United StateS Strategy to Prevent and reSPond to GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE GLOBALLY
Post date: Dec 4, 2014 12:47:48 AM
United StateS Strategy to Prevent and reSPond to GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE GLOBALLY
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Section 7061 of the Conference Report accompanying the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2012 (Div. I, P.L. 112-74), provides that the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development are “to submit to the Committees on Appropriations, not later than 180 days after the enactment of this Act, a multi-year strategy to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls in countries where it is common. The strategy should include achievable and sustainable goals, benchmarks for measuring progress, and expected results. The formulation of the strategy should include regular engagement with men and boys as community leaders and advocates in ending such violence.” This strategy document is submitted pursuant to the above referenced section.
Cover page – Photo Credit: © UNICEF/NYHQ2010-0670/Olivier Asselin A 13-year-old former sex worker peers out the window of a school in Sierra Leone. She attended a meeting of a local NGO responsible for protecting the rights of children within the community.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Overview ..................................................................................................................................5
Congressional Efforts .......................................................................................................................... 6
Statement of Problem ..........................................................................................................................7
United States’ Strategic Approach to Preventing and Responding to Gender-based Violence ....7
Building on an Existing Foundation ......................................................................................................7
Primary Roles of the Department of State and USAID .................................................................. 8 Department of State ................................................................................................................. 9 USAID ......................................................................................................................................10
Guiding Principles .............................................................................................................................. 13 Focus on Lessons Learned .................................................................................................................. 13 Objectives and Actions ...................................................................................................................... 14
objective 1: To Increase Coordination of Gender-based Violence Prevention and Response Efforts among United States Government Agencies and with Other Stakeholders ....................................................................................... 15
action 1.1: Improve Inter-agency and Intra-agency Coordination ........................................... 15
action 1.2: Ensure Greater Collaboration with Other Stakeholders ......................................... 15
objective 2: To Enhance Integration of Gender-based Violence Prevention and Response Efforts into Existing United States Government Work .........................17
action 2.1: Integrate Content on Gender-based Violence into Existing Agency Programs and Policies ................................................................................... 18
action 2.2: Increase the Use of Existing Platforms to Advance Efforts to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence ...................................................................... 18
objective 3: To Improve Collection, Analysis, and Use of Data and Research to Enhance Gender-based Violence Prevention and Response Efforts ............................................. 18
action 3.1: Promote Ethical and Safe Research, Data Collection, and Evidence-based Analyses on Different Forms of Gender-based Violence and Prevention and Response Efforts at the Country and Local Level ..................................................................................... 19
action 3.2: Prioritize Monitoring and Evaluation of United States Government Programs ............................................................................................................ 20
action 3.3: Identify and Share Best Practices, Lessons Learned, and Research Within and Across Agencies and with Outside Partners ......................................................................20
objective 4: To Enhance or Expand United States Government Programming that Addresses Gender-based Violence ....................................................................................... 21
action 4.1: Replicate or Scale Up Successful Programs ........................................................... 21
action 4.2: Assess Pilot Country Approach ............................................................................. 21
1 United States Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence Globally
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Metrics to Measure the Implementation of the Strategy ................................................................. 23
Implementing the Strategy ............................................................................................................. 23
U.S. Department of State Implementation Plan ................................................................... 24
Department of State’s Commitment to Addressing Gender-based Violence ....................................24
Preventing and Responding to Gender-based Violence through Diplomatic Engagement ................ 27
Bilateral and Regional Diplomacy ................................................................................................. 27 Multilateral Diplomacy ................................................................................................................ 28 Public Diplomacy ......................................................................................................................... 29 Public Private Partnerships .......................................................................................................... 30
Mechanisms to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence ..................................................... 30
Strategic and Budget Planning ..................................................................................................... 30 Policy and Programming ...............................................................................................................31 Research/Data, Monitoring and Evaluation .................................................................................. 32 Management and Training ........................................................................................................... 32
U.S. Agency for International Development Implementation Plan ......................................... 33
USAID’s Commitment to Addressing Gender-based Violence ...........................................................33
Operational Structure ......................................................................................................................33
Strategic Goals for Preventing and Responding to Gender-based Violence ...................................... 35
Mainstream and Integrate Gender-based Violence Prevention and Response Activities into Sector Work ........................................................................................... 35 Sharpen Program Priorities .......................................................................................................... 36
Consider Gender-based Violence Issues Early in CDCS Development and Project Design ............................................................................................ 37 Assess and Strengthen USAID Mission Gender-based Violence Programming ......................... 39 Identify and Scale Up Successful Interventions ....................................................................... 39 Collaborate on Inter-agency Pilot Country Approach .............................................................. 39 Invest to Close Gaps in Data .................................................................................................... 40
Expand Collaborative Efforts ....................................................................................................... 40
Elevate Women and Girls as Leaders and Agents of Change in Programming and Policy ......... 40 Engage Men and Boys as Allies in Gender-based Violence Interventions.................................. 40 Include and Address the Needs of Underserved Populations in Programming ......................... 40 Collaborate with Civil Society and the Private Sector .............................................................. 41
Measuring Results ........................................................................................................................... 42
Next Steps ...................................................................................................................................... 43
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................45
Appendix: Indicators and Key Issues .....................................................................................46
Endnotes ..............................................................................................................................50
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“We also know that countries are more likely to prosper when they tap the talents of all their people. And that’s why we’re investing in the health, education and rights of women, and working to empower the next generation of women entrepreneurs and leaders. Because when mothers and daughters have access to opportunity, that’s when economies grow, that’s when governance improves.”
– President Barack Obama, Remarks at the Millennium Development Goals Summit, United Nations Headquarters, New York, New York, September 22, 2010
“Around the globe, violence against women is an epidemic. Violence robs women and girls of their full potential and causes untold human suffering. Violence against women impedes economic development, threatens peace and prosperity, and inhibits full participation in civic life. For every woman who has been beaten in her own home, for the millions of women who have been raped as a weapon of war, for every girl who has been attacked on her way to school, for all of the children–girls and boys–who have witnessed this brutality, we must do better.”
– Vice President Joe Biden, Statement on the Anniversary of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, November 24, 2010
“It is time for all of us to assume our responsibility to go beyond condemning this behavior, to taking concrete steps to end it, to make it sociably unacceptable, to recognize it is not cultural; it is criminal.”
– Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Remarks on the Adoption of a United Nations Security Council Resolution to Combat Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict, United Nations Headquarters, New York, New York, September 30, 2009
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4 United States Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence Globally
Elcira and her daughter, Dalia, 15, hold a portrait of Elcira’s daughter, Fabiola, at their home in Guatemala City. Elcira is HIV-negative but became an activist when she discovered that Fabiola, at age nine, had been sexually abused by her father, and his friends. Fabiola died of AIDS when she was 12 years old.
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overview
Under the leadership of President Obama and Secretary Clinton, the United States has put gender equality and the advancement of women and girls at the forefront of the three pillars of U.S. foreign policy–diplomacy, development, and defense. This is embodied in the President’s National Security Strategy, the Presidential Policy Directive on Global Development, and the 2010 U.S. Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR). Evidence demonstrates that women’s empowerment is critical to building stable, democratic societies; to supporting open and accountable governance; to furthering international peace and security; to growing vibrant market economies; and to addressing pressing health and education challenges.
Preventing and responding to gender-based violence is a cornerstone of the Administration’s commitment to advancing gender equality. Such violence significantly hinders the ability of individuals to fully participate in and contribute to their families and communities–economically, politically, and socially. Vice President Biden, who authored the Violence Against Women Act while in the Senate, has been a leader in efforts to end violence against women and girls for two decades. Secretary of State Clinton and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Rajiv Shah also have been tireless advocates for ending gender-based violence, and have elevated this issue as a foreign policy priority.
To further advance its commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment, the Obama Administration has developed this new strategy to prevent and respond more effectively to gender- based violence globally. The purpose of the strategy is to establish a government-wide approach that identifies, coordinates, integrates, and leverages current efforts and resources. The strategy provides Federal agencies with a set of concrete goals and actions to be implemented and monitored over the course of the next three years with an evaluation of progress midway through this period. At the end of the three-year timeframe, the agencies will evaluate the progress made and chart a course forward.
To ensure a government-wide perspective in developing this strategy, the White House, at the request of the U.S. Department of State and USAID, convened representatives from the U.S. Departments of State, the Treasury, Defense, Justice, Labor, Health and Human Services (including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. National Institutes of Health), and Homeland Security, as well as from the Office of the United States Trade Representative, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, USAID, the Peace Corps, and the Millennium Challenge Corporation. These included representatives working on the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the Global Health Initiative (GHI), and the Office of the United States Government Special Advisor and Senior Coordinator for Children in Adversity. Additionally, the White House, the Department of State, and USAID held multiple consultations with civil society organizations to ensure that their perspectives informed the development of the strategy.
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Congressional Efforts
The United States Congress has long championed efforts to prevent and respond to gender-based violence, including in the context of child marriage, female genital mutilation/cutting, sexual violence resulting in obstetric fistula, and region-specific violence against women, from Latin America and the Caribbean to the Middle East and North Africa. Congress has played a critical role in highlighting the bipartisan commitment of the United States to preventing and responding to gender-based violence, and has helped to strengthen ongoing U.S. efforts. This strategy is intended to be a broad framework encompassing all forms of gender-based violence across all regions of the world in which it is common. The Administration looks forward to working closely with Congress as it builds on policies and programs addressing specific types of gender-based violence through its implementation efforts.
Definitions
Sex is the classification of people as male or female. At birth, infants are assigned a sex based on a combination of bodily characteristics including: chromosomes, hormones, internal reproductive organs, and genitalia.
Gender is the socially defined set of roles, rights, responsibilities, entitlements, and obligations of females and males in societies. The social definitions of what it means to be female or male vary among cultures and change over time. Gender identity is an individual’s internal, personal sense of being male or female. For transgender people, their birth-assigned sex and their own internal sense of gender identity do not match.
Gender equality concerns women and men, and it involves working with men and boys, women and girls to bring about changes in attitudes, behaviors, roles, and responsibilities at home, in the workplace, and in the community. Genuine equality means more than parity in numbers or laws on the books; it means expanding freedoms and improving overall quality of life so that equality is achieved without sacrificing gains for males or females.
Definitions from USAID’s March 2012 Gender Equality and Female Empowerment Policy
Gender-based Violence
This strategy defines “gender-based violence” as violence that is directed at an individual based on his or her biological sex, gender identity, or perceived adherence to socially defined norms of masculinity and femininity. It includes physical, sexual, and psychological abuse; threats; coercion; arbitrary deprivation of liberty; and economic deprivation, whether occurring in public or private life.
Gender-based violence takes on many forms and can occur throughout the life cycle. Types of gender-based violence can include female infanticide; child sexual abuse; sex trafficking and forced labor; sexual coercion and abuse; neglect; domestic violence; elder abuse; and harmful traditional practices such as early and forced marriage, “honor” killings, and female genital mutilation/cutting.
Women and girls are the most at risk and most affected by gender-based violence. Consequently, the terms “violence against women” and “gender-based violence” are often used interchangeably. However, boys and men can also experience gender-based violence, as can sexual and gender minorities. Regardless of the target, gender-based violence is rooted in structural inequalities between men and women and is characterized by the use and abuse of physical, emotional, or financial power and control.
Definition adapted from Gender-based Violence and HIV: A Program Guide for Integrating Gender-based Violence Prevention and Response in PEPFAR Programs 1
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