Integrating Gender
Heba, from a small and under-developed village northwest of the West Bank city of Ramallah, finished her courses at a USAID-supported institution in Jerusalem and went on to become the West Bank's first female cellular phone technician. (Credit: Save the Children)
MIDDLE EAST BUREAU GENDER PROGRAMS
Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, West Bank/Gaza, and Yemen
CONTACT
Kai Spratt
Asia and the Middle East
Tel: (202) 712-4152
Email: kspratt@usaid.gov Overview
Together with local and national governments in the Middle East and North Africa, USAID promotes gender equality in all fields—health, education, agriculture, economic growth, and governance—by integrating gender within its overall development strategies and goals in the region.
Programs
Increasing Women's Political Participation
USAID works with governments to ensure that women have the opportunity to make their voices heard in the political sphere. In Morocco, USAID has helped to increase women's participation in local governance, resulting in over 3,400 women being elected to local government, of which 630 are executive council members and 12 are mayors.
Creating Opportunities Through Education
USAID supports educational reforms designed to address gender inequalities in school systems in the region. In Yemen, girls' primary school enrollment rate is only 65 percent, and their secondary school enrollment rate is just 32 percent. USAID's Community Livelihoods Project supports improvements to basic education in underserved communities, with particular attention to expanding access for women and girls. An estimated 7,000 students have benefitted from USAID-sponsored life skills classes, and over 6,000 women have participated in literacy classes.
Building Capacity Through Training
USAID recognizes that building the skills of women and girls in the Middle East provides a foundation for future development. In Iraq, USAID has provided professional training and skills enrichment for government employees in a variety of public administration disciplines. More than 11,000 women have received this training, and female employees represent roughly half of the participants trained in Baghdad.
Promoting Best Practices for Health
USAID supports best practices for women's health, including family planning and breast and cervical cancer awareness and testing. In Jordan, USAID supports 140 female community health educators to conduct home health visits with women who are among the most in need and difficult to reach. The program has reached more than 900,000 women, and nearly 92,000 married women of reproductive age have accepted modern contraceptive methods for the first time.
Providing Economic Opportunities
In Lebanon, USAID-supported micro loans have created new job openings, sustained existing jobs, encouraged entrepreneurs and startups, and empowered women by increasing their access to microfinance. Three USAID-supported microfinance institutions provided over $2.5 million to more than 1,600 loan beneficiaries, creating more than 2,000 full-time jobs and over 700 seasonal/part-time jobs, of which more than one-third went to women.
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