Deputy Administrator Alfonso Lenhardt at the Global LGBT Donors Conference

The United States was proud to host the third Annual Conference to Advance the Human Rights of and Promote Inclusive Development for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex Persons (LGBTI) held in Washington, DC from November 12–14.

The conference was the largest such gathering to date, bringing together senior leaders from government, civil society and the private sector to discuss and strategize on how to most effectively protect the human rights of LGBTI persons and promote their inclusion in development programs. Thirty governments were represented from all regions as well as representatives from nine multilateral agencies, including the United Nations and World Bank.

USAID Administrator and Deputy Administrator gave remarks at the conference. Senior LGBT Coordinator Todd Larson wrote a White House blog about the conference. Read the full conference report here [PDF].

Key outcomes include:

• Joint Communique: Over 25 governments and multilateral bodies formally affirmed their commitment to increase cooperation to advance the human rights of and promote inclusive development of LGBTI persons through agreeing to sign a joint communique issued yesterday. The communique sets out important principles to guide our collective engagement and notes the signatories’ plan to continue to hold regular discussions on an annual basis to strengthen cooperation and coordination.
• Civil society and non-state donor recommendations from the conference.
• New Initiatives to Support the Human Rights of Transgender and Intersex Persons: Private donors announced efforts to strengthen assistance to transgender and intersex persons through activist-led funding initiatives.
• Increasing Research and Data on LGBTI-related Assistance: Activists, researchers, and a number of governments expressed their intention to further explore how to most effectively share information on efforts, both diplomatic and financial, to further advance the human rights of LGBTI persons.
• Discussion of LGBTI inclusive development programming that highlighted some of the Agency’s work on political participation through Victory Institute as part of the Global Development Lab
• Release of new report through LGBT Global Development Partnership with Williams Institute on global LGBT rights and economic development. Read more about report in this blog, The Economic Case for LGBT Equality Worldwide.

The United States and other governments greatly look forward to the next conference to be organized by the Netherlands in early 2016 as an opportunity to continue to build the global coalition of stakeholders in support of the human rights of LGBTI persons.