Celebrating 50 years of progress for women and girls

March 8, 2011 is the 100th Anniversary of International Women’s Day, a celebration marking the progress and achievements of wome
March 8, 2011 is the 100th Anniversary of International Women’s Day, a celebration marking the progress and achievements of women and girls throughout the century.

Women are Key to Effective Development

President Kennedy once wrote, “Human beings are the principal untapped resource in developing countries.” Those words still ring true at USAID today. Women and girls are an extremely powerful force for development. Recognizing the critical role they already play in their communities and expanding opportunities and for them is not only the right thing to do, it’s also the key to ensuring lasting progress.

For 50 years USAID programs have had a specific focus on improving the lives of women.  This is an important and strategic investment. Women invest those benefits in improving the lives of their families by virtually every measure. When you focus on empowering women – educating girls, providing economic assistance, promoting their health and well-being – they pass on the rewards of those investments to the people around them, creating better, stronger and more secure communities throughout the world.

50 Ways USAID Has Helped Women For 50 Years

IMPROVING WOMEN’S HEALTH

  1. USAID assists newborn care programs in 27 countries, covering the full spectrum of approaches, ranging from community-based activities to outreach and clinic care.
  2. Across all USAID-assisted countries, deliveries attended by skilled health workers have increased from an average of 37 percent in 1990 to 50 percent today, making giving birth safer for women.
  3. In Egypt, maternal mortality (women dying during childbirth) has declined by 52 percent since the late 1980s. Honduras (41 percent) and Guatemala (30 percent) have also experienced substantial decreases in maternal mortality.
  4. In the Dominican Republic, USAID’s peer education program works to empower teenage girls in impoverished communities. Teens explore topics like self-esteem, life planning, gender roles, domestic violence, and reproductive health.
  5. In Nigeria, USAID trained doctors and health care providers (nurses and midwives) in emergency obstetric and newborn care services to improve quality of care for new mothers.
  6. In Paraguay, USAID helped develop a local level maternal health strategy, and in one community, helped created an emergency plan to cover the cost of transportation, medicines or other needs during pregnancy and labor.
  7. USAID’s neonatal health activities prioritize postpartum care in the home soon after birth to address the immediate needs of both mother and newborn.
  8. Since 1992, India’s Uttar Pradesh (UP) has been a focus state of a joint Government of India and USAID Innovations in Family Planning Services (IFPS) project to provide high-quality reproductive health and family planning services for local communities.
  9. Health workers trained by the Innovations in Family Planning Services (IFPS) project have provided counseling, contraceptive supplies, and referrals to 1.6 million people in India.
  10. Innovations such as community-based distribution campaigns and social marketing efforts at state and regional levels throughout the world have contributed substantively to increases in the availability of birth spacing methods and family planning services to underserved women.  

PROMOTING PEACE & SECURITY FOR WOMEN

  1. Since 2001, USAID has provided over $164 million  million to support anti-trafficking activities in 70 countries.
  2. In Uganda, USAID assisted female parliamentarians in achieving the passage of an anti-trafficking bill. This strengthened their voice to provide greater legal protections for women and children.
  3. Since 2000, USAID’s Victims of Torture Fund has contributed more than $8 million to the Center for Victims of Torture (CVT) to build the capacity of torture treatment centers worldwide.
  4. The Victims of Torture Fund has also provided $6 million towards treating survivors of violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, reaching nearly 9,500 beneficiaries in 2008.
  5. In 2007, over 800 child marriages were prevented in Ethiopia, and 14,000 child marriages have been deferred or cancelled in that country since 2004 due to USAID-supported programs.
  6. In 2000, the Mano River Union Women Peace Network (MARWOPNET) was founded with USAID support by women from Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, to mediate the conflict and disagreement between Guinea and Liberia.
  7. In India, USAID provides support to legal counseling centers and a network of lawyers and paralegals to provide safe, accessible legal and psycho-social counseling services for female victims of violence.
  8. The Afghan Women’s Network (AWN) now has members from 72 NGOs and 3,000 individuals who work to create an Afghan community that values the tremendous capacities and contributions of women to Afghan culture and society.
  9. USAID’s Safe Schools Program in Ghana and Malawi has reached over 30,000 students through training programs to reduce violence against girls and boys in schools.
  10. In Benin, USAID is working with CARE International to increase awareness of gender-based violence and improve the capacity of care centers to meet the needs of victims through medical, legal, and police assistance.
     

INCREASING SELF-SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH AGRICULTURE

  1. Most people don’t realize that the majority of farmers are women; USAID programs help women secure loans and opportunities to learn about improved farming techniques.
  2. USAID’s Greater Access to Trade Expansion (GATE) Project resources described how to identify gender-based constraints to women’s participation in trade-related activities and also supported assessments of women’s participation in the production, processing and marketing of export crops, such as artichokes in Peru and shrimp in Bangladesh.
  3. The gender gap in Africa’s agricultural science field is narrowing; between 2000 and 2008, more women became involved in agricultural research and higher education – from 18 to 24 percent.
  4. Many developing countries have raised incomes, reduced poverty and boosted food security through agriculture-led growth, benefiting both men and women.
  5. USAID programs promote equitable rural economic growth for vulnerable women.
  6. A USAID program in Panama taught sustainable agricultural practices to women, increasing their economic outcomes and protecting the environment.
  7. Increasing incomes through better farming practices translates into better lives. After a USAID Senegal agriculture program, one woman used her increased profits to buy a bicycle so her daughter could go to high school and another used her profits to pay doctor’s bills to fix her son’s broken arm.
  8. A USAID Kenya program that gave a mother one dairy cow has meant more milk for consumption and sale, more income for better nutrition, access to quality education, money for school uniforms and better health care for her entire family.
  9. A USAID Sudan program created a sustainable local source of income for 850 Sudanese women, their families, and their communities producing shea butter moisturizer and soap.
  10. In Ethiopia, USAID is supporting a program that provides vulnerable and HIV-affected women with the tools, land and knowledge to plant vegetable gardens to feed their families and sell the produce to increase household income.
  11. Indigenous women in Guatemala are trained to instruct families on proper food sanitation practices.

PROVIDING EQUAL RIGHTS & OPPORTUNITY

  1. In Cambodia, USAID promotes voter education and the participation of women in government by working with politicians, voters, and media to advocate for greater inclusion of women in all levels of government.
  2. USAID’s Women’s Leadership Training in Economics program, launched in 2009 to provide post-graduate training in economics to women and supports women in 8 USAID countries in 3 regions (Africa, Asia, and Latin America).
  3. In Afghanistan, USAID created and fully staffed a new gender unit in Kabul and strengthened the capacity of the Afghan Ministry of Women’s Affairs, incorporating women as planners, implementers and beneficiaries of reconstruction and development efforts.
  4. In Guatemala, USAID is supporting a project that increases women’s awareness and access to conflict resolution mechanisms, helping indigenous women mediate a peaceful resolution to agrarian conflicts.
  5. In Haiti, USAID is supporting a project that will strengthen emerging women leaders to foster a multi-generational movement lobbying for increased political participation and the integration of gender issues within government.
  6. In Lebanon, U.S. government assistance promoted employment and increased the income of nearly 700 rural women through skills, resources, equipment and information, and integration into economic activities in agri-business and rural tourism.
  7. In Benin, more than 75 percent of women are victims of violence, and 44 percent are sexually abused. Since 2007, USAID has helped to promote women’s rights and provide care for victims of violence through Benin’s Social Service Centers.
  8. In Kenya, USAID is advocating for women’s property rights through local tribal elders, helping widows with HIV who had been previously evicted from their homes to regain control over property.
  9. In Uzbekistan, USAID programs create opportunities for vulnerable women to secure employment and build a better future. USAID funds the Sister-to-Sister program, which provides free vocational courses to hundreds of women.

ADVANCING WOMEN IN BUSINESS & ENTREPRENEURSHIP

  1. Over 60 percent of clients receiving loans from USAID-supported microfinance institutions are women.
  2. Nearly one-third of the people receiving USAID-supported enterprise development services are women.
  3. In Ethiopia, USAID is working with the Bank of Abyssinia to provide $4.28 million in loan guarantees that enable women entrepreneurs to grow their businesses and provide for their families.
  4. With USAID assistance, more than 2,600 women in El Salvador received agricultural training to raise efficiency and ensure occupational safety.
  5. 850 women in the Dominican Republic and Central America have received trade and investment support for locally grown crops.
  6. In Tanzania, USAID is helping to provide greater credit access for women based on movable and intangible property, allowing them to use income-generating property to obtain loans.
  7. In Northern Mali, 2,700 women micro-entrepreneurs received conditional seed capital, business training, and help in forming saving groups, while 1,097 already established women micro-entrepreneurs received additional training and networking assistance.
  8. In Rwanda and Vietnam, USAID’s Empowering Women Leaders in Business project will address the legal and institutional constraints for women entrepreneurs, while providing technical assistance to overcome gender-related barriers in business.
  9. In Russia, the Socio Economic Recovery program seeks to develop the microfinance sector in Russia, with a particular focus on the North Caucasus and conflict-affected families. In 2008, 14,876 women were served at US Government-assisted microfinance institutions.
  10. USAID supports Jordan’s two leading businesswomen’s associations, strengthening their capacity to establish women-friendly work environments, and creating a network of women power-brokers to support rising women leaders.