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| Real Change for Millions of Women: The New MCC Gender Policy |
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A letter from Ritu Sharma Fox, Co-Founder and President, Women’s Edge Coalition “This is the most comprehensive and practical U.S. policy on gender that I have ever seen. It has the potential to ensure that the benefits of U.S. assistance projects really reach millions of poor women worldwide.” When I made this statement about the new gender policy of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) recently, it was at the culmination of over three years of advocacy by Women’s Edge Coalition to put women at the center of MCC’s work. MCC is a new agency delivering U.S. international assistance, and was created by President Bush in 2004 with a mission of ‘poverty reduction through economic growth’, and with a vision of creating ‘transformational change’ in the countries it works in. Unlike other international assistance programs, countries receiving funds design and implement their own proposals for poverty reduction, and also have to meet certain criteria to receive assistance. The MCC is being watched by other donor nations as a possible new model for international assistance. The comprehensive and far-reaching new gender policy influences $2.3 billion worth of current projects in several developing countries, and will be mandatory for any new countries that work with the MCC in the future. The policy requires the use of ‘gender analysis’, which takes into account men’s and women’s different roles in society, before projects are planned. This makes projects more effective, especially for women, who are more vulnerable to poverty worldwide because they tend to work in the lowest paid sectors, have less stable incomes, work longer hours and have less access to training and education. The MCC policy integrates this gender perspective through all aspects of its work: from consultation with women and designing the programs through implementation and evaluation. And this is key. While we are really excited that this policy goes farther than any other U.S. international assistance program in including and empowering women, we are especially encouraged because much concrete change for women has already happened. In Lesotho, for example, married women were legally minors in the area of economic rights and could not own property or open a bank account on their own. MCC had been working with the government of Lesotho to ensure that women were legally guaranteed equal economic rights before signing a Compact, as MCC agreements are called. The Parliament of Lesotho recently enacted a law it had been working on for over a year to end the minority status of married women. This is a major milestone for millions of women in a country which has many educated female role models in public life but which also has some of the highest HIV-AIDS infection rates for women in the world. Empowering women has a direct impact on the success of any effort to tackle the HIV-AIDS epidemic: something both the Lesotho parliament and the MCC have recognized. In Nicaragua, the local MCC office is working with representatives of women farmers to shape the work being done on rural development and land ownership. Honduras, in its Compact, requires that the rural development project include a strategy to increase the overall number of female farmers and employees. In Ghana, MCC work includes a project supported by rural women seeking access to cash and credit. In Armenia, where a third of all farmers are women, a rural credit program has specific targets to help women to obtain credit and use it effectively. In Mali, rural women will be able to grow what they choose on new garden plots either for their families’ use or for sale at the market, and they will also receive training and education on both land cultivation and land rights. The girls’ primary education program in Burkina Faso includes new “girl friendly” schools with day care centers, on-site canteens, separate male and female sanitary facilities, female mentoring, and teacher training. In Cape Verde, a women’s organization, one of the largest providers of microfinance in the country, has been a leader in shaping that country’s MCC projects. In El Salvador, 20 middle schools are funded to make a special effort to eliminate barriers for girls, especially those who have children. They will no longer have to travel long distances to attend school, and of the new scholarships offered to poor students, at least 50 percent will be made available to girls. Tanzania has prioritized women’s access to water and electricity in its proposal. MCC-funded infrastructure improvements around the country are being made with a view to decreasing women’s time spent on water and firewood collection. Seven countries that are now implementing MCC projects have local gender specialists on staff, who will ensure that women in their country are benefiting adequately from the new programs. I am truly gratified and awed at the potential for so much positive change for so many women as a direct result of Edge’s advocacy. It illustrates how policy change can both support and greatly magnify work on the ground, and how it can impact millions of women. Sincerely,  Ritu Sharma Fox Co-Founder and President To read Ritu Sharma Fox’s complete remarks at the MCC launch event for the new gender policy, click here. To download the Millennium Challenge Corporation’s new gender policy, click here. |
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| Last Updated ( Monday, 28 January 2008 ) |