August 2018

The purpose of this document is to provide a summary of the USAID Resilience in the Sahel Enhanced (RISE) Gender Analysis1 to support RISE II applicants in designing more gender-transformative approaches that guide implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. Initiated in 2012, RISE seeks to address chronic vulnerability in Niger and Burkina Faso by strategically layering, sequencing, and coordinating USAID and other humanitarian and resilience-building investments, with the goal to “increase the resilience of chronically vulnerable people, households, communities, and systems in targeted agro-pastoral and marginal agriculture livelihood zones in Niger and Burkina Faso.” USAID is cognizant of women’s and men’s acute and uneven challenges and opportunities in development. Consequently, under RISE II, USAID urges a departure from a business-as-usual approach to gender equality and female empowerment to one that is more context-specific and targeted.

Burkina Faso and Niger are both characterized by deep-rooted gender inequalities and inequities in social, economic, political, and civic rights. Both countries rank towards the bottom end of the global Gender Inequality Index (GII): Burkina Faso ranks 146/157 and Niger ranks 157/157. In Burkina Faso, women’s mean years of schooling is 1 versus 2 for their male counterparts, while the mean years of schooling for Niger women is 1.1 versus 2.3 for men. The Gender Analysis underscores that each RISE II intervention approach should have a gender strategy based on the specific context of that zone and the population living in it, while taking into account the institutional frameworks and customary laws – and the dynamics between them – in each country.

This summary includes:

●  Key findings of the Gender Analysis;

●  The gender context of women within the different ethnic groups in Burkina Faso and Niger;

●  Lessons learned under RISE;

●  Recommendations for RISE II.

See PDF attachment for full report.