Despite its rich legal and judicial traditions and highly experienced professionals in the justice sector, Sri Lanka faces delayed justice delivery, insufficient communication, lack of human resources, and limited training opportunities for professional development. These challenges have undermined public confidence in the justice system and fueled the government’s desire to improve it and align it…
Women in Haiti are often at social, political, and economic disadvantages compared to their male counterparts, as evidenced by Haiti’s ranking in the Gender Inequality Index. The gap is especially significant and consequential for rural women who engage primarily in subsistence farming with little to no access to or control over productive assets and financial…
Cecilia Barraza is a Colombian GBV expert with 27 years of experience designing and implementing public policies to advance gender equity, improve access to justice, and reduce GBV. She currently serves as deputy chief of party on the USAID/Colombia Justice for Sustainable Peace project. Cecilia has served as an advisor on the Presidential Council for…
With only 7 percent of its territory arable, Tajikistan’s land is valuable. Although the country took steps to allow citizens to freely buy and sell rights to use the land, the lack of national appraisal standards and professional institutions to support their implementation made it difficult to determine how the land should be priced for…
Communities in Burkina Faso’s remote northern and eastern regions have long felt spurned by the central government in Ouagadougou. Following the end of President Blaise Compaoré’s 27-year rule in 2014, Burkina Faso entered a period of socio-political instability and has struggled to coordinate its response to the growing insecurity brought on by armed militant and…
The ACCELERE!1 (A!1) project improved educational outcomes for girls and boys through enhanced teaching in national languages and French, reduced barriers to education, and increased transparency of school governance structures. This was accomplished by A!1’s income-generating activities and community savings groups approach, which helped parents secure a more affordable education for their children.
Somalia faces heightened public scrutiny as its government manages $92 million of E.U. budget support while striving to meet International Monetary Fund performance benchmarks. Its ability to adopt sound fiscal policy and improve financial governance will determine its eligibility for debt relief. At this critical juncture, the Federal Parliament of Somalia must strengthen its financial…
Understanding cultural norms is essential to achieving results in development interventions and preventing interventions from causing unintended negative consequences. However, capturing norms within everyday contexts in ways that can be monitored and evaluated can be expensive and time consuming and is not always feasible. We tested a novel method, the cultural consensus analysis (CCA), in…
Chemonics recognizes the key role gender equality in leadership plays in achieving development impact, and understands that for women to achieve leadership roles equally with their male peers, the systemic barriers for women must be addressed, such as supporting workplaces free of harassment and ensuring pay equity. Research suggests that if women played an identical…
White Ribbon Alliance launched the global What Women Want campaign in 2018. The alliance asked 1.2 million women and girls from 114 countries, “What is your one request for quality reproductive and maternal healthcare services?” Their answers surprised many. Second only to respectful and dignified care, women asked for improved access to water, sanitation, and…
To reach 50,000 farmers — 70 percent of them women — in 4.5 years, USAID’s Feed the Future Tajikistan Agriculture and Water Activity (TAWA) developed the nutrition-sensitive Farm to Fork capacity building program. The program, based in the Khatlon province of Tajikistan, particularly targeted women farmers of reproductive age or those with children under age…
On a recent visit to a rural village in Dioila district, part of the Koulikoro region in Mali, I met with the local women’s group to discuss how to promote family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH) and how to increase access to these services in their community. There, surrounded by more than 100 volunteers who…