USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah chats with two women at USAID’s 50th anniversary. On March 1, USAID launched a policy to better incorporate women’s perspectives.

Washington — The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is launching a new policy to better integrate gender equality and female empowerment throughout its activities.

The plan seeks to erase gender inequities by accounting for gender differences in the planning, implementation and assessment of USAID programs.

“While we have made great strides toward equality, we cannot rest until our mothers, sisters and daughters assume their rightful place as full participants in a secure, prosperous and just society,” President Obama said in a March 1 proclamation on Women's History Month.

USAID’s “Gender Policy on Gender Equality and Female Empowerment” is a component of the Obama administration’s broader policy on global development.

“Investing in women is the solution to today’s development and human rights challenges,” USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah said in a White House press conference March 1.

The new policy aims to invest in women and girls by diminishing gender inequalities in access, control over and benefit from various resources. The policy also aims to reduce gender-based violence, lessening its harmful effects on individuals and families, and increase women’s capacity to realize their own rights and determine their own outcomes.

Deputy Executive Director for UNICEF Geeta Rao Gupta, who reviewed the policy in advance, said the plan relies on concrete evidence, illustrates the desired outcomes and provides practical guides for implementation  —  “all critical elements for success.”

Officials stressed the importance of data, measurement and accountability to ensure women’s perspectives are taken into account in all USAID programs.

This is the first time in 30 years the U.S. government has updated and issued a formal approach to gender and development, officials said. It reveals a fundamental shift in the aid community’s conversation on women.  

“Instead of seeing women as beneficiaries of programs … we see women as the change agents that will bring about that new era of entrepreneurship, of leadership of the peace process,” Shah said.

USAID Deputy Administrator Donald Steinberg joined Shah and Gupta at the press conference. The launch also included remarks by Carla Koppell, USAID senior coordinator for gender equality and women’s empowerment; Gayle Smith, special assistant to President Obama; Mohamed A. El-Erian, chief executive officer of global asset-management company PIMCO; and Julia Duncan-Cassell, Liberia's minister for women's affairs.

The policy’s unveiling coincides with other gender-focused initiatives. The United Nations is hosting the 56th annual Commission on the Status of Women through March 9. On February 28, USAID launched a new tool to track aid to women farmers and on February 23, the agency announced a tougher stance on human trafficking.