Recognizing Intersectionality and Stronger Accountability
Earlier this year, USAID launched the 2023 Gender Policy. We reached out to thought leaders for their perspectives on what the new Gender Policy gets right — and what’s still on their wish list for improvement. Our second interview is with Aslihan Kes, Senior Gender Advisor at the USAID Bureau for Resilience and Food Security. She emphasizes the importance of intersectionality and accountability, and how this policy will translate into actual change across missions and sectors. Dive deeper into the conversation below.
What themes in this policy are you most excited about?
Intersectionality Is Key
The strongest theme across this new policy is intersectionality. I appreciate that the 2023 Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Policy is more inclusive of gender-diverse individuals and takes age, ethnicity and other factors into consideration, which has historically been a gap in how we frame our priorities. For example, it is paramount to keep Indigenous communities, women, and other stakeholders in mind when addressing agriculture, livelihoods, and climate resilience.
This policy reinforces a more intersectional lens, which is great because it is certainly something the sector needs to be paying more attention to. Calling this out in the policy will give us the leverage to move that work forward.
Collaboration and Social Norms
Recognizing the burden of unpaid caregiving and the need for an intentional focus on addressing gender-based violence (GBV) within the new policy is going to help expand USAID programming and foster more cross-sector collaboration. How do we embed care work into an agricultural program? I think some of the additional themes that have come up in this policy, more strongly than the previous policies, will help our programs become more expansive in how we think about our sector priorities and how we frame cross-sector collaboration. In fact, the policy includes an entire section that dives into gender gaps and opportunities across 14 priority sectors.
The 2023 policy also touches on critical social norm changes that are required to shift gender equality. The international development community has recognized that challenging gender discriminatory rules and norms is key to transformative work. This policy provides a stronger framework and hook for why we should address social norms.
Norm change is fundamental to delivering on our commitment to gender equality.
The FAO also recently launched the Status of Women in Agrifood Systems report, and I see a clear anchor to the USAID 2023 Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Policy. There is a consistent theme across both publications: gender equality is a fundamental human right and a main priority for our work.
Data & Evidence Limitations
I am hopeful that this policy will link to other priorities that are reinforced by data and evidence. One of the limitations when we try to push intersectional messaging is a lack of evidence in the gender space. Reaffirming that we do want to invest in data and evidence will hopefully provide us with the opportunity to thoughtfully and carefully unpack gender going forward and make sure our programs can be specifically targeted to local contexts and their gender dynamics. This policy gives a nice framework. However, we must recognize that as our work applies these principles, we need to be responsive to the context and led by local priorities and possibilities.
How is this new policy changing or influencing your work?
ADS 205 Revisions
I’ve seen a more innovative approach emerging from the policy. It challenges us to, for example, think beyond when and where we host training for women, and targets frontier issues surrounding food security.
More fundamental changes are expected as USAID will release full revisions to the Automated Directives System (ADS) Chapter 205 soon. ADS Chapter 205 outlines how USAID can better incorporate gender equality and women’s empowerment into all of its programming. Partial revisions are already published, with full revisions coming soon. These planned additional updates will foster stronger gender infrastructure to achieve the Agency’s mission.
Operational Planning for Gender
Every USAID bureau and mission is now required to develop standard operating procedures for gender that establish concrete measures to leverage the policy’s more action-oriented aspects into implementation.
There has been a whirlwind of progress related to gender equality and women’s empowerment in recent years. It’s difficult to articulate what changes are directly linked to the 2023 Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Policy, but it has absolutely provided USAID with professionalized tactics and systems that strengthen accountability and translate into actual action and change for sectors.
This policy is not going to sit on a shelf.
Aslihan Kes has nearly 20 years of experience working on gender issues in agriculture and rural development, including women’s land rights, off-farm employment and entrepreneurship, and financial inclusion as well as solutions to unpaid care. Prior to joining the USAID Bureau for Resilience and Food Security, Aslihan was a Senior Economist at the International Center for Research on Women.
