitiveapproaches to all of microen-terprise activities.

Financial ServicesThat MeetWomen's Needs:A Checklist ofCharacteristics

Loans are available for trade andservices as well as manufacturing.

Collateral is not required becausesubstitutes such as solidaritygroups, character references,jewelry. and personal effectsare acceptable.

Deposit services are offered.

Loans are available for short-termworking capital.

Loans are available in smallamounts.

Loan repayment schedules fitwomen's business cycles.

Loan size may be increased uponsatisfactory repayment of firstloans.

Microenterprises with fewemployees are eligible.

Signature of spouse or malerelative is not required.

Literacy is not required.

Loans are easily and quicklyprocessed.

Loan officers can assist womenwith completing forms.

Loans are extended to home-based or ambulant businesses.

Location is convenient and safefor women.

Hours of operation are compati-ble with women's business anddomestic obligations.

Training is not required fordisbursement of credit.

Special arrangements are made toassist women borrowers notfamiliar with formal financialservice institutions.

Adapted fn)m.fean IVeidemann,Operational Issues in DesigningFinancial Services for Women.AlaGLIIHNI Project,March 1992. p. 39.

Sonic ,S'uccess Stories:

KENYAThe lehudi Credit Scheme .t group credit scheme established in FY 1991under [SAID. Kenya's Rural Enterprise Programprovides credit to bothmen and women residents of one of Nairobi's poorest slums. Loan sizeaverages CSS-100. and the female participation rate is 60 percent.

Modeled after the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh. the Jehudi CreditScheme works with groups of five people. each of whom pays a monthlydeposit of S8 into a savings and loan guarantee fund. The fund is operat-ed jointly by the borrowers and the sponsoring organizations. The groupcredit approach has increased repayment rates from percent to 95 per-cent. and administrative costs have fallen from S I.-5 to only 50.25 perS1.00 lent. Before 1991, the Kenya Rural Enterprise Program had moremen than women participants. but the relative number of male partici-pants has fallen as women have proven to be more willing than men towork in groups. and as women's repayment rates have risen above men's.

SOUTH AFRICAL'SAID. South Africa has been supporting the Get Ahead Foundation since1987. Get Ahead is a non-profit black-owned foundation that promotesmicroenterprise development in black South African townships. TheFoundation offers not only credit but also legal advice on vendor rightsand taxation, as well as training in business management and marketing.Its largest activity consists of the Stokvel Lending Program, which buildson the group-lending techniques of informal savings and credit clubsknown as stokvels.

Although the program did not specifically target women, according toan FY 1992 GEMINI Project evaluation. 91 percent of the borrowers arewomen entrepreneurs: women borrowers have repaid more readily thanmen. and they have proven to he more experienced with and willing toenter into group borrowing than men. Currently. all loan officers of theprogram are women. Loans are extended for one-year terms. and averageloan size is USSI62. Like other group lending programs. the Stokvel Pro-gram requires no collateral, but all clients must have existing enterprises.

BOLIVIAThe PRUDENT (Bolivian Foundation for the Development of theMicroenterprise Sector) Project, supported by I 'SAID Bolivia. is a rapidlygrowing affiliate of the U.S. PVC) Accion International. which has beenlending to self-formed solidarity groups in Bolivia since AZ". Someome keyfeatures of credit delivery to solidarity groups include simple applicationforms filled out with the help of a field worker, quick loan reviewsystems, and no need for collateral besides the group itself.

Small amounts of capital are lent for short periods of time. and a newon to any member of the group is contingent upon timely repayment

of the previous loan. The interest rates charged are near commercialrates. Besides working capital loans. FROMM also offers training andtechnit al assistanceranging hom the management of credit to the

48

Women & Microenteiprise

functioning of the solidant\ groupin order to help successful implemen-

tation of the program.Although PRODENI was not specifically targeted to women. according

to A.I.1).'s report. A./ D arid Micmentoprise. 1990-19Q2, -8 percent of

PRODF.N;'s borrowers are poor women entrepreneurs. Average loan size

is VSS252.After four years of operation. ()RODEN1 is financially sustainable. and its

repayment rate is close to 100 percent. One sign of PROD BI's success

the fact that it has graduated to being a commercial hank, Banco Sol: it is

.1 pioneer among the world"s private commercial banks in its exclusive

c.oncentratkin on lending to microentrepreneurs,

INDONESIA'SAID Indonesia's HMI nt.1.11 Institutions Development Project one of the

Agency's most successful microenterprise programs since the mid-

supports a network of village-based. non-bank financial institutions

supervised ft the Bank Pernbangunan Daerahs (village hanks).Prominent among these i illage banks is the famous liadan Kredit

Kecamatan ( I3KK I Program in Central Java. which lends small sums(sometimes as small as I. SSS without collateral to the poorest of the poor.

'Me MK Program is highly decentralized: more than 3-7, percent of Central

lava's 8,C00 districts are served by almost 500 subdistrict BKK units and 3.000

village posts. Interest rates cover costs and earn BKK units substantial profits.

Roughly 27 million beneficiaries have received loans. Women account for

oo percent of the programs borrowers: most are involved in trading activi-

ties. In an FY I991 e\ aluation. reasons cited for the program's high women's

participation rate included:the program's unonnplicated "-17ENtriri=a7111.7:

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II. Women & Agribusiness

The promotion Ofagnbusinessbroadlvdefined as the activitiesthat take place betweenthe farm and the con-sumer and that addvalue to the agricul-

tural pr(Klucthas become one ofA.1.1).'s strategic goals in agricultureand private-sector programs. It isviewed by AID: as an effectivemeans to ensure broad-based andsustainable growth. especially inrural areas and in primarily agricul-tural countries. For both the coun-tries and the people who engage init, agribusiness holds the promise ofgreater income potential than purelyagricultural activities.

Women play many differentroles in agribusiness. but they areespecially active in the agriculturalprocessing industries: in the produc-tion of non-traditional. high-valuecrops; and in the distribution phaseof the food marketing system. Nearlyeverywhere in the world, womenworkers predominate on the factoryfloors of food processing plants. buttoo few of them rise to technical.supervisory. and managerial levels inthe same plants. Although there aresome striking examples in theagribusiness industry of womenowners of farms and plants, womenentrepreneurs and exponers, andwimien technicians. these womenstand out as the exceptions.

I ligh-yalue vegetable and flowerproduction. processing. and pack-aging require ( awful and skilledoperations. lig which 111051 opera-tors strongly prefer women w orkers.Employers express numerous reasons

for this rigid differentiation of jobsby gendermaintaining. tor exam-ple, that women are more dexterousand meticulous in performing repeti-tive operations and more willing toaccept part-time and seasonal work.Other likely explanations are, how-ever, that women are often availableat lower wages than men, and thatmen are more frequently selectedfor training in the more complexand better paid skills.

Another segment of agribusinessin which women predominate inalmost all countries is the retailingstage of distribution systems for foodand for frequently needed householditems. The only exceptions to theconspicuousness of women in retailtrade can be found in severalMoslem countries in which religiousand social restrictions preventwomen from engaging in trade.

Many studies indicate that inlarge urban centers, retail marketingmargins car. exce d half the pricepaid by consun.er households. Yetthe urban trod distribution systemtraditionally has been neglected inagribusiness projects, partly becauseit is often in the hands of a multitude

of small operatorsa large propor-tion of whom are women. This is asector characterized by very smallenterprises, many of which operateinformally and with limited access tofinancial and other resources. Rapidurbanization. improvements in com-munications and transportation. andwidespread availability of refrigera-tors are forcing changes in tradition-al shopping habits at the householdleveland consequently inducingchanges in the way food and otherproducts are made available to urbanconsumers. Economies of scale inthe food distribution business willencourage the introduction oflarger-volume operations that maendanger the precarious livingstandards of many of the currentsmall operators.

A.I.D. AgribusinessHichliqhts, 1991-1992

C

The Agency's expenditures onactive agribusiness-relatedprojects for FY 1992 were

estimated at nearly S119 million.spread out over 144 separate pro-jects in all 'regions (see table below).

Number ofProjects Agribusiness

W1D

Activities

(/ SS thousands)Africa SO 31.00- 5,392

\sia 23 21,936 1-0

Europe 2 25."90FICA (F(xxl&Iltinianititriaru 030

Latin Anierica/Caribbeali 21 23 ,2-12 12

\ ear East 3,650 132

Policy I lirectorate 1 -61I'm ate Enterprise 9 3.992 280

Research and lkulopinent 31 .';66 866

lot al s 144 118,574 6,852

'`) 50

. DISTRIBUTION

. OF A:I.D.AGRIBUSINESS

PROJECTS AND

EXPENDITURES,

BY :REGION,

FY 1.992

Source kI D. Financial Management

Women & Agribusiness

These agribusiness expenditureestimates represent decompositionsof total project expenditures. byMajor activity codes. as reported byproject manager;. Within each majorcategory. separate allocations areattributed to cross-cutting issues.Among the latter. the women indevelopment subcomponent is gen-erally underestimated because othersubcomponents are usually go enprior attention. Hie Africa Bureau.for example. reports thatit the amount spent on agribusiness

( 1- percent of S31 million) can heviewed as contributing to women indevelopment :Ku\ ines. In compari-son. all other bureaus combinedattribute only S1.--1 million out ofS8- million in agribusiness towomen in development activities.Thus the financial management sys-tem of allocating A.I.D. funding byactivity code does not reflect theimportant contribution of agribusi-

ness activities toward enhancingthe palm-Timor-1.ot women in themarket economy.

In addition to country-specificprojects to encourage private-sectoragribusiness enterprises. A.I.D.'sregional and central bureaus alsohave set up protects to supportagribusiness ;kin ities at a regionalin- worldwide level. For example.the R&D Bureau .s AgriculturalMarketing Improvement StrategiesANUS) protect t'',10 million total

obligation) provides support world-wide to A 1.D. missions for diagnos-ing constraints to agribusinessdevelopment and for formulatingappropriate strategies and interven-tions to address those constraints.The -rapid market reconnaissance.'methodology developed by the.\MIS project explicitly incorporatesgender considerations as one of thecriteria in the design and evaluationof market systems.

.USSiOn PrOVaniSand Strateuies

The descriptions of severalAID. mission agribusinessstrategies provided (opposite

page) illustrate the varied nature ofprojects and their involvement ofand impact on women in thosecountries. Many mission agn-husiness projects have been closelylinked Et) the promotion (4 agricul-tural exports. particularly n in-traditional agriCultural _..portsDomestic markets offer limitedopportunities for the expansion ofthe agribusiness sector. The worldmarket, on the other hand. offerspotential for vast growth once thecompetitiveness of a particularproduct has been established.

Most agribusiness enterprisesin subsectors involved in transfor-mation and export of non-traditionalfarm products tend to demandpredominantly Nonien.y. labor. Incontrast, mainly male laborers areemployed in the production of tra-ditional agricultural exports such assugar and bananas.

414114 Other IUD Officet..; Agribusiness

>,Initiatives

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1n Eastern Europe. the \VII)office is exploring possibleinitiatives of interest to women

entrepreneurs in the agribusiness

Sample Agribusiness Strategies:

Sector. In many of the region'scountries, former employees oflarge, state-owned enterprises arelooking to start their own smallbusinesses. This is especially truein Hungary, where the agriculturalsector is the foundation of theeconomy and a major employerof women workers. Yet fewHungarians have the resources tocover the start-up costs of estab-lishing a business. Together withthe ANUS Project. the WM Officeis evaluating whether agribusiness"incubators- might provide ananswer. Business incubators(widely used in the United States)are privately run firms that sellservices or rent commodities tonew small businesses to enablethem to begin operating withoutlaying out large sums for businessstart-up.

The VII) Office assigns specialimportance to monitoring job cre-ation for women in A.I.D.-fundedagribusiness projects. WID Officeconsultants have helped with thedesign of employment monitoringschemes for USAID Philippinesand USAII) Morocco for theiragribusiness projects. One of thedifficulties encountered in thisconnection is the nearly universallack of sex-disaggregated employ-ment data by industrial sector.Special surveys are thereforeneeded to determine the numberof men and women in theagribusiness suhsector.

MOROCCOIn Morocco. processing of non-traditional agricultural exports has provento he a major source of employment generation for women in rural andsemi-rural areas. For example, production of fresh tomatoes undergreenhouses and irrigation for export to Europe has opened up workand income opportunities for mans' rural women who otherwise wouldhave had few alternatives to heing unpaid family laborers working in thetraditional fields.

USAID:Morocco introduced specific criteria to ensure that women areadequately represented in A.I.D.-sponsored training and technical andmanagerial improvement programs. It discovered. for example. thatcontrary to conventional wisdommany of the students in Morocco smid-level agricultural training schools were women: indeed. womenstudents predominated among the students in horticultural productiontrainingskills that are in high demand in vegetable production and inthe export subsector.

Unfortunately, subsequent professional opportunities are often denied towomen, as evidenced by the insignificant proportion of female extensionagents. Not surprisingly, training aimed at the graduate and postgraduatelevels seldom includes women professionals as degree candidates. In viewof the importance that USAID, Morocco is attaching to agribusiness promo-tion and its anticipated impact on female employment. the Mission and theWID Office are jointly monitoring employment generationstarting with abaseline labor survey of agribusiness enterprises in 1992.

PHILIPPINESUSAID/Philippines made a major effort during 1991 and 1992 to design andcarry out the Agribusiness Sector Assistance Program (ASAP ). The goal ofthe ASAP Program is to raise agricultural sector production, productivity, andemployment through both increased private-sector investment in profitablenew enterprises and expansion of existing agribusiness activities. TheProgram's focus will be on the corn-livestock and the fruit and vegetablesubsectorswith special emphasis on a) anticipating likely labor responses(supply, demand. wages, opportunities. and incentives) to the Program'sinitiatives. and b) ensuring that gender-differentiated employment impactscan he monitored throughout implementation.

The ASAP Program represents one of the more thorough efforts by amission to integrate gender issues into its agribusiness portfolio, and itis likely to provide valuable lessons for similar work in other countries.['SAID Philippines requested WID Office technical assistance to incorporaterelevant gender concerns into the Program from the very start of the designstage. A preliminary reconnaissance of gender issues in the agribusinesssector was carried out at the program assistance identification paper (Pm)stage, and direct technical help with drafting the Pri)gram's assistanceapproval document (PP) was subsequently provided by the WID ()Bice inFY 1991. The thoroughness of this preparatory work will greatly enhance thefeasibility of monitoring and evaluation of the Program's impact on ruralincomes and employment on a gender-disaggregated basis.

52

REST COPY AVAILABLE

Women &Agribusiness

(11L -ANAA major thrust : f (;o _tuna N program in F1's 1991 and 1 9 9 2 was the launching of the Trade and

investment Program tTIP). This intim alive program links agribusiness. private-sector trade and invest-

ment opportunities. and policy reform in a single. coherent package. The Mission recognized early onthat it would be essential to the success of the TIP Program to take into account women's widespreadparticipation in Ghana's commercial activity. From the program design stage on. l'SA1D Ghana and theW1D Office worked jointly to assess the potential impact of the proposed TIP Program on the economicwell -tieing of women engaged in trade. farming. and other business activities. The regional representa-tive of the AFWID Project (see p. 0) worked closely with the Mission on drafting and reviewing theappropriate project documents. At the request of [SAID Ghana. the WID Office also pro\ i(led guidance

to the team charged with drafting a thorough monitoring and ex aluation system for the TIP Prkgr :n.

I his sx stem ill. for example. assess le\ els of participant m and benefits for both men and v. omenengaged in certain product subset:tors. as %. ell as evaluate the impact of the TIP Program on cross-border traders (predominantly women) who market goods with neighboring countries.

In both its substance and its commitment to addressing the interests of women farmers. workxrs. andentrepreneurs. the Ghana TIP Program is one of the most outstanding AID. agribusiness efforts inAfrica. The WID Office will maintain strong follow-up of its implementaticm in coming tears.

ECUADORIn Ecuador. a steady expansion of non-traditional agricultural exports has been achieved since theestablishment of PROEXANT. a service organization to support the efforts of private exporters of non-traditional farm products. Exports of flowers to the [ "sited States market, mainly roses and carnations.

have been especially successful. Flower production. selection. and packaging are activities thatemploy a labor force consisting overwhelmingly of women.

In 1991 and 1992. the MD Officesupported l'SAID Ecuador'sdesign and reorientation of thisand tither agricultural andnatural resource developmentproiectsparticularly thedesign of gender-sensitivemonitoring, evaluation, andtenoning sx stems.

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Other Activities

The Private Enterprise Bureau (PRE) and the Asia Bureau (the formerAPRE Bureau) in FY 1991 together hired a \VID Advisor under theGENESYS Project with joint funding from the WID Office. In FY 1992,when the Asia and PRE Bureaus split, both bureaus formed separate\ \-ID Committees to develop and implement their annual action plans.

In addition to its collaboration with the PRE Bureau in the microenterprisefield. the W1D Office in FYs 1991 and 1992 also worked with the PRE Bureau'sInvestment and Housing Offices to integrate gender concerns into their pro-grams and projects. In FY 1991, the ongoing Small Business Loan PortfolioGuarantee program was amended to incorporate gender concerns more explicitly.Under the program, assistance is provided to developing-country intermediaryfinancial institutions to expand local lending to small businesses. To betterevaluate the development impact of the program. data is now being collectednot only on prior lending experience but also on the gender of the businessowner and the gender profile of the business's management and employees.

In Thailand. a major event coordinated by the PRE. Housing Office inFY 1992 was a workshop on the role of he city in environmental managementfor Asia housing officers. A gender specialist chaired the plenary session on envi-ronmental information and public awareness. The PRE Bureau's Gender. WIDAdvisor participated in all the country agenda sessions to bring out the relevantgender issues in the urban environment.

In Nepal. under its GENESYS Project, the WID Office and -SAID. Nepal inFYs 1991 and 1992 conducted an assessment of private sector training needs.The focus was on rural and urban commercial enterprises. private health caredelivery systems, and agroenterprise operations. The GENESYS Project alsoprovided gender experts in a private sector project design in Botswana. amicroenterpnse assessment in Uganda, and a private enterprise survey designin Nlorocco.

The \\-ID Office also produced three major studies with funding supportto the PRE Bureau's Private Enterprise Development Support II Project. InFY 1991. two comparative studies, each entitled Gender Issues in the Transitionto a Market Economv, were undertaken in Poland and Hungary (see p. ')..\ third study. Considerations for the Design qt. the RITE Project. was prepared inFY 1992 at the joint request of the Bureau for Europe and the WID Office to:a ) identify opportunities to integrate gender issues into the PRE Bureau'sRemoval of Impediments to Trade Expansion Project (RITE), and h) identifyareas al which the RITE Project complemented and overlapped with otherAgency private sector initiatives.

Looking Ahead

1n 1993 and beyond, the \\'1D Office w ill continue to disseminate the bestavailable analysis on gender issues in microenterprise deVcioptlient to a\\ Ide range of practitioners in this field To achieve this goal. the WID( /filet is t ollahoratmg with tile PRI- ',NM: office io put on a professionaldevelopment seminar in FY 1993 for practitioners in Illic'n)enterprise

development from AID. *.\:60s. and other implementing agencies.In the agribusiness: area. the \\11) Office will continue to advance knowledge

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A

he gender gap in basiceducation persistsdespite the rapidexpansion of formalschooling and growthin enrollments over thepast two decades.

Worldwide. some 60 million girls ofprimary school age are not enn)lledin school. In sixty-six countries, theprimary school enrollment ratios forgirls are 10 percent or more belowthose for boys. loreover. world-wide increases in primary schoolenrollments are not necessarilyclosing the gender gap in somecountries. In several countries inSouth Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.gender disparities in enrollmentsare constant or even increasing,especially in rural areas.

Female adult literacy rates like-wise remain low in many of thepoorest countries of Sub-SaharanAfrica and South Asia, as well asamong rural women in much of theMiddle Fast and North Africa. Inl990, an estimated 948 million adultswere illiterate. and some Nr" millionof them. or almost two-thirds. werewomen. Although it will take severalgeneration to reach parity in maleand female literacy rates, parity inenrollments could he achieved in afew decades.

The gender gap in basic educationtakes still other forms. In many partsof the world, girls' continuation andschool -level attainment rates trailthose for Imys. In several Sub-SahaanAfrican, South Asian. North African.and Middle Eastern countries. girls'repetition and dropout rates remainhigher than those for boys. Fewergirls than boys also graduate to thesecondary and higher educaticm

HC.VIldeinT).1.VVMS(111(1 huraN (1.1)istructiHrtto /it trt teal) respforsthrlittes (Ire(wrung the emphases ()(..1.1 1).-s educ (arm(assr_stairce (tinkled h, m1(111404; tilimeri.

levels. Only in Latin America andthe Caribbean has there has beensubstantial progress in providingmass secondary education.

Girls who graduate through thesystem are also more likely to hetracked into traditionally "female"subjects. such as teaching, homeeconomics, or nursing, rather thanscience. engineering, or mathemat-ics. In all regions. girls are trackedinto the less remunerative fields ofstudyalthough iri Latin Americaand the Caribbean and parts ofAsia. women are increasingly enter-ing fields traditionally dominatedby men.

Declining Fundsfor Education

Avariety of economic crises.worldwide recession, droughtin Southern Africa, and con-

flicts in many regions are affectingboth public and private expenditureson education. The poorest of thepoor--especially the rural poorare disproportionately affected.Cutbacks in education research havealso eroded investments in educationresearch: without a solid researchbase, it is difficult to determine themost promising and cost-effectiveapproaches to increasing girls' enroll-ment and continuation in school.

Whether the positive relationshipsthat exist between female educationand development (see box on p. (')are realized depends on particularsocio-economic and cultural contexts.Patterns of education, fertility, andlabor-force participation are alsointerrelated. For example, if women',labor- fierce participation remains low.the investment in girls' education willhave less effect on family income.productivity. and fertility.

Improving girls' access to basiceducation also depends on increasing

education access for females ofall ages. Literw:y training of only afew ,.ears can fundamentally changewomen's roles and relationshipswithin the householdeven if insome cases it may take one or moregenerations for these changes tobecome apparent. This underscoresthe importance of educating mothersso that they will support theirdaughters' education.

In many developing countries, thenutritional status of girls is worsethan that of boys. Girls are also oftenmore cognitively ready for school atan earlier age, but (clue to cultural,economic, and social constraints)often drop Out sooner. In thesecircumstances, girls in particularstand to benefit from early childhoodprograms that give them a "headstart" in school and reinforce theirearly cognitive gains.

Two contemporary crisesworldwide recession and the spreadof HIV/AIDS accentuate the impor-tance of accelerating progress withgirls' and women's basic education.In response to the recession, morewomen are working in off-farmemploymentoften at second andthird jobs. Many women work in theinformal sector, and an increasingnumber are householdheads and primary sup-porters of theirchildren and elderlydependents. These womenneed education to adapt totheir changing economiccircumstances and toensure the survival of theirhouseholds. In addressingthe AIDS epidemic. it isknown that HIV 'AIDS willsoon affect as manlywomen as men. A womanwith even limited readingability is far more recep-tive to health messages.

both written and oral, than herilliterate sister. In very concrete andpractical terms, basic educationempowers women to make decisionsthat are critical to their families' andtheir own welfare.

Removing Barriers toGirls' Education

At the national level. manypolitical. legal. and economicbarriers continue to keep girls

out of school. Among thew are:the absence of national lawsabout compulsory education,a restricted policy environment.poverty and underdevelopment.the degree of urbanization andindustrialization,the form of political organiza-tion, andthe relationship of churchand state.

At regional and local levelswithin communities, schools, andfamiliesthe barriers are primarilysocial, cultural, and economic. Forexample. the forms of school organi-zation, pregnancy policies, schoolschedules. teachers' attitudes andtraining, the curriculum, and thecontent of textbooks all affect girls'

Educatioli for 411. -"The most4, geirt priority is to ensure- I

access to arid improve the quality off .

r

education for girls, and tvothIen, ant o removeforevery. Obstacle Pat hampe their I

1active pa ticifiation.All ge :dersl r gillin educron should be ell 'anal d. '

Declal'aliolr, World COnfere ce ot'1SdI anon fir All:

45 56

Meet dg B ic wiling Needs.

1

Jomlit n.17) ila d, March 1990.

1=ENiinININIF

Education

enrollment. continuation. and school-level attainment. Within licaisehokls.gender roles and expectations.marriage customs (e.g.. bridepricepayments. traditional age of marriage,residence), gender n)les. economiccircumstances. schooling and oppor-tunity costs all affect parents andgirls' decisions about schooling.Parents also respond to labor marketsignals and perceived benefits ofeducating their daughters.

Many of these harriers operatesimultaneously. requiring multipleinterventions. At the national level.governments often need to increaseaccess to schooling for all groups byredistributing national resources.Increasing the resource base for girls'education through diversification offinancing may 'zits() be necessary. Byadopting compulsory schooling laws.national governments can sendpositive signals to local and regional

ILLITERACY AMONG YOUNG WOMEN. BY REGION, 1970 AND 1990

Over 49% ofyoung womenare still illiteratein Africa andWestern andSouth Asia

Illiterate Women Aged 20-24 (%)

III 1970

III 1990

Latin America Sub-Saharan Northern Africa and Eastern Africa and South Asia

and Caribbean Africa' Western Asia" Southeast Asia

THE ILLITERACY GAP. 1990

Illiterate Men and Women Aged 20-24. 1990 1%1

III Men

111 Women

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

The widest gapsbet ween womenand men .are 1n .

Africa andWestern and

all siaLatin America Sub-Saharan Northern Africa and Eastern Africa and South Asia

and Caribbean Africa' Western Asia" Southeast Asia

Includes Sudan excludes A!nca

"Includes Somalia and Maunla a ,kludes Corus wael and TurkeySource the Wiwi s IVomon

.16

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

levels about the importance of girls'schooling. Building more schoolscloser to girls' homes. allocatingmore funds for basic education.providing scholarship programs. andredistributing funds from higher tobasic and secondary education allhave been found to decrease genderdisparities.

At local and regional levels.programs are needed to address bothsupply-side factors ( primarily schoolpractices) and demand-side barriersprimarily household decisions).

Supply-side programs to improve thequality of schoolingrevising thecurriculum. improving teacher train-ing, reforming teaching practicescan have positive effects. In manysocieties, providing more femaleteachers and, or sex-segregated class-rooms have been shown to improvegirls' enrollment and school-levelattainment markedly. Demand-sideprograms include encouragingparental involvement in education.labor-saving technologies. provisionof preschools and creches. etc.Female scholarship programs andother forms of assistance to lowerboth direct and opportunity costs forgirls' schooling have also beendemonstrated to be very effective.Promoting positive role models ofeducated women within the commu-nity can help change parental andcommunity perceptions of the valueof educating their daughters.In addition. alternative forms ofschooling that incorporate featuresof nontormal schoolingsuch asflexible scheduling, as well as pro-grams that integrate education andproduc tive activities have been verysuccessful in increasing girls' enroll-ment and continuation in school.

Clearly there are many differentways to address the gender gap.In many countries where gender

disparities remain high, what is oftenlacking is not the means, but thepolitical will. Given these constraints.A.I.D. has been both supportingpromising interventions and playingan advocacy role in promoting theimportance of girls' education in allaspects of development programming.

1.1.1). 's Response.In 1992. A.I.D. invested S 116 mil-lion in basic educationadecrease from S174 million in

1991. Of this amount, S207.889 wasexpended from WID Office fundingto improve gender-specific analysisand program and project design. TheWID Office-funded activities do not.however, represent the Agency's totalinvestment in girls' education: genderissues are integrated throughput theAgency's basic education and otherrelated education projects andprograms. A.1.D.'s basic educationproject in Egypt. for example, hashad a dramatic effect on girls' enroll-ment rates in that country. The10-year project included the con-struction or rural primary schools, thedevelopment and provision ofinstruction materials and equipment.and strengthening of educationalplanning, teacher education, curricu-lum design. and evaluation. By 1991,female enrollment rates in ruralprimary schools had increased from36 percent to 42 percent of totalenrollment In niral secondaryschools, girls' enrollment increasedfrom 180,000 to -00,000, and inurban areas female enrollmentdoubled. Gender issues are also animportant part of the negotiationswith governments in countries whereA.I.D. is considering support of basiceducation efforts.

In FYs 1991 and 1992, specificA.1.D. activities in support of girls'

basic education were conducted ineleven countries. Seven of thesecountriesBenin, Botswana. Ghana.Guinea. Malawi, Mali. and Ugandawere in Sub-Saharan Africa:the remaining countries wereBangladesh. Guatemala. Nepal. andYemen. In addition. A.I.D. supportedtraining for women education admin-istrators in South Africa and for basiceducation activities in Namibia.Swaziland, and Uganda.

Other gender activities in thissector included support for nationaland international conferences ongirls' education and applied research.In April 1992, the WID Office helpedorganize and support the NGOCommittee on UNICEF's conference."Education of the Girl Child: HerRight, Society's Gain.- held in NewYork: the WID Office providedfunding for the participation of NGOand education representatives fromNigeria, Mali, and Guatemala. TheOffice also supported the publicationof the Conference proceedings.

(MID llissionsost of the WID Office'sFY 1991 and FY 1992investment in girls' education

supported gender-disparity analysesneeded for new USAID missionprograms and projects. Such analyseswere carried out in Ghana, Guinea.Uganda, Benin. Namibia. Swaziland.and Yemen. They were then incor-porated into project and programdesigns and utilized in policydialogue with governments. In thecase of Guinea, instituting a planto decrease the gender gap wasincorporated as a specific conditionfPr further disbursements of funding.In Yemen. a feasibility study wasconducted to determine how anational women's organization

Development"Returns" ofFemale Education

Educating girls is one of the mosteffective investments that a countrycan make in its development. Thereis firm evidence that girls' educationcorrelates with:

Increases in family incomeand national productivity.Women's earning capacity andproductivity increase with higherlevels of education.

Adoption of new technologiesand practices. Educated womenare more willing to adopt advancedagricultural practices thatcontribute to increased yields andbetter storage, processing, market-ing, and food security.

Improved health and familywejfare. The better educated thewoman, the more likely her child isto survive infancy. Educated womenare also better able to utilize healthmessages and services.

Lowered fertility rates. Educatedwomen are more likely to plan theirfamilies, delay marriage, and havefewer children.

More education and trainingin the next generation. Children ofeducated women are more likely tosucceed in school, and their daugh-ters are more likely to attend school.

There is also evidence that basiceducation and literacy may facilitate.women's political participation andinvolvement in democratic processes.

could expand its mandate tosupport alternative credentialingprograms for girls out of school. In(Thana, a small-scale descriptive pro-file of primary school classrooms is

"Without education, the girl is not in a position to controlher life, her environment, her fertility, or her destiny.She becomes a victim rather than a decision- maker.. .

The problems of developing countries . . .

are closely related to the education ani skill levelsof the people, especially their girls and women.":

. Her Excellency Ms. Fay ChungMlnisterof Education and Culture, Government of imbabwe

From Report of NGO Committee on UNICEF's 1992 Conference,Education of the Girl Child: Iler Right, Society's.Gain

examining issues such as genderbias in teaching practices andinstructional materials.

Other efforts have involvedpromoting gender awareness andhelping build cooperation betweennational governments and privatesectors. In January 1991. for example.I 'SAID Guatemala co-sponsored anational conference, -Educating Girls:Achieving the Development ofGuatemala." with the Government ofGuatemala. The Mission is continuingto support the National Forum andNational Commission. "Educandoa la Nina--a direct result of theinitial conference. The NationalCommission currently comprisesrepresentatives from several privatefoundations, the Ministry ofEducation, the National Congress.the Office of the I luman RightsOmbudsman, and various universi-ties. Following the Conference, theCommission produced a report iden-titing thirty-seven possible projectsthat could have a favorable impacton girls and women. In response. theNlinistry of Education has adoptedpolicies to encourage girls. atten-dance. including tt introduction ofafternoon sessions in rural schoolsto assure access for girls who areresponsible tOr domestic and agricul-tural work in the mornings. TheMinistry has also targeted all its 1993new tea( ping pc isitions for theseuIternc x m sessli

Education

In a similar effort. t'SAID Malico-sponsored the first National Girls'Education Dav with the Governmentof Mali in 1991. In 1992. the Missionfollowed up by sponsoring regionalceremoniesinvolving a total of 202schoolsto honor the schools thathad made the most progress inpronioting girls' education. Theseprograms were well attended andresulted in regional plans of actionto address girls' enrollment andcontinuation in school.

Throughout F1's 1991 and 1992. toincrease the demand for girls' educa-tion. A.I.D. supported social market-ing programs in Mali. Malawi. andGuinea. ['SAID. Mali is supporting anationwide radio and televisioncampaign in seven languages todemonstrate the benefits of girls'education for the Malian woman.The Mission has also supported theMali Government's efforts to promote

-

girls' education through a populartelevision game show and in thenational press. In Malawi, girls'education is being promoted throughpuppet and other theatrical perfor-mances at the village level. InGuinea, the l'SAID Mission is hiringa social marketing advisor to conductsurveys to determine regional differ-ences in demand and to developsocial marketing strategies thatrespect regional variations.

l'SAID mission eftOrts t<r retno egender bias in the basic-educationcurriculum are under way in severalcountries. In FY 1992 in Ghana.equity considerations were beingincorporated into all research onclassroom quality. In Mali. the['SAID Mission is collaborating withthe French Government to assist theMali Government in incorporatingstories of girls and women in thedesign of new textbooks andcurriculu u materials.

Since in-service teacher trainingcan be critical to changing teachers'and school administrators' per-ceptions of girls' abilities. [SAIDmissions are also supporting genderawareness in in-service programs.[SAID Mali has incorporated gendermodules and activities into its basiceducation teacher training programs.

11114*

.

Ain. promote s education onthe grounds iy.equity as well as itsproven positur impact on multipleaspects of derelopnient prowess.

In summer 1992. the WID Officealso funded Washington-based gen-der training for key school officialsand administrators in Maliwho inturn trained administrators andteachers in the Ministry of Educationand in their own school districts. InSouth Africa. USAID provided ['.S.-based training for school principals.the large majority of whom werewomen.

A.I.D. also continues to take thelead in funding innovative pilotprojects and operational research.In Ghana, the ['SAID Mission devel-oped and funded sixteen pilotprojects aimed at improving genderequity. Such projects include provid-ing girls' scholarships; subsidizingschool textbooks, supplies. and furni-ture: and providing teacher incentives(housing and transportation) forwomen teachers in rural areas.In FY 1992 in Bangladesh. A.I.D.funded an evaluation of the highlysuccessful Bangladesh RuralAdvancement Committee (BRAG)schools to determine which aspectsof these schools contributed to girls'enrollment and continuation inschool. The evaluation also identifiedlessons learned that could he repli-cated in other countries and regions.

A.I.D.-funded research has shownthat improving women's literacyopens up girls' access to basiceducation; educated mothers areoften more willing to send boththeir daughters and their sons toschool. In Nepal. the l'SAID Missionfunded the development of literacymaterials to train female primaryhealth care and family planningworkers. The (iovernment is nowplanning to extend the highly,ucc.essful program nationwThe experience in Nepal demon-strates the importance of integratingliteracy Lind productive ;ten\ ities.

Looking AheadOn the basis of A.I.D. programevidence and research, theWID Office has expanded its

definition of "basic education.' toinclude educating mothers and earlychildhood education. In the future,the WID Office plans to supportpromising NGO interventions andpilot projects in both of these areas.It also plans to collaborate with theDepartments of Education andHealth and Human Services to sharelessons learned in adult literacy andHead Start programming both in theUnited States and internationally.

In addition to its continuingemphasis on girls' access to basiceducation, the WID Office isincreasingly focusing on issues ofquality that affect girls' continuationand performance in school. Girls'school-level attainment and perfor-mance quality in school in turnaffects parental perceptions of thevalue of girls' education. The Officewill also support research to investi-gate the relationship between thetreatment of girls and their educa-tional achievement at all levels ofthe system. In cooperation with['SAID missions. the WID Office isencouraging effiirt", to developpromising role models and profilesof successful educated W011111.

Because of the increased inci-dence of AIDS in young women. the

WID Office will support researchand interventions linking basic edu-cation and HIV/ AIDS preventionprograms (see also pp. 66-671. Itwill support local initiatives andefforts to develop sex educationcurricula, which can appropriatelyhe targeted to young women in andout of school. Some interventionswill be carried out by local NGOs.others by local school authorities.

Basic education and literacy forgirls and women will remain asectoral priority for A.I.D.'s WIDOffice. The Office will continue towork with NGOs. multilateral orga-nizations. and other bilateral donorson the design and implementationof promising interventions andprograms. In recent years, the WIDOffice has worked closely withUNICEF, the World Bank, andseveral U.S. NGOs. It participatesin the Donors to African Education'sWorking Group on Girls' Education.organized by The RockefellerFoundation. and in the NGOCommittee on UNICEF's EducationWorking Group. Such collaborationwill be continued and extended.and the Office will also maintain aleading role in funding innovativeresearch and programs.

e."

fv.es,"

4st

a

As scientists froma variety ofdisciplines anddevelopmentworkers across theworld struggle toput a human face

on environmental prohlemsrecognizing that in many placesaround the globe survival itself isalready at stakelinkages between

.

gender and environment becomeincreasingly clear. In both urban andrural settings, men and women oftenplay different roles in their interactionwith the environment around them.'nclerstanding these differences, and

the potential impact that they haveon how natural resource manage-ment and other problems can best besolved. is one of the keys to environ-mentally sustainable de\ eic ipment.

61

rr

Cher111.1, .1 /) photo

Women as Resource.1Ianagers

povertv and environmentaldegradation are suonglylinked. In both rural and

urban settings, adverse environmen-tal changessuch as the loss of for-est cover. pollution of drinkingwater. and upland soil en )sion

often affect women and childreneven more acutely than men.

Women draw water, gather fire-wood, tend flocks and provide themwith fodder, manage household gar-dens. and farm on some of the leastdesirable local lands. Many of thesetasks are undertaken within a com-plex set of social and cultural obliga-tions. rights, and responsibilities.some of which are unique to women.

In a growing number of develop-ing countries. men migrate seasonallyto find work in the cash economy.Women are left behind to take overthe traditional male tasks of plowing.planting, irrigation. and harvesting ofmajor fOod crops while they continueto manage the traditional femaleresponsibilities.

Providing cooking fuel is a majorproblem for both rural and urbanwomen. Since firewood is usuallythe "fuel of choice." destruction offorests means that women have towalk and carry loads farther tosupply their families. These extrahours are taken out of the time theymust spend on their many otherchores. such as preparing food andraising crops. In urban areas. fire-wood is often brought in by truckfrom distant forests, and the trans-portation cost is rolled into the fuelprice. Poor urban families can spend2 percent or more of their incomebuying firewood or charcoal fromvendors. To save on fuel. womenreduce cooking time or do not bringwater to a boil. thus increasing therisk of water -borne diseases.

In many societies. women are theones responsible for raising and sell-ing small livestock. such as chickens.goats and sheep. which provide muchof the vomen's cash income. I lerdsize and health are determined bythe availability of good pasture andfodder. When pastures have beendamaged or overgrazed. women

must travel in search of fodder andgrass to cut and carry back to theiranimals: often. they are forced todecrease their herds, thus reducingtheir one reliable source of income.

Gathering water for drinking, cook-ing, and washing is a traditional taskof women and girls in many devel-oping societies. When local watersources are polluted. women areforced to walk great distances to findsafe water. carrying back heavy loads.

In the agricultural sector. womenprovide a substantial portion of laboron family fields. They also may havetheir own separate fields and gar-dens. which in many cases are small,difficult to reach, less productivethan the main fields, and first hit byenvironmental problems.

Women as CommunityOrganizers andEducators

An often unrecognized but vitalrole that women play in manycultures is that of community

organizers and transmitters of valuesand practical knowledge to othersincluding, importantly, the nextgeneration.

Development activities thatrequire common property manage-mentprotecting a watershed,cleaning and upkeep of irrigationcanals, rotating use of a pasture.protecting an urban handpump fromcontaminationalso require cooper-ation, a shared set of values, andcommitment. The collection andmanagement of funds for operation.maintenance, spare parts. and hiredlabor also may he necessary. \lore-over, to become part of the socialfabric. new conceptssuch asprotecting and managing a commonproperty resourcealso musthe taught and accepted as a

51 ..,

community value. For example, ina community reforested with fast-growing tree species, young treeshave to be protected from goats.who would quickly strip them ofvegetation.

Often. women's groups have mas-tered many of these skills. Suchwomen's groups can lend vital sup-port to projects that need to accom-plish many of the same managementtasksespecially when they havebeen involved in the planning ofdevelopment projects and can expectto benefit from them.

.1A

, ,

lK

-

-4

4

Gender in A.I.D.'s Environment StrategyThe Office of Women in Development iscommitted to clarifying understandingof the diverse roles that women andmen play in their communities andeffectively utilizing the knowledge ofthose roles in all phases of develop-ment projects. The WID Office workswith other A.I.D. offices and fieldmissions to integrate gender issuesinto each of the five areas of A.I.D.'senvironmental strategy: tropicalforestry and biological diversity, sus-tainable agriculture, environmentalimpacts of energy use, coastal zonesand other water resources, andurban and industrial pollution.

In FYs 1991 and 1992, the project-level focus on women in developmentand gender issues was on:

Tropical forestry and biodiversity,Sustainable agriculture, andWater resources.

Tropical Forests andBiological Diversity

Tropical forests are crucial for sustaining human lifeand livelihood. They contain more than half of theworld's animals and plants. providing food, fuel.building materials. pharmaceuticals. and geneticresources for the development of new and disease-

resistant crops. They also serve as a vital storage place for car-bon, helping to mitigate the threat of global climate changes.Yet. as population and economic pressures grow. the world'stropical forests are vanishing at the fastest rate in history.More than half have been lost since the turn of the century.

A.I.D.'s goals in this area are to help countries a) reducedeforestation: b) conserve remaining natural forest areas. wild-lands, and biological diversity: and c) derive sustainableeconomic growth from these resources. Women play a critical.primary role in forest management. They deplete the forest forfuelwood, harvest it for extractive products, and in manycountries are actively involved in conserving the forests.

Small and microenterprise development for processingforest products usually relies heavily. if not entirely. on'omen's labor. And women often are responsible for subsis-tence farming in forest-dweller households.

Over time, women have helped develop extensiveknowledge of forest composition. extraction potential, andmanagement. becoming the primary agents of forest produc ttransformation. It is \ cry important that their part in conserva-tion and the use of biological diversity be recognized andacted upon.

52 63

Local women often assumeresponsibility fOr collecting userPecs to maintain and providespan, partsjOr protecteddrinking outer systems put inplace by their communitieswith A.1.D. assistance. Environment and Natural Resource Management

The Global Climate Change Program: BRAZIL

One of USAID/Brazil's strategic objectives is to reducedeforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. Deforestationpresently accounts for as much as 85 percent of Brazil'scurrent carbon monoxide emissions. A set of the Mission'sactivities completed during FYs 1991 and 1992 focused onchange in the forest situation through slowing deforesta-tion, promoting environmentally viable alternatives. estab-lishing environmentally sound policies, and building anenvironmental constituency in local communities.

In the Brazilian Amazon, alternative forest uses andmanagement practices rely heavily on women's knowl-edge, skills, and labor. Evidence indicates that womenplay important and vital productive and reproductive rolesin all the extractive and agroforestry systemsas sourcesof traditional knowledge about the habitat, for example,and as collectors of forest products, processors of prod-ucts, and marketers. Yet little research informationcurrently exists about women in the Amazon region ingeneral, and in renewable resource management systemsin particular. If key objectives of the Global ClimateChange (GCC) Program are to be achieved. gender-disag-gregated data must inform the entire project cycle.

With assistance from the Agency's WID Office, the GCCProgram ensures the appropriate consideration of genderthrough training, research, and technical assistance. TheWID Office has provided gender analysts to work directlywith Amazonian non-governmental and community pro-ducer organizationsgroups key to the project's long-term successto design, implement, and evaluatesustainable projects throughout the Brazilian AmazonBasin. Training focuses on sound socioeconomic and gen-der research methods.

In FYs 1991 and 1992, a major research activity focusedon identifying marketing opportunities for non-timberforest productssuch as tropical fruits and pulps, gums,resins, nuts, spices, wicker, and reeds. Local gender/socialscience specialists were hired to work with participatingnon-governmental organizations. The preliminary marketassessments will inform NGO and community producerorganization decisions about which products to commer-cialize, how much to sell to whom, how to add value tothose forest products, and planning for storage andtransportation. The potential for eco-tourism is thesubject of a future market assessment.

Sustainable Uses Of Biological Resources: ECUADOR

In the design of its Sustainable Uses of BiologicalResources (SUBIR) Project, USAID/Ecuador focused onregional ethnic characteristics and diverse gender roles inspecific project activities. One important SUBIR Projectgoal is to alter patterns of income generation in house-holds living near national parks and other environmentallyprotected areas so that local residents will rely less onforest extractive activities (e.g., hunting, logging, andcollecting). Since both men and women in these areas

contribute to household income and subsistence, bothmust be taken into account in project design.

To this end, the SUBIR Project included gender- age-,and ethnicity-sensitive indicators in its 1992 monitoringand evaluation plan. A questionnaire designed for baselineand follow-up household surveys tracks all sources ofhousehold support so that the SUBIR Project can monitorproject-induced shifts in the relationship between intra-household patterns and the environment.

53 64 I BEST COPY AVAILABLE

A,

,

,

Sustainable AgricultureAgriculture is a critical component of theeconomy in almost all developing countries.providing food. fuel. employment, andincome for most of the people. In manyareas. however. unsound and shortsighted

agricultural practices have led to reduced productivityand environmental degradation. Destruction of forestsand inappropriate use of crop and rangelands contribute

Agromart Outreach Foundation: SRI LIM

Since 1990, A.I.D. funds have assisted the Sri LankanAgromart Outreach Foundation's program to reach farmers,many of whom are women. in the country's NorthwesternProvince. The Foundation was established by the Women'sChamber of Industry and Commerce to promote "agriculturalprogress through market awareness." The $500,000 A.I.D.grant has enabled the Foundation to flourish as a grassrootsorganization serving the needs of farmers. With USAID/SriLanka funds, the Foundation began an EntrepreneurDevelopment Training Program.

Every month. about 125 people are selected on a compet-itive basis to take part in two-day training programs. All ofthese programs include entrepreneurial training sessionsemphasizing marketing, accounting, and planning skills.Mushroom cultivation. fruit and vegetable processing,

A

I.D. pnonotes thetraining and SelICeS411'01)101 extensumagents to strengthenthe important role(y women ut smallanimal production mmixed larnung SyStems,lere el woman returns

goats punkt 'Oen neu:iinspection at a protectsite m

to soil erosion. Pesticide and fertilizer overuse adds topollution of surface and groundwater.

A.I.D. tries to help countries meet their food andincome needs with environmentally sustainable agricultur-al practices. Since women make up more than .40 percentof the world's agricultural labor force and grow at least 50percent of the world's food. they too must be involved ascollaborators and recipients of technology information.

compost manufacturing, chili cultivation, inter-cropping,livestock rearing, poultry raising, and bee-keeping rankhigh in popularity among the technical subjects covered.

By the end of 1991, a total of 2,378 peoplethe majorityof them womenhad participated in the program. This wasnearly double the goal set at the start of the program.Training workshops had been held in 22 of the NorthwestProvince's 36 divisions.

Each trainee who participates receives follow-up supportand counseling from field assistants working out of regionaloffices. Participants are encouraged to create an AgromartSociety for follow-up activities. These societies usually meetonce a month and field assistants attend whenever possibleto provide additional training.

54fa

Agricultural Research and Extension Project: MALAWI

In 1985. A.I.D. began funding the Malawi AgriculturalResearch and Extension Project, one of whose goalswas to assist the Ministry of Agriculture to better reachwomen farmers with extension services, credit programs,and training. Women perform up to 70 percent of Malawi'sfarm labor. By the Project's completion in 1992, the Ministryhad made great progress integrating women farmers andprofessionals into the ongoing programs. Due in part to thisProject's attention to women farmers, Malawi's current5-year extension plan includes specific percentage goals forwomen's participation in credit programs, farmers' groups,and other activities.

One aspect of the Project focused on increasing thenumber of women farmers participating in farmers' creditclubs. Women's participation in these clubs improvedgreatly over the life of the Project: In 1983, some 8 percentof club members were women; by 1991, women accountedfor over 34 percent of the membership.

To step up extension services to women, a dual strategywas used. Some services were mainstreamed throughstandard extension programs. while others were directlychanneled to women by the staff of the Ministry ofAgriculture's Women's Program. Within the Women'sProgram. a special credit and extension program including

group demonstrations of income-generatingactivities was directed to very resource-poorwomen farmers.

MALAWI: WOMEN'S AND MEN'S PARTICIPATION IN FARMERS' CREDIT CLUBS. 1983-91

260

240

220

200

180

160

140

120

100

80

60

14°20

111

111111111111

Men III Women

1983-84 1984-85 1985-86 1986-87 1987-88 1988-89 1989-90 1990-91

(Agricultural Year)

Source ;ACA

Advanced training was provided to staffmembers of the Women's Program tostrengthen the program's overall institutionalcapacity. Two senior Women's Program staffmembers attended courses in the UnitedStates, and two went to Swaziland for cours-es on project planning. Ten staff membersparticipated in study tour of income-gener-ation projects in Kenya and Zambia, and in-country training was also provided.

.77.7777, 377.7.7,777.

13E4 VSA\D COWPEAS: A Collaborative Research Support Program

Worldwide. but mainly in developing countries. 10.3 millionhectares arc devoted to producing beans, and 7.7 millionhectares to producing cowpeas. The two crops provide animportant dietary component (protein) for many of theworlds poorest people. The crops are readily adaptable topoor marginal soils and low, erratic rainfall areas wherepopulation pressure is forcing more intensive farming.'Women play a crucial role in the production of beans andcowpeas in Africa and in harvesting and processing bothcrops in Latin America.

In 1979, A.I.D. launched its Beans Cowpeas CollaborativeResearch Support Program (CRSP) to supply basic researchin biotechnology areas that have tremendous worldwidepotential. CRSP is also generating simple technologies such asimproved varieties, cultivation practices, control of field andstorage insects, and improved nutrition.

A.I.D. has mandated that CRSP give substantive consider-ation to the human components of farinins., systems,especially to the unique and multiple toles played by

"74!-C`t., ;71.7.,,Is, ,,

'E,AlfV;

women. men, and children. An FY 1991 external evaluationconcluded that consideration of gender issues "appears tohave been taken into account in all of the program'srelevant components. The inclusion of gender as an impor-tant issue has been carried out in a manner which serves to .support the programmatic research efforts of the biologicalscientists, rather than intrude on them. The program doesnot evidence any of the strains that often develop whenbiological scientists are mandated to confront the pertinentWID issues of their research programs.-

In some cases. CRSP research agendas have been success-fully re-oriented after careful consideration of the role ofgender. Women have been recruited as research staffmembers. and 41.1 percent of the 153 long-term traineeswho had completed their graduate programs by FY 1901were women. CRSP includes and emphasizes its concernwith women in development issues in its informationalmaterials. repeatedly highlighting the critical role of womenas producers. especially in Africa.

1'

Environment and Natural Resource Management

Coastal Zones and Other Water Resources"91r SAlD's goals in this area 0 f development

assistance are to:Strengthen the ability of developing

countries to carry out integrated coastalresource management programs: and

Help produce sustainable income from watershedsand coastal resources.

Coastal zones already contain more than tip percentof the world's people and are projected to have thegreatest population growth over the next 20 years. Theseareas are vital centers of tourism and transportation. aswell asindustry. fishing. and agriculture. Yet thesefragile. biologically productive areas are being rapidldegraded. In the Philippines. for example. -0-W percent

of coastal wetlands have been destroyed orseverely degraded. Economic developmentin many countries depends largely cm lumcoastal areas are used and managed. conser-vation and use of these zones involves simul-taneously addressing a broad spectrum ofenvironmental, social. cultural. and institu-tional factors.

Women use marine resources for foodand cash products. Fish products. coralshells, and sponges are sold to tourists.Women also make and repair nets and trapsin many areas. Their role is important indeveloping new techniques for small-scalefishing. marketing new or alternative varietiesof species. and conserving resources.

Both women and men li ing in watershedareas are stakeholders in the process ofincreasing the quality and quantity of usablewater on a sustainable basis. Their stakesmay differ because of gender responsibilities.however, which must be considered inplanning assessments. monitoring, fieldtrials, and technology. Training and technicalassistance Also must include both men andwomen to maximize the sustainabilitY ofintervention strategies.

Krter Resource Management: KE,V}A

Ecology, Community Organization, and Gender (ECOGEN), aWID Office project.'works to strengthen the effective delivery ofdevelopment assistance by studying the division of labor betweenmen and women, their participation in community institutions thatdeal with natural resource management, and resource use and access.

In a recent project, an ECOGEN team worked with colleagues fromKenya's National Environmental Secretariat to conduct a case study inthe South Nyanza district in western Kenya. The team discoveredsevere sanitary, nutritional, and health problems that were linked tothe poor quality of waternotably diarrhea and dehydration amongchildren. The team realized that the best way to address the problemwould be to educate the district's women and help strengthen thei:.influence, since it was their responsibility to handle the water and tocare for the sick. What the women lacked was the knowledge thatimpure water is linked to disease.

ECOGEN's study prompted UNICEF to send professionals to thearea to train women as health workers and to begin an educationprogram underscoring the link between clean water, sanitation, andhealth. Thanks to the work of ECOGEN and UNICEF, women willnow participate in community decision making about these issues.

Looking AheadA.I.D.'s work in all areas ofthe Environment and NaturalResource Strategy emphasizes

policy analysis and policy dialoguew ith host governments. Becausepolicy Work takes place at a more-macro. level than protect activities.adequate assessment of gender dd.-ferenc es in poll( y impact and implementation is sometimes difficult.

To address policy issues moresystematically. the \ \'l 1) Office hasbegun development of a policyanalysis process in collaborationwith the R 1) Bureau s Fn ronmentmid Natural Resources Offices.This w ill permit the identificationof critical entry points m the policyprocess and the design of relatedre,,carch quesrlons to be addressed

6 7

by ongoing A 1.1). projects.The WID Office is also deg elop-

ing closer collaboration with a majorenvironmental education project and

environmental health protect.These efforts will strengthen ) inthe urban and industrial pollutionarea and in community-basedenvironniental education.

he l)emocracvInitiative launched byA.I.D. in December199u is fundamentallyimportant to thegoals 01 the Agen/Awomen in develop-

ment policy. The promotion of

popular participation in politics aswell as in the economy could createunprecedented on(ortunities fni

women to contribute to thedevelopment of their countries.

since 1990, over 20 Africancountries have taken steps towardpolitical pluralism. f,imilarlY. inLatin America. where a decade agmany countries were ruled by

military dictatorships. all but two arenow headed 1w democraticallyelected go ernments. New democra-cies have been established through-

68

In Kenya. Betty Njeri Tett was among the

-00 candidates who competed for 188

contested seats in the Lountry's Parliament.

out Eastern Europe and the former,,oviet l.nion. In Asia. too. countriessuch as Nepal and Cambotlia aretaking steps toward democracy.

As emergent democracies strugglewith the transition to greater repre-sentation and participation in both

Democracy and Governance

the political and economic spheres.men and women are experiencingthis process differently. In thedeveloping world. women arevirtually absent from nationallegislatures and higher levels ofgovernment. many factors have

worked together to prevent womenfrom contributing to the politicalprocess and policy making. Theseinclude the burden of women'sresponsibilities both in and out ofthe home. established patterns ofhousehold decision making.limitations on women'slower rates of literacy and school-level attainment relative to men,discriminatory laws barring equallegal status with men, and unequalaccess to economic opportunities.Women are also often less infOrmedthan men of their rights and morevulnerable to human rights abuses.

Consequently, women may facegreater hurdles in taking full advan-tage of their countries' democratictransitions. Moreover, evidence fromseveral East European and newindependent states of the formerSoviet Union shows that some of thenegative. transitional side-effects of

the shift from a centralized economyto a market economysuch asunemployment and cutbacks inchild daycareare having a greaternegative impact on women.

Highlights,FY s 1991 and 1992

The Agency' < Democracy Initiative.begun in December 1990, sup-pons efforts in Ala-assisted

countries to strengthen democraticinstitutions. processes, and values. InFY 1991. obligations in this area ofAID. assistance were $209 million.

As this new dimension in U.S.development assistance begins tobe implemented. work has alsobegun to ensure that democratiza-tion projects and programs involvewomen and support the Agency'soverall effort to enhance women'sstatus and integration into nationaleconomies. in fact. the fourfocal areas of the Initiativerepresentation. human rights.lawful governance. and democraticvaluesaddress crucial and long-standing harriers to women's fullparticipation in development.

69

Representation. The virtualabsence of any representation ofwomen and their concerns innational policy making has oftenresulted in misdirected developmentefforts that fail to take women'sroles into) account.

Human Rights. The lack ofattention to women's rightssuchas the right to own property, travelfreely. enter into contracts. and livefree from physical abusehas sig-nificantly hindered women's oppor-tunities to improve their own livesas well as their children's. Refugeeand displaced women face a partic-ular danger of human rights abuses.

Lawful Governance. Womenthroughout the developing worldare cut off from the judicial processbecause they lack the funds orknow-how to file claims. do notspeak the national language. orsimply are unable to travel far toreach a courthouse. As a result,millions of women endure domesticabuse, illegal discrimination. andunjust economic deprivation.

Democratic Values.Addressing the need for civil author-ity over the militai and peacefulresolution of disputes is of vitalconcern to womenwho, alongwith their children. comprise thevast majority of the victims in timesof war and civil unrest.

The WID Office in FY 1992embarked on a major analysis ofall approaches to the DemocracyInitiative currently under waythroughout the Agency. Thisresearch culminated in early 1993with the manual. nenincracT andGender .-1 Practical (;teicle to I :SA/I)Programs. Aimed to assist in theinstitutionalization of a gender per-spective in the I >emocracv Initiative.the manual offers step-by-stepguidancefront election assistance

to legal reformu) the successfulinclusion of gender in DemocracyInitiative programs. It serves as anexcellent starting point for missionsand bureaus working to craft realisticand gender-aware democracy pro-grams. implementation strategies.and evaluation designs. The mainobjectives of the guide are to ensurethat gender concerns are a seriouspart of the strategic planning of alldemocratic initiatives, and that across - section of local women andwomen's groups participates in allstages of the design. implementation.and evaluation of such programs.

Meanwhile, several A.1.D. bureauand mission initiativesoftenundertaken jointly with the WIT)Officeare addressing the role ofgender in democracy projects andprograms. Generally these initiativessupport the work of local groupsexperienced in successful approach-es to meeting the needs of womenin their own communities.

In Africa. for example, the WEDOffice and the Bureau for Africa inFY 1992 provided joint funding toWomen in Law and Development inAfrica (W1LDAF), a regional networkat the forefront of endeavors toprovide legal education and buildgrassroots leadership skills amongwomen. WILDAF works inAfrican countries to enhance thestatus of women through legalprograms such as legal rightsawareness, legal reform, and legalaid. A.I.1). support helped to pro-duce training manuals for legaleducation providers who are notlawyers and to conduct trainingworkshops tor newly recruitedW1L1)AF trainers. The manuals arepart of a strategy to help counteractthe lack of women lawyers inW11.DAF-targeted countries bypreparing ni in lawyers to offer

training and guidance in legal issuesto women in need. VILDAF leadersheld the workshops to increase thenumber of trainers skilled in genderand legal analysis, legal programdesign, participatory literacymethods and skills, developmentof simple legal literacy materials forsemi-literate audiences. programevaluation. organization building,and community mobilization.

A.1 .D. also administered a jointState Department. liumanRights Grant in FY 1992 to theFederation of Women Lawyers inLesotho. The grant provides fundingfor the organization to carry outhuman rights and legal rightsawareness activities. The Federationhas already translated its booklet,Women awl the Law in Lesotho, intothe main local language, and it haslaunched a media campaign to raisethe legal and human rights aware-ness of both women and men.V'ith national elections pending, theFederation holds village meetings toad% ise women of their voting rights.

CSA1D/Afghanistan's democracyprogram provided major fundingin FY 1992 for activities specificallytargeting women. One of the high-est priorities is literacy training toencourage civic participation. Thetraining specifically targets Afghanwomen. 91 percent of whom areilliterate.

Both Nepal and Sri Lankal'SAID Missions hosted a womenin development team in FY 1992 toreview their democracy programs.The team, comprising the Bureau

,-i 1.1) assistance suppwis loco'programs that help advise women (ytheir toting tights and prartafe them awl)mlarmation that enables them to makePnouledgeable chotco

for Asia's new \X'ID Advisor anda specialist from the W11) Office.offered recommendations on maysto increase the opportunities forwomen's full participation andrepresentation in a pluralistic andopen society. The team alsoreviewed the overall democracyprogram to assure that all future workincorporates gender considerations.

.."7411m -41k ;4161K*

MIN

,e.

Elections and Gender

In preparing for and managing an election, considerationneeds to be given to the special needs of disadvantagedgroups, such as the uneducated and illiterate, minority or

ethnic groups, lower castes, people who do not speak thenational language, indigenous and rural people, and women.The situation of women will tend to be more complex thanthose of other disadvantaged categories because the limitationsplaced on women's participation are likely to be the least visibleto the analyst's eye. At the conclusion of an election, we do notsimply want to know that it was peaceful and orderly. We alsowant to know who the voters were . . . and who was elected,in order to learn from those findings.

Some Gender Questions for Election Monitors:

Are women constrained to vote as they are told by the headof the household or other, extended social unit?Do cultural constraints prevent women from mixing withmen in public?Are women more constrained than men by the fact that theyhave very limited access to information on which to basedecisions?

Are women more constrained than men by the fact that theyare less literate or do not speak the national language?

Are women free to move about, and do they get time awayfrom home and work to learn about or vote or becomeinvolved in politics in any way?

Are women allowed, and is it practical for them, to stand forelections and to participate in party politics?How are women's perspectives and needs channelled tolegislative bodies?

excerpts from Democracy and Gender.A Practical Guide to USAID Programs

In Eastern Europe. A.I.D. wasone of the first donors to identifyand examine gender issues in Polandand Jlungary during their transitionstoward a market- economy system.The resulting two reports. issuedin FY 1991, are assisting A.I.D. withintegrating gender considerationsinto the development of Agencyprograms in Central and Eastern

Europe. The Poland stud, forexample. found that current trendsin women's unemployment makeit important to ensure women'sequal access to vocational trainingopportunities. More sex-disaggregaleddata and institutional supporth mr community -based women'sgroups are also needed in bothcountries.

In Latin America. theWID Officeand the A.I.D.'s Regional !lousingand Urban Development funded atwo-year Women and MunicipalitiesProject with the International I.of Local Authorities in nine countries(Argentina. Bolivia. Brazil. Chile.Colombia. Ecuador. Paraguay, Peru.and Venezuela) to strengthen theintegration of gender considerationsinto municipal-level policy making.The mid-term evaluation of this pro-ject in October 1992 (conducted byan independent Latin Americanevaluator) concluded that the projecthas been successful in promoting therole of women and is assisting withthe improvement of the quality oflife of local populations and with theadvancement of social reforms.

The project brought togethermunicipal council members and gov-ernment officials with representativesfrom nongovernmental organizations.grassroots groups, and researchcenters to discuss gender issuesin municipal-level policy making.Country-specific research was carriedout and the findings presented atinternational workshops. The firstworkshop. held in Quito. Ecuador.in March 1991, provided basic infor-mation on experiences related to theparticipation of women in decisionmaking at the local community level.The seminar led to the establishmentof the Network on Women, theNIunicipality. and Local Developmentto increase the international coordi-nation and flow of inftirmation onWO/1)(21) and municipalities.

The entire process has heightenedawareness of the experiences,achio. ements, obstacles. and anousstrategies of women participating inthe process of local policy formula-tion. A considerable commitmenthas been found on the pan of

Democracy and Governance

Latin American NGOs in setting upconcrete programs in order topromote the equality of women intheir local decision-making bodies.Local development handbooks onthe incorporation of gender in theformulation of municipal policieshave made a major contribution tostimulating understanding of theimportance of introducing the topicof gender.

According to a mid-term evalua-tion conducted by an independentLatin American evaluator in October1992. the project has created "adeepening in the development ofbasic gender concepts. local devel-opment. public policies, and demo-cratic participation.- The evaluationreported that "most of the personsinterviewed . . suited that, withregard to the tasks and research oftheir respective organizations.gender as a conceptual approachhas had a definite influence and hasenriched all their proposals.-

In Guatemala. innovative featuresin two ("SAID Mission projects areincreasing rural women's access tothe justice system. Pilot courts arebeing developed that utilize bilingual(Spanish Mayan) court personnel.court volunteers who provide legaloutreach in rural communities. andan informal interviewing process tosupplement formal court procedures.While these are also important forrural men. they are critical forwomen, who often speak onlyMayan dialects. are less able thanmen tos travel to take advantage oflegal services. and are sometimesintimidated by formal courtproceedings.

In the Near East. I 'SAIL) Jordanand the WID Office responded tothe request of Jordan's PrincessBasma Hint 'Fatal to assist inpreparing a -arategic plan of action

forfordan's National Women sCommittee. This and other activitiesin the region related to women'slegal rights and participation aredescribed in this Report's section onthe Bureau for the Near East (p. 21).

Looking AheadThe WID Office will continueproviding assistance to allbureaus and offices to

strengthen A.I.D.'s expertise inbringing women into democratiza-tion processes. Roughly 20 percentof WID Office funds for FY 1993 arededicated to these efforts.

One major new initiative for the\\1D Office is a 5-year project topromote women's political participa-tion in the Asia-Pacific Region.Implemented through the AsiaFoundation and co-funded by theYID Office zsnd the Asia Bureau, theproject seeks to develop women'spolitical leadership in the region:reduce formal and informal barriersto women's political participation:make the policy making processmore responsive to the concernsof women: and create networksbetween individuals and organiza-tions who are working to increasewomen's political participation. Theproject will offer training and otherskills-enhancing services to Asianwomen leaders. sponsor workshopsto bring government and NGOrepresentatives together to raiseawareness of women's concerns.and prostitute legal relowni. voterregistration. and other activities tofurther women's political participa-tion in Asia.

A growing priority for the WIDOffice is the situation of refugee anddisplaced women. These women areoften highly vulnerable to humanrights abuses and usually in need of

6 / 72

assistance to meet both their ownand their families' protection, healthcare, and subsistence needs. Over40 million people in the worldtoday have been uprooted byconflict: not surprisingly, aboutone-quarter live in female-headedhouseholds. While both men andwomen suffer the brutal conse-quences of conflict, women arefrequently more vulnerable tosexual abuse and violence. Refugeeand displaced women also playcentral roles in food distribution andin sustaining household fuel andwater supplies.

In the past. the WID Office sup-ported policy research on refugeeand displaced women. It is nowexpanding its work to includeadvocacy and direct involvement inprogram implementation. The Officeparticipates in various emergencyworking groups (e.g., on Sudan.Somalia. and the former Yugoslavia)and is becoming more directlyinvolved in providing technical andfinancial assistance to victims ofconflict. In December 1992, forexample. the WID Office workedclosely with the Office of ForeignDisaster Assistance to assure that theespecially vulnerable situation ofSomali women would be taken intoaccount during U.S. assistanceoperations in Somalia. The Office isalso working with the Bureau forEurope and the Office of Health toassist women's groups both in andoutside former Yugoslavia who canprovide protection and support fortraumatized women and theirfamilies.

Throughout the devel-oping world. womenplay key roles in pro-tecting the health andnutritional status offamilies. They areresponsible for provid-

ing three-quarters of all health carereceived in developing cc tuntries.and they grow roughly So percent ofall fot id produced in the developing

( Md.

At the same little. \\ omen them-selves are highly vulnerable to poor

health and malnutrition. ! heavy workburdens. poverty, discrimination inaccess to food and health care, and.in many settings, few if any opportu-nities to increase their income allcombine to adversely affect thehealth and nutritional status ofwomen and girls. In many societies,early pregnancies make adolescentgirls especially susceptible to healthproblems. and adult women's multi-ple work roles in the household andcommunity put added stress on theirnutritional and health status.

Millions of worn-ten die each Yearfrom easily preventable causes. Foradult women. a major cause of deaththroughout the developing world ischildbirth. or maternal mortality.Approximately -',00.000 women dieeach year in childbirth -99 percentof them in developing countries.One in every 200 pregnancies in thedeveloping world (compared to onein every 40.0(X) in the developedcountries) results in a maternal death.

Today. -80 million people indeveloping countries-20 percent ofthe populationremain malnour-ished, and most are women and chil-dren. Vast numbers of women areunderweight --W percent in SouthAsia. 45 percent in Southeast Asia.and 20 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa.Some two billion persons in thedeveloping worldprimarily womenof reproductive agesuffer fromanemia.

Cultural factors often work tocompound women's poor healthstatus. In many societies, women andgirls eat what is left after the menand boys have eaten first. The major-ity of young women in many Africancountries still undergo some form oftraditional genital mutilation. whichfrequently results in life-threateninginfections and severe reproductiveand health complications for life.Problems of access to health care

'take varied forms. For example, inmany regions the overwhelmingmajority of health care providers aremen, making women reluctant to usehealth services because of traditionalprohibitionsand highlighting theneed for training more womenprimary health care providers.

In FYs 1991 and 1902. A.I.D.'shealth and nutrition programs contin-ued to focus on extending services to

anen and children at the locallevel. well over 90 percent of thebeneficiaries of nutrition pro-

grams are women and children.Women of reproductive age are amajor target group of the Agency'shealth and nutrition programs.Beyond this, new initiatives focus onthe health and nutrition needs ofwomen in their o' n right, apart fromtheir roles as health and nutritionproviders. The following are just afew highlights of these programs.

,1.1.D. 's .1Iaternal andChild Health andNutrition Noganns

The WIN Project (Women andInfant Nutrition Support: AFamily Focus) assists develop-

ing countries with their efforts toimprove infant feeding practices andto reduce malnutrition in women andyoung children. A major WIN Projectcomponent is the promotion ofbreastfeeding through the training ofhealth professionals. As of October1992. 381 health professionals from95 teaching hospitals in 30 countrieshad received training in the UnitedStatesand 283 of them werewomen. These professionals have inturn trained 100.000 health workers(most of them women t in their owncountries. At a cost of about sevencents per mother. these professionalshave reached ()4.5 million mothers indeveloping countries with informa-tion about breastfeeding.

The Office of I fealth's .lotherCareProject has continued to provideassistance to lower the maternal mor-tality rate. Activities in FYs 1991 and1992 included:

Training traditional birth atten-dants, midwives, and other healthworkers in screening and referral ofhigh-risk pregnancies and life-savingdelivery skills:

Strengthening referral systemsbetween traditional birth attendants.

midwives, health centers, and hospi-tals, and improving prenatal care:

Communication and educationactivities for women to increase theiruse of prenatal care and self-care,with greater awareness of dangerousconditions:

Integration of maternity carewith family planning: and

Treatment of infectious andsexually transmitted diseases: and

Provision of iron t( late supple-ments to reduce maternal anemia.

One highlight of the MotherCareProject is the success of activitiesin Guatemala. Initiated in theQuetzaltenango region in July1990. the Project aims to combatGuatemala's high infant mortality rate(7'3.4 deaths per 1.000 live births)and high maternal mortality rate(estimates range from 100 to 1.700maternal deaths per 100,000 livebirths). In Guatemala. traditionalbirth attendants are the only healthcare providers present at some-0 percent of all births, and they aretraditionally accorded high staticswithin their communities. Yet theyreceive little recognition or supportfrom the national health care systemand rarely have working relationshipswith area health care professionals.

The Quetzaltenango Maternal andNeonatal Health Project attempts toprovide a "Guatemalan solution" topriority maternal and neonatal healthproblems with currently availablelocal resources and health staff. Theprogram is unique in its two-partapproach: While traditional birthattendants are trained to identify spe-cific danger signs that put a pregnantwoman or her child at risk. hospitalstaff are sensitized to the conditionsunder which rural women are givingbirth and the important role of tradi-tional birth attendants. By December1992. the Project had trained some

Health and Nutrition

100 traditional birth attendants ineffective means to manage high-riskcases. Preliminary evidence pointsto a significant drop in the region'sneonatal mortality rate and a strongincrease in the rate of referral ofhigh-risk cases u> hospitals.

The Nepal Nutrition InterventionProject in Sarlahi NNIPS) wasinitiated in FY 1992 to respond to theestimated -0 neonatal deaths per 100live births and to 9 maternal deathsper 1.000 live births in that country.

NIPS will determine whether thelarge number of fetal. early infant.and maternal deaths that occur eachYear in Nepal can he measurablyreduced by ensuring that mothershave sufficient vitamin A before. dur-ing. and after pregnancy. Sono; -100locally hired and trained female resi-dents will be assigned a specificnumber of households to visit eachweek for three to four years to moni-tor various factors, including the vita-min A status of both mothers andinfants. and to distribute vitamin Asupplements.

In FY 1991, A.I.D. helped developa Caring Rural Mothers program inYemen as well as the first familyhealth education drama ever present-ed by Yemeni women. According to

Dr. Al Hamly. Yemen's DirectorGeneral of I lealth Education. theprogram worked to -provide a newdirection for health education inYemen.-

A.1.1).'s health and child survivalprograms have benefited mothersthroughout the developing world. InFY 1991. the program in Bolivia. forexample. reached an average of51,05- mothers and 95.552 preschoolchildren per month. The participantsreceived supplementary feeding.training, and health services.

AssistingWbnienCIS WomenNot as Mothers Onlr

As crucial actors in theeconomies of their countriesand as individuals in their

own right, women need access tohealth care and to improved nutri-tion. Women's lower status andhigher vulnerability to health prob-lems and malnutrition in the devel-oping world call for greater attentionto their needs throughout the lifecyclenot just during their repro-ductive years. In FYs 1991 and 1992.A.I.D. took se% oral first steps to help

meet women'shealth and nutritionneeds at all stages

r of their lives.Over the past

two years. 1.1.1)..seffort to addresssexually transmitted

0 diseases (STI)s) inwomen hasevolved fromawareness andrecognition of theproblem towardprevention andtreatment. 121' 1901obligations to

75

prevent STDs totaled 552.() million(including condom procurements of539.1 million), based on mission andcooperating-agency estimates. Aftercondom distribution, most of theassistance was for prevention andtreatment. Many of the projects andactivities targeted to women weresmall-scale and at the pilot stage.Through the STD DiagnosticsInitiative, the Office of I lealth is sup-porting research and development ofrapid. inexpensive, and simple 511)diagnostic tests for use in resource-poor settings.

In FY 1991, AID. funds went tothe National Council of Women ofKenya to support seminars to edu-cate women about the health hazardsrelated to traditional female practices.The group trained one person ineach of seven districts to coordinateactivities and organize seminars. Theseminars brought women leaders,social workers, school administrators,family health care workers, churchrepresentatives, government officials.and NGO staff members together tolearn about and discuss women'shealth issues surrounding traditionalpractices.

In Eastern Europe, A.I.D. in FY1991 began to collaborate withPrc;:ect 1 -lope to improve health careservices for infants, children. andwomen in Poland. Hungary. andCzechoslovakia. In the area ofwomen's health. the Project is devel-oping national reporting forms. train-ing programs. regional perinatalprograms. and health promotion pro-grams. It is also establishing mlionaland regional committees to reviewmortality and morbidity data .is wellas data on cervical and breast cancer.

In FY 1092, l'SAID Bolivia andthe \\ IN Project used a gender per-spective to improve the mum k maibenefit of a food-fr)r-w ork prograrnin El Alto. the largest suc It prop am

in the country. Food for -work pro-grams use PI. 48o Title II tOod aid aspayment to local laborers workingon projects benefiting the local com-munity (for example. on large infra-structure projects). In situations ofserious economic upheaval or foodinsecurity. these programs allow U.S.assistance programs to generateemployment. improve infrastructure.and provide sources of nutritionwithout depending heavily on mone-tary resources.

In El Alto. 80 percent of the pro-ject's employees are women. Whenan A.I.D. assessment calculated thecosts to these women of participatingin the program (including expendedenergy, time, and money for trans-port and tools), it became clear thatthe net nutritional benefit to themand their families could he signifi-candy enhanced.

The Mission is now implementingthe study's recommendations. Childcare and feeding centers are beingincorporated into the program.Where this enables women withinfants to work without carrying theirchildren on their backs, the reducedlevel of energy expended by thewomen may benefit both their ownnutritional status and that of theirinfants. The project is now providingthe tools required for the labor.reducing the financial burden onworkers. who can then use the say-ings for household needs. The tasksrequired for each ration are beingreduced, and a training component isto be added to increase some of theparticipants earning power once theyleave the fog d-for-w ork program.

This A.1.D. assessment. which wasthe first to look at the nutritionalimpact of f<iod-for -work programs.can now be used as it global modelfOr similar studies. '('he work con-firmed that. to optimize the fotsecurity and nutritional effects of

food-for-work programs (even withinthe context of a programs otheremployment and construction goals),gender considerations must be takeninto account.

Several major research projectswere undertaken focusing onwomen's health and nutrition issues.In 1991. A.I.D. launched itsAdolescent Girls' Nutrition ResearchProgram to fill the gap in informationavailable to guide the formulation ofpolicies and programs to improvethe nutritional status of adolescentgirls. Nutrition programs targetingadolescent girls not only reduce therisks of pregnancy-related malnutri-tion. but also help girls to becomemore aware of their social andeducational opportunities and tomanage their future family and food-purchasing responsibilities moreeffectively. This research programwill provide needed information onfactors that affect adolescents' nutri-tional status. including family struc-ture. girls' educational attainmentlevels. economic and social status.self-perception. physical growth,morbidity, food intake. energyexpenditure. and intra-householdfood distribution.

Research results will help to iden-tifv ways in which programs canmost effectively reach adolescentgirls. A total of eleven research pro-jects are currently under way in ninecountries: Jamaica, Mexico, Equator,Guatemala. Nepal. India. thePhilippines. Cameroon, and Benin.The studies will be completed inSeptember 1993. An analysis of thefindings, including implications forfuture nutrition programs. will bepresented at a conference of key pol-icy makers, including representativesfrom A.I.1).. the World Bank, and theWorld Ilea Ith Organization. in 1994

Studies sponsored by the Officeof Nutrition in FYs 1991 and 1992

76

I/0 1'1,m

examine the effects of selected poli-cies and programs on women'shealth and nutritional status. Oneresearch team analyzed the effects ofa wide variety of policiesincludingcommercial agriculture. agriculturalprice policies, and macroeconomicadjustment policies. The study willinform the design of future programsin these areas.

Other qualitative research lookedat the decision making process forfood purchase and preparation with-in the household. Findings that menand women respond to variousincentives differently imply that nutri-tion education messages must takethese differences into account inorder to he effective.

In FY 1991, the Office of Healthsponsored a study on the socioeco-nomic and health problems affectingmiddle-aged and older women.Within 30 years. citizens of today'sdeveloping countries will account for-2 percent of people over the age of55. and the majority in this agegroup will be women. Formulatinghealth policy for older women willbe particularly importantnot leastbecause older women make enor-mous cow, ibunons to their familiesand society through child nurturing.home production, market work. andmanagement of household. business.and community endeavors.

omen andALD"AIDS is very much a women's issueand a development issue."

Ann Vern Dusen.Director Office of Heald.)

major new priority in the work of theOffice of Women in Development isaddressing the growing impact of AIDSOn women in the developing world.The rate of growth at which womenare being infected with AIDS is nowrising Caster than that for any other

group. 'Throughout the world. young women 15 to 2 4

years old are most at risk. One reason infection rates areincreasing among young girls is because men are seek-ing younger partners to avoid AIDS. Today. 40 percentof all of those infected with the HIV virus arc women.compared to 25 percent in 1990. By the year 2000.nearly co percent of those infected worldwide areexpected to be women.

In a recent study in Uganda. 34 percent of womentested were HIV positive. compared with 21 percent ofmen tested. In Rwanda. one-quarter of all women enter-ing an urban clinic tested positive. The latest statisticsreveal that in Africa women are being infected at a rateof two to one over men.

Women are up to ten times more susceptible thanmen to contracting the HIV virus through heterosexualintercourse. Women with AIDS also survive for shorterperiods of time than mennot because of biological dif-ferences, but because they generally have less access todrugs and health care.

Experts agree that prevention strategies gearedtoward women must address crucial issues specific towomen's status in society. First. many women are beinginfected with the disease because of the high-riskbehavior of their male partners. Second. women in thedeveloping world who participate in high-risk behaviorthemselves often do so for economic reasons, sellingsexual fa% ors in order to buy food or even to paytheir school fees. AIDS prevention programs need totake such economic linkages into account. Third.

the loss tylroung crdrrlt, to :1 /1).ti is placingOlomouc additional burdens ten the ()hi

cpectedh. elth11) 11.nmen. lulu) an, caranu;1). the ill

as well as Ow oyanis and (lit/diva le/i behind

while condoms are seen as the most effective meansof prevention short of abstinence. women have nodirect control over their use. Women also have theirown attitudes toward condoms. What is needed is moreattention by funders and researchers to preventiontechniques for women.

Beyond prevention issues. there is also a need tofocus on the broader and social economic implicationsof the increasing proportion of women with AIDS.Women are having to cope with the effects of AIDS ontheir households and communities. More elderly womenare haying to take care of children and grandchildrenorphaned by AIDS. and young women afflicted with thedisease are struggling to care for themselves and theirchildren.

The toll on the younger generation will he heavy. :\woman infected with AIDS has roughly a 30 percentchance of passing the disease on to her child. As more

mothers die of the disease. an increasing number ofchildren become orphans. Africa will have some10 million AIDS orphans by the year 2000. Losing amother to AIDS has a direct effect on the survival of achild: infants who lose their mothers have a 95 percentchance of dying within the first year of their lives.

A.I.D.'s Response to AIDSBeginning in FY 1992, the WID Office began workto help ensure that A.I.D.'s two global AIDSprojectsAIDSCAP (AIDS Control and Prevention)

and AIDSCOM (AIDS Communicationsiare addressingthe special AIDS issues of concern to women. \VIDOffice funds are sponsoring senior gender specialists onboth protects. The specialists will be focusing on:

Appropriate intervention strategies for women andeducation strategies to reach female adolescents;

Cost-effective social support systems that addressthe specific needs of women and female-headed house-holds affected by AIDS:

Utilization of nongovernmental organizations todeliver AIDS messages and counseling;

Income-generating activities, education, counseling,and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases for younggirls and vulnerable groups forced into prostitution;

The potential efficacy of viricides and other barriermethods, such as female condoms; and

The human rights of women diagnosed HIV-positive.In FY 1992, A.I.D. began funding 1-7 projects in devel-

oping countries to identify factors that put women at riskof HIV infection and opportunities for HIV prevention.Of the 1- projects. 7 are in Sub-Saharan Africa, 5 inAsia and the Pacific, and 4 in Latin America and theCaribbean. Results of the studies will be ready in 1993.Preliminary findings highlight the many constraints thatwomen face in protecting themselves against infection.The studies have also identified ways to help them do sothrough support and discussion groups and by cooperat-ing with respected women elders within the communityto promote AIDS awareness. Specific projects have alsoreached women in factories, schools, and communityhealth centers, as well as grassroots women's groups.

Under AIDSCOM, an A.I.D. project in Rio cle Janeirohelped women at risk develop a radio station, RadioMimosa. to broadcast messages promoting the use ofcondoms and AIDS prevention.

One known factor putting women at increased riskof 11W infection is the high pi evalence of sexually

BRAZIL:

Preventing AIDSAmong Womenat Risk

In Rio de Janeiro's walled village of VilaMimosa, where -14 brothels and more than800 prostitutes conduct a hustling business.

Radio Mimosa broadcasts music, drama, andmessages to promote the use of condoms andAIDS prevention. Radio Mimosa is particularlyunique in that the women themselves areinvolved in the production and broadcasting.

The goal of this station is to make condomsboth acceptable and aailable to the brothels'clients while enabling the women to he directlyinvolved in preventing I IIV AIDS. The womenreceive free condoms through the Associationof Prostitutes of Vila Mimosa. An A.I.D. central-ly-funded project provided technical assistanceto an International Planned Parenthood affiliateto develop this project. while USAID Brasiliaprovided funds to purchase broadcastingequipment and to construct a studio.

One of Silo Paulo's two largest newspapers.Gera/. reported preliminary success in increas-ing the acceptance and use of condoms amongwomen and their clients. Between lanuary1991 and February 1992. research found thatthe percentage of prostitutes who resisted con-dom use dropped from 46 percent to 16 per-cent. During the same period, the percentageof women who did not have sex if clientsrefused to use condoms climbed from 22 per-cent to 63 percent. With A.1.D. assistance, theproject will publish the results of this evalua-tion to help replicate its successes elsewhere.Maria Soares. publisher of the results, hascommented, "Our major triumph (is thatlRadio Mimosa. . . Was created by thewomen themselves.-

transmitted diseases (STDs). Because STDs increase therisk of 111V transmission from 2 to 18 times. A.I.D.'sOffice of Health has joined forces with the InternationalPlanned Parenthood Federation on a new initiative tomake STD services more accessible to women byintegrating STD1IIV prevention into existing familyplanning services.

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expected to reach6 billion in 1998.and over the nextdecade, annualadditions to worldpopulation will

average 9- millionthe largestannual increase in human history.More than half of this growth willhe in Africa and South Asia. A mod-erate estimate of population growthsuggests that population will reach10 billion, or nearly double, by the.ear 2050.

Rapid population growth is thecritical impediment to economic andsocial development and sustainedenvironmental development andconservation. It reduces the possibi-lity that government can keep upwith the need to provide both inureeducation and health services andmore employment opportunities fora growing population.

During the 1980s. countries withslower population growth saw theirper capita incomes grow 2.5'percenta year faster than those with rapidpopulation growth. and they hadhigher savings and investment ratios.Reduced fertility can enable familiesto provide higher levels of educationfor their children. In Thailand. forexample. a child from a family withone or two children is five timesmore likely to receive a secondaryeducation than a child front a familywith six or more children. Wheregirls are better educated, more ofthem obtain employment in the for-mal economy, marriage tends to bedelayed, and concomitant improv,2-inents arc likely in child survival aswell as fertility reduction.

The impact of rapid populationgrowth on the environment andnatural resources has raised seriousquestions about whether develt p-ment efforts can be sustained it

environmental resources are furthercompromised. Population growthcan outstrip the traditional agricul-tural base, and thus contribute torural-urban migration as well asmigration into crit;cal tropical forestecosystems. Rural-urban migration ofmen often leads to an increase offemale-headed households and thefeminization of poverty, with womenincreasingly reliant on children forfarm labor and economic: support.

There arc also compelling reasonsIcif concern about the impact of fer-tility rates on womens reproductivehealth. Closely spaced births, birthsto mothers between the ages of 15and 19 or after the age of 35. andhigh-parity births place both womenand their children at risk. The WorldHealth Organization estimates that.worldwide. sc)irie 500.000 maternaldeaths a year are related to pregnancyand childbirth. The lifetime risk ofmaternal mortality varies substantiallyby geographic regionaveraging1 in 21 in Africa. 1 in 54 in Asia. andI in -3 in South America. This com-pares with an average lifetime risk of1 in 6.366 women in North America.

Maternal mortality can helowered 1w:

Reducing the number of preg-nancies and thus decreasingwomen's exposure to the risk ofmaternal mortality; and

Rec Jut mg the proportion ofpregnan, ies that are high-risk andresult in obstetric complications.

It is clear that widely availablehigh-quality t.utul planning servicescan decrease maternal deaths. Itwomen ( cold an old unwanted births.it is estimated that I- percent of ma-ternal deaths in Africa, 35 percent ofthose in Asia. and 33 percent of thosein Latin America could he presented.

Among nlediC,11 causes ofmaternal mortality. approximately19 percent are due to the medical

complications of illicit inducedabortion. The proportion of allmaternal deaths due to inducedabortion ranges from 6 percent inJamaica to 29 percent in Ethiopia.One of every five women interviewedin maternity centers in Nigeria andGhana said that she had had an illicitabortion. A hospital study in Tanzaniashowed that illicit abortion was theleading cause of maternal death. Theaverage age of the women who diedwas 19 years. It is estimated that theavailability of sate and reliable familyplanning can reduce deaths fromillicit abortion by 50 percent. In the.United States, making legal abortionavailable to all women in 19-3 led toan 82 percent decline in the reportednumber of deaths due toabortion by 19-8.

...LLD. Population,Viyiteur

The primary strategy of A.l.D.'s( )ffice of Population is the pro-vision of high- quality voluntary

family planning services. A.I.D.'sprogram emphaizes the availabilityof a variety of contraceptive methodsand adequate contraceptive suppliesthrough multiple-service deliverychannels

Office of Population effortsincreasingly emphasize the roleot gender in decision making onfamily planning. and the number ofprograms focusing on males as wellas females has been growing. Inaddition, the inclusion of familyplanning within broader reproductivehealth and child survival programs isevident front several projects exam-ined. A.1.D.'s Office of Education( through its promotion of femaleeducation in selected developingcountries) and A 1.D.'s Office otI lealth (through its programs in

(,9

reproductive health and childsurvival are also contributing tofertility reduction.

The following projects. drawnfrom the portfolio of the Office ofPopulation, illustrate A.I.D. popula-tion assistance efforts during theperiod covered in this report.

USAID /Nepal. In Jul 1990.

the government of Nepal and['SAID Nepal began the ChildSurvival Family Planning servicesProject. Nepal. one of the world'spoorest countries, has an infant mor-tality rate of 180 per 1,000 and a lifeexpectancy of only 55 years formales and 53 years for females. Thetotal fertility rate is 5.8 births perwoman and the maternal mortalityrate is 850 per 100.000 live birthsone of the highest rates in SouthAsia. Although the contraceptiveprevalence rate increased from2.3 percent in 1976 to 19 percent in1991. it still remains low in com-parison to neighboring countries.Historically. Nepal family planningprograms have emphasized voluntarysterilization: male and female steril-ization accounts for 86 percent of thecountry's contraceptive prevalence.The Nepalese government supportscontrol of population growth forsocioeconomic development as wellas the integration of health andfamily planning services.

1SAID;Nepal emphasizes thatwomen are the Ministry of Health'sprincipal clients, and that the bestway to reach women is through otherwomen. The female CommunityHealth Volunteer (CHV) program isa major example of this approach.(:ommunity health volunteers arefrontline workers in the overallNlinistry of Health service deliverystrategy. The volunteers are localwomen who, alter 21 days' training.work under the supervision of health

ate

Population

post staff. The volunteers promoteavailable health services (immuniza-tion. family planning. (ART. nutrition.first aid. antenatal care) at the healthpost and mobile clinics. and theyencourage the adoption of preventivehealth practices through mothers'clubs. They are expected to leadand actively participate in mothers'groups whose primary functionsinclude educating Women on mattersrelating to maternal and ch:ld health.Part of the volunteers' role is tocounsel and motivate couples forfamily planning. refer women withside effects for treatment, and main-tain a record-keeping system. As ofJune 1992. 36.000 women CHN-s hadbeen trained.

To enhance the effectiveness ofthe community health volunteers.CSAID Nepal over the past two yearssupported the inclusion of a healthliteracy class component in the CHVprogram. As part of this program.literacy classes were initiated intwo ilakas' (district subdivisions)in Makawanpur District. A total of 50wards were included in the program.

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and at present nearly 1.000 wcimenare receiving literacy training.During FY 1992. the country's centralregion continued to implement thesecond and third phases of the pilotCHV literacy program in twoMakawanpur ilaka health posts.and a third ilaka health post inMakawanpur will begin thefirst-phase. basic literacy course.

In addition to these activities.['SAID Nepal provided a five-yeargrant (1988-1993) to the Center forDevelopment and PopulationActivities country office in Nepal.The objective of the project is toassist in the development of healthand family planning managers.particularly women. In the past threeyears. 5' men and women managershave participated in these trainingworkshops. In addition. CEDPA, Nepalhas made 11 grants to communityprojects. including projects aimingto improve the economic statusof women and to provide familyplanning education.

USAID/Bolivia. The Mission'sReproductive Health Service Projecthas been working since 1990 on athree-year effort to help Boliviaimprove maternal and child healthby reducing the current high levelsof infant. child, and maternal mor-bidity and mortality associated withclosely spaced and other high-riskbirths. Although today over 90 per-cent of the developing world'speople live in countries whose gov-ernments provide family planning.Boliviawhich has the highest ratesof infant and maternal monalit inLatin Americaat prevent has noexplicit government pnigram forfamily planning. Infant mortality iscurrently estimated at 102 deaths per

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1.000 live births, and one child inthree dies before reaching his herFifth birthday. Maternal mortality isestimated to be .480 deaths per100.000 live births (compared to300 deaths per 100.000 live births inCameroon, for example).

A study of the causes of maternalmortality showed that -11 percentoccurred during pregnancyandof these..t5 percent resulted frominfections due to induced abonion.The abortion rate in Bulk is is high:23 per 1.000 women of reproductiveage. At S births per woman. Bolivia'sfertility is also high relative to otherLatin American countries. In addition.high-risk pregnancies to womenunder 20 years of age or older than35 years are common, and -12 percentof births are to women who last gavebirth less than two years before.Resort to family planning is low: only12 percent of women of reproduc-ive age use modern contraceptive

methods, and 18 percent usetraditional methods.

(SAID Bolivia's ReproductiveHealth Service Project will increasethe use of selected reproductivehealth services. which will includemodern family planning methods.including condoms. RDs. and oralcontraceptives, as well as scientificnatural family planning methodsand appropriate breastfeecling prac-tices. \ \'here possible, screeningand referral of cervical cancer andsexually transmitted diseases (SIDS)will also be provided.

The project illustrates a trendtoward the inclusion of family plan-ning within broader reproductivehealth services for women as well astoward closer cooperation amongAID. missions. nongovernmentalorganizations. and host country g()% -emments in the development of pop-ulation assistance pnigrams tailoredto the social and political context.

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USAID/Nicaragua. In Nicaragua.the Family Planning ExpansionProject developed by the Missionexpanding and strengthening thedelivery of family planning services.'Through the training of doctors,nurses. community-based contracep-tive distributors. community leaders.and social workers, this project hasreached an estimated 58.000 users.of whom 99 percent are women. 0(those trained. 31 percent of thedoctors are %%.(Anen (18 out of C9).100 percent of the nurses are women(08 out of 08). 98 percent of thecommunity-based contraceptivedistributors are women (205 out of210). (8 percent of the communityleaders are women (331 out of -490).and 89 percent of the social workersare women (1(- out of 120).

USAID/Dominican Republic has

been supporting a Family PlanningProject since 1980. and in 1992began working with the local familyplanning organizations to design anew, broader family planning andhealth project to begin in 1993. Forthis purpose, the Mission is conduct-ing a comprehensive review of themajor problems facing women inthe Dominican Republic. Genderissues that may he addressed in theN1ission's new Family Planning andlealth Project include:

Male female responsibility forfamily planning.Increased involvement of males.Availability of family planning andhealth services to rural women.Availability of family planning andhealth services at work. andSpecific health problems ofwomen. sue h as breast uterinecancer and sexually transmitteddiseases.

IJSAID /Morocco. In NorthAfricaw here contraceptive pre a-lenc e ranges from o percent in

Confronting Africa's Population Challenge

At the present rate of 3 percent per year, Africa's population isgrowing much faster than that of any other region of the world;by the year 2000in only 8 yearsthe continent is projected

to have a population almost four times its size in 1950. In a large numberof African countries, fertility rates are very high (over 6.5 births perwoman). and the use of modern contraception very low (below10 percent). Only Botswana, Kenya, and Zimbabwe show fertilitydeclines: these successes are due not only to social and economicchanges but also, importantly, to recent policy emphases in thesecountries in support of contraceptive use for health and child-spacing,accompanied by greater access to family planning.

USAID/Kenya. In Kenya, A.I.D. has been providing population andfamily planning assistance since 1972. It initiated a large bilateral programfor a broad range of family planning activities in 1983. As a result of theKenya government's policy, and of A.I.D. and other donors' support.Kenya's popular ion growth rate fell from a high of 3.8 percent a year in1979 to 3.6 percent in 1990; the total fertility rate has dropped from 8children per woman in 1979 to 6.5 children per woman in 1990. Between1979 and 1989, the contraceptive prevalence rate increased from 7 percentto 27 percent. Specific USAID/Kenya program efforts during the past twodecades have included the CORAT Child Survival and Family PlanningProgram (1987-91), which trained community health workers to expandcommunity-based family planning services through Kenyan churches.The program reached 38,080 new family planning clients during its yearsof operation. In addition, funds from A.I.D.'s Office of Population enabledthe Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA) to collabo-rate with Maendeleo l'a \X'anawake, a Kenyan women's organization withhundreds of thousands of members, in the delivery of family planning atthe grassroots. These and other A.I.D. efforts made a major contributionto fertility decline in Kenya.

Lesotho. The Lesotho Family Health Services project, a subprojectof the Bureau of Africa's regional Family Health Initiatives-II Project(1987-91), had as its purpose to assist the government of Lesotho inreducing its population growth rate by strengthening the capacity ofgovernment and selected non-governmental organizations to implementeffective family planning information, education, and communicationprograms. and to improve the delivery of family planning services. Someof the achievements of this project include a 39.5 percent increase in newacceptors of family planning in all reporting health facilities in 1989-90,and an estimated 31 percent increase by 1991. Of employees workingfor this project, 150 women and 18 men received in-country training.In addition, 28 women employed by the project received short-termtechnical training in aspects of family planning management and servicedelivery in Africa or the United States. This project was also managedby a locally hired woman professional.

82

BRAZIL:Lim ite'i ContraceptiveOptions andUneven Access

Brazil's contraceptive prevalence rate-70 percent or more,according to the 1991 Demographic Health Surveyis one ofthe highest rates in Latin America. Yet Brazilian women have

had few options to control their fertility; over 90 percent of contracep-tive prevalence is accounted for by the use of the contraceptive pillor sterilization. As it is difficult for women to obtain information oncorrect use of oral controceptives. there are many unplanned pregnan-cies and a million abortions a year (compared to 4 million live births).

Women who seek more reliable fertility control, even relativelyyoung and low-parity women, seek female sterilizationwhich is oftenperformed in the context of caesarian delivery in order to qualify forreimbursement under public or private health plans. Caesarean deliveryalso provides a cover for the sterilization procedure. which has had anambiguous legal status in Brazil. Women's rights advocates haveexpressed concern about the high prevalence of female sterilization inBrazilpointing out that had safe and reliable temporary alternativesbeen available, along with adequate information about their use, it islikely that fewer women would have opted for sterilization.

Access to reproductive health services, including family planning, iscalled for in Brazil's 1987 constitution. Since 1987, states and munici-palities have responsibility for implementing the national women'shealth program (PAISM), which includes the addition of family plan-ning methods to the Ministry of Health's supply of basic drugs.

A.I.D. population assistance to Brazil during the remainder of the1990s will focus on the underserved poor women of Brazil's Northeast.Data in the 1992 Demographic Health Survey indicates that contracep-tive prevalence in this area is 59 percent (lower than that in the nationas a whole), with great reliance on female sterilization. Between 1986and 1991, female sterilization in the state of Bahia actually increasedfrom 18 percent to 33 percent, while pill use declined from 24 percentto 17.6 percent.

The major objectives of this final phase of A.I.D. populationassistance to Brazil are to:

Improve the quality of family planning services to poorly servedpopulations in this region (through broadening the range of methodsavailable and helping clients use contraceptive methods moreeffectively), and

Provide family planning through sustainable delivery systemsin target areas.

If effective, this program will offt.,. women safe, long-term, andreversible methods of contraception and lessen dependency on femalesterilization and abortion.

Population

Liberia to 38 percent in EgyptMorocco has an overall (rural-urban)contraceptive prevalence rate of36 percent. There is now empiricalevidence of the contribution offamily planning to the status ofwomen. particularly urban women..Urban women's total fertility ratehas fallen to 2.8 per woman, andemployment in the formal sector hasincreased significantly in the pastten years. Within the Ministry ofHealth. women now head the FamilyPlanning Program and the Nlinistry'sIEC effort. and they have assumedleadership of Norplant trials.['SAID Morocco is also continuingto assist with increases in contra-ceptive prevalence in rural areas.particularly among women who live3 or more kilometers from fixedhealth facilities.

Support for the innovativecommunity-based preventive healthcare systemVisites a Domicile deMotivation Systematique ( VDN1S)has provided integrated family plan-ning and preventive maternal-childhealth services to rural areas ofMorocco since by FY 1992.VDMS operated in 51 of Morocco's60 provinces and prefectures,reaching -0 percent of the ruralpopulation. According to the 1987Demographic Health Survey,28 percent of married women ofreproductive age in rural areasserved by the VDMS program wereusing family planning (compared to19 percent in non -VDMS provinces),and a higher percentage of targetclients in these areas were usingmodern methods. A 1990 studyfound that the cost per couple-yearof protection was about .S5 for usersof VDMS services compared to S 13fin users of rural health centersand dipensaries.

Looking ;thew!These projects illustrate anincreasing concern withviewing family planning

service delivery within the broadspectnam of women's reproductivehealth. In addition, as illustrated bythe t'SAID Dominican Republicfamily planning and health protect.assistance efforts \vill increasinglyturn attention to the role of men infamily planning decision making.This should lead to increasing atten-tion paid to the role of gender inpopulation assistance. already evi-denced in the Office of Populationthrough the establishment of a WIDworking group and developmentof an agenda of important genderissues for consideration within eachdivision of the Office.

In1993, the Office of Populationis launching a new research initia-tiveImpact of Family Planning onWomen's Livesto be undertakenin several developing countries.The project will examine the effectsof contraceptive use on women'sability to control other importantaspects of their lives. includingtheir education and employment.In addition. it will examine howemployment within family planningprograms influences a woman'slevel of skill and knowledge, herincome. autonomy. and socialnetwork. This research programpromises to provide a much greaterunderstanding of the impact thatfamily planning has on other aspectsof women's lives, their families, andbroader aspects of socioeconomicdevelopment.

ROMANIA:Private SectorPromotionof Quality Care

In the 1990 Foreign Assistance Act, Congress earmarked $1.5 millionto he used to promote the development of a private sector familyplanning service delivery system in Romania. A.I.D. selected the

Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA) toimplement this program. Family planning services are urgently neededin Romania; women have depended on abortion for fertility control inthe absence of adequate access to modem family planning servicesand safe and reliable means of contraception.

Family planning and abortion were outlawed in the past as part ofthe Ceausescu regime's pronatalist campaign to increase the country'spopulation from 23 to 30 million by the year 2000. In this setting,women were subjected to workplace pregnancy testing; tax penaltieswere levied on low-fertility couples; and the reproductive health edu-cation of medical practioners was limited. Because of the absence ofother means of family planning, as many as 1 million women a year(in a country of 23 million people) resorted to illegal abortion. Oneoutcome was the highest rate of maternal mortality in Europe: 180 per100,000 live births compared to 9 per 100,000 in the United States).

Following the December 1989 revolution, which among other thingslegalized abortion, the maternal death rate dropped significantlyto 60 per 100,000although the abortion rate remained steady atapproximately 1 million per year. Increased access to family planningservices, education, and institutional development were clearly needed.

CEDPA's Romania project is designed to promote comprehensive,high-quality family planning services. In partnership with twoRomanian non-governmental organizationsthe Society for Educationon Contraception and Sexuality (SECS) and the Family PlanningMovement, Vrancea (FPM, V)CEDPA is implementing innovativepolicies to promote women's involvement in reproductive health caredecisions. The project emphasizes clinical training and institution-building assistance and supports outreach and education through themedia, community settings, and in workplaces.

A major achievement has been work with the Romanian Ministry ofHealth on the establishment of a policy allowing general practitioners,many of whom are women. to provide family planning services,prescribe oral contraceptives, and insert IUDs; all of these procedureswere previously restricted to obstetrician-gynecologists, most of whomare men. Five clinics have been opened in the project's first year, with12-15 more due to he opened in the next three to five years.

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T0 foster the growthof domestic technicaland leadershipexpertise in thedevelopmentfield. A.I.D. offers"participant training

programs that provide host-countrynationals with an opportunity toearn advanced degrees or receivetechnical training at internatkmallyrespected institutions in the l'nitedStates and other countries. Most par-ticipants come to the 1.nited Statesunder the auspices of the Thomas

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Jefferson Fellowship Program.through which they enter some ofthe world's most respected trainingcourses and degree programs.

Between FY 199(1 and FY 1992.total participation in theleffermmProgram dropped from 19.000 to13,000. This was due to several fac-tors. including the increased focus ofAfrican missions on in-country andregional training programs: adecrease in participation in the pro-gram by the missions in Pakistan andThailand: and a hiatus between thefirst and second phases of the

85

/tic t'ease'd program flexibility and t.ii;orouspromotion hr county missions halt'eitabieCi /Mire tannen l() take athantagethe l'amcipant Training pro,t4rams that

(fleiN det eloping-co:am:1. nationalsat institutions outside their countries

Caribbean and Latin AmericaScholarship Program. Despite thisdecline, however, the Agencymaintained the 27 percent level ofwomen's participation. thus preser-ing the steady gains achieved since1982 when that proportion hadbeen only 17.8 percent.

Womens participation in theJefferson Program differed con-siderably by region. In 1992.women accounted for 27.5 percentof the participants from Africa.15 percent of those from Asia. and18 percent of those from the NearEast. Of the European participants.r percent were women. Thehighest percentage of womennearly -40 percent of total traineescontinued to he recruited fromthe Latin America Caribbeanregion. This is partly a result ofthe Caribbean and Latin AmericaScholarship Program (CLASP)launched in 1985. The CLASP pro-gram emphasizes training womenand marginalized groups of thepopulation. Many of the CLASPparticipants enter Associate degreeprograms ( 2 years) rather than thestandard degree programs of longerduration.

The contrast between the percent-age of women from Latin Americaand that from other regions isinstructive. It points to the real possi-bility of rapidly increasing the num-ber of women participants lwspecifically targeting a program to dojust that. It also shows that shorterdegree programs are able to attractmore '' omen than those requiringlonger to earn a degree. In 1992.

3( percent of all those enrolled inAssociate degree programs werewomen.

This does not mean that womenare not participating in higherdegree programs. In 1992. 30 per-cent of total students in Bachelor'sdegree programs were women.while just over one-quarter of thetotal in Master's programs werewomen. The percentage !if womenenrolled in Ph.D. programs hasremained steady over the last twoyears at just over 13 percent.

Women participants are dividedfairly evenly between academic andtechnical training courses. Of thetotal number of women trainees in1992. the largest proportion-25 per-centreceived training in businessand public administration. Sixteenpercent received training in industryand engineering. Health, family plan-ning, and education courses received15 percent of all women participants.while agricultural programs received13 percent. The remaining 30 percentwere enrolled in miscellaneous pro-grams such as transportation, labor.and housing.

Although the percentage ofwomen entering the ThomasJefferson Fellowship Program isincreasing, women in many culturescontinue to face harriers to enteringoverseas training programs. Forexample. far fewer women thanmen finish secondary schoolapreliminary requirement for mostprograms. Moreover, fewer womenthan men candidates meet therequirement of proficiency in theEnglish language. Cultural con-straints often make it impossible orextremely difficult for young, singlewomen as well as married womento Ira\ el alone overseas, especiallyfor extended periods of time. Inmost societies and family contexts. itis extremely hard it' not impossible

for women with small children or abusinessor bothto free them-selves up to upgrade their skillsthough a training program abroad.

A.I.D. is addressing these andother constraints to expand thenumber of women recruited. Severalcountry missions have dramaticallyincreased the number of womenparticipants by setting targets andimplementing innovative recruitmenttechniques.

One example is I'S:k11).Tanzania,which managed to raise the propor-tion of women selected to receivetraining to 50 percent virtuallyovernight. The Mission reaches qual-ified. professional women candi-dates by advertising in both Englishand Kiswahili newspapers through-out the country. The advertisementsexpressly state that "women areencouraged to apply." The first timethe ad ran in 1990, the missionreceived 700 applications fromwomen. Although this was only20 percent of the total number ofapplications received, the qualifica-tions of women candidates were sohigh that half of those selected fortraining were women. Many of thewomen candidates who were select-ed acknowledged that they wouldhave been inhibited from submittingapplications had the advertisementnot explicitly invited women tocompete. The Mission also estab-lished a six-person SelectionAdvisory Committee made up oftwo representatives each from theprivate sector, public sector, and('SAID Tanzania. Half of thecommittee members are women.

USAID. Morocco has also dramati-cally increased the percentage ofwomen participating through itsestablishment and strict enforcementof a 30 percent female quota. TheMission has used several techniquessimultaneously to achieve this goal.

Mission staff members hold one-on-one meetings with governmentministers to emphasize the benefitsof recruiting women. Women'sassociations are used as primarychannels for getting the word outabout available fellowships andtraining programs. Presidents ofthese groups and other prominentwomen have provided their exper-tise for the refinement of recruit-ment efforts. The Mission also offersparticipants the option of enrollingin women-only training courses inthe United States in an effort toalleviate cultural constraints onwomen's ability to study abroad.A course offered in Arabicat theAtlanta Management Institute inPittsburghhas attracted a largenumber of women trainees byeliminating the language barrier.which is more common amongwomen candidates. Having achievedits 30 percent target.CSAID.'Moroccohas now moved on to set the newgoal of 50 percent female participa-tion. with an emphasis on recruitingwomen candidates from the privatesector.

Intensive Agency efforts areunder way to increase the propor-tion of women training participantsfrom all regions. The ParticipantTraining Handbook (No.10) usedthroughout the Agency is currentlybeing revised to incorporate differ-ent strategies and approaches torecruiting women trainees. InNovember 1992, A.I.D. held a con-ference for its training officers andcontractors from around the worldon the theme, "Trained Women:Building Capacity for Developmentthe focus of the meeting was onways to increase the recruitment ofwomen for the Agency's participanttraining programs.

U.S. Agency for International Development Washington, D.C. 20523.1816

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