The following information was submitted by CARE offices in the countries reviewed in the report to provide additional context and detail.
How The United States Scored on Our Report Card
What The United States Is Doing to Support Women and Girls in Crisis
The United States is the world’s leading humanitarian donor and has contributed $7.83 billion in humanitarian aid in FY 2020 alone, including $6.57 billion toward emergency appeals and response plans. At the World Humanitarian Summit (WHS), the United States committed to work to support all five of the WHS core commitments on “Women and Girls: Catalyzing Action to Achieve Gender Equality” through strategic funding, targeted partnerships, public advocacy and creative and effective diplomacy. While the United States made a number of national commitments at the WHS under these five core commitments, it did not commit to the specific sample commitments that are used as indicators in this report. As a result, the United States does not track and report on these specific indicators.
The U.S. has made commitments to protecting and empowering women and girls in emergencies and responding effectively to gender-based violence (GBV). In 2013, the U.S. launched its Safe from the Start initiative to mobilize the humanitarian community to reduce GBV and support survivors from the onset of emergencies. Since then, the United States has channeled more than $136 million through Safe from the Start to systematically prevent and respond to GBV, and a significant amount more to funding for core and specialized GBV prevention and response activities through other funding mechanisms. In FY 2020, USAID directed nearly $95 million toward lifesaving GBV programs in humanitarian assistance efforts around the world, continuing the trend of an increase of $10 million or more each year since FY 2017 (USG Feedback on Draft Report Card, 2/5/21). Similarly, in addition to its support through voluntary contributions to major international organization partners, the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) provided $55.5 million in FY 2020 for targeted GBV prevention and response programs (USG Feedback on Draft Report Card, 2/5/21). Additionally, the U.S. is a partner in the Call to Action on Gender-based Violence in Emergencies, an initiative launched in 2013 by the UK and Sweden.
With respect to resourcing women’s organizations in crisis-affected countries, in addition to prioritizing GBV prevention and response programs that emphasize strong community buy-in and build the capacity of women community members, the United States supports innovative projects to advocate and create guidance for collaborating and enhancing the capacity of local women’s organizations. This includes programs implemented by NGO partners focused on how the humanitarian protection sector can better ensure the participation and leadership of first responders and an initiative to create strategies and guidance for ensuring that local actors, particularly women’s organizations, influence and shape the decisions that affect them at both global and response levels.
The USG also requires all humanitarian programs to ensure the different needs of women, girls, men and boys are taken into account. PRM requires that all partners submit a protection and a gender analysis, as well as codes of conduct and country implementation plans on protection from sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA). This requirement ensures that partners are addressing the particular needs of women, girls, men and boys, in their work to foster better, more sustainable, accountable and impactful programs across the board. PRM contributions to UNHCR also always include language directing UNHCR to use PRM funding to address “gaps in the international community’s response to the needs of women and girls in emergencies.”
The U.S. has also invested in ensuring women and girls are included in peacebuilding through the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Act; the U.S. Strategy on Women, Peace and Security; and four agency WPS implementation plans. The U.S. Strategy on WPS includes the first-ever set of WPS Interagency Metrics, against which the State Department, USAID, Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security must evaluate their progress. This includes metrics such as reporting on funding to NGOs and international organizations for activities that prevent and/or respond to GBV in emergencies, and the number of bureaus and offices that require respondents to funding opportunities and/or requests for proposals to include a gender analysis in their proposals. This is intended to encourage greater and more accurate uptake of gender markers in U.S. foreign assistance, with the objective of improving reportable data. Additionally, the U.S., via the Centers for Disease Control, is a member of the Steering Committee of the Interagency Working Group on Reproductive Health in Crises.