USAID’s vision is a prosperous and peaceful world in which women and men, girls and boys enjoy equal economic, social, cultural, civil, and political rights and are equally empowered to secure better lives for themselves, their families, their communities, and their countries.

Who We Are

USAID believes that gender equality and women’s empowerment are fundamental for the realization of human rights and key to effective and sustainable development outcomes. The Agency has a long history of support for gender equality and women’s empowerment to lead powerful, transformational changes within societies and has:

• Adopted a suite of gender equality policies and strategies.
• Reformed budgeting and reporting requirements to capture gender equality results.
• Created incentive funds to promote women’s leadership, and reduce gender-based violence.
• Accelerated investments in women peacebuilders, parliamentarians, agricultural producers, and owners of small and medium enterprises.

USAID works to improve the lives of citizens around the world by addressing the distinct needs of women and girls, men and boys in our development and humanitarian work.

The 2020 Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Policy affirms USAID's vision of a prosperous and peaceful world in which women, girls, men, and boys enjoy equal economic, social, cultural, civil, and political rights and are equally empowered to secure better lives for themselves, their families, their communities, and their countries.

Our Global Network

In close partnership with Washington bureaus and operating units, and international field missions in more than 80 countries, the Office of Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GenDev) based in Washington, provides strategic leadership, training, and technical assistance on USAID’s gender equality and women’s empowerment programming worldwide and works to shape and institutionalize policies that empower women and girls. The GenDev Office in Washington:

• Manages centrally funded technical assistance and gender training contracts.
• Shapes policies that equally empower women and girls, men and boys.
• Pilots innovative programs aimed at promoting gender equality women’s empowerment.
• Advances and scales up successes in our programs.
• Coordinates working groups for cross-sector issues.
• Maintains a repository of best practices on gender integration, and coordinates knowledge management and communications on the Agency’s gender equality and women’s empowerment programming.

We have a global network of more than 186 gender advisors, POCs, and employees who work on gender embedded throughout the Agency with the shared goal of learning across borders to accelerate USAID’s gender work worldwide.

For More Information

• For more information, please contact: gendevcomms@usaid.gov
• Visit this web page: What We Do: Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment website
• Access additional USAID resources on gender equality and women’s empowerment by visiting this web page.