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Budget Justification
FY 2001
>> Return to Home Page >> Central Programs >> Global Programs >> Women in Development
ACTIVITY DATA SHEET
PROGRAM: Central Programs
TITLE AND NUMBER: Women's legal rights increasingly protected, 941-003
STATUS: Continuing
PLANNED FY 2000 OBLIGATION AND FUNDING SOURCE: $3,020,000 DA
PROPOSED FY 2001 OBLIGATION AND FUNDING SOURCE: $2,520,000 DA
INITIAL OBLIGATION: FY 1995; ESTIMATED COMPLETION DATE: FY 2003Summary: Limitations on women's legal and property rights are widespread in developing and transitional countries. Legal restrictions on women's ownership of land and other property are common, and laws often support inheritance patterns that favor men. Uneven application of the law often discriminates against women, disallowing their full participation in society, and resulting in unequal treatment in economic activities. USAID's Women's Legal Rights Initiative, developed under and implemented through the Global Bureau's Office of Women in Development (G/WID) objective and announced at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, seeks to improve women's legal rights in order to ensure that women can achieve such goals as economic parity and increased participation in governance and civil society.
Key Results: Four intermediate results contribute to the effective protection of women's legal rights: (1) improved legislation that protects women's rights; (2) enhanced justice sector capacity to interpret and enforce legislation in a gender-equitable manner; (3) strengthened civil society organizations to advocate for women's legal concerns; and (4) increased knowledge of, and receptivity to, women's legal rights.
Performance and Prospects: Performance targets for the past year have been met. Nonetheless, there are still barriers to achieving women's legal rights, which include cultural constraints, a policy environment inadequately informed by gender perspectives, and lack of awareness of the obstacles that women face to the full enjoyment of their human rights.
Mounting evidence of human rights abuses directed specifically at women, and of situations where the law does not provide women equal protection, has led to calls for a direct focus on the legal and human rights of women within the broad mandate of respect for human rights. This focus has been affirmed by the Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the Platform for Action from the Fourth World Conference on Women. Recently, Secretary of State Albright highlighted the primacy of attention to the human rights of women, as a basic tenet of U.S. foreign policy.
Inequality before the law not only denies women their basic human rights, but limits their access to and control over productive resources and decision-making, which are essential to full participation and achievement in all the Agency's goal areas. The premise for this program is that while sustainable development and democratic governance depend upon the equality of all citizens under the law, limitations of women's legal rights are widespread and inhibit women's economic and social progress, undermine democratic reform, and reduce the effectiveness of all development programs.
Possible Adjustments to Plans: Based on a customer survey conducted in FY 1995 and in-depth discussions with WID's development partners within and outside the Agency, this objective was refined in FY 1999 to adequately reflect the reality of G/WID efforts at a number of levels: (1) USAID program and policy; (2) support to Washington operating units; (3) support to field missions in all four geographic regions; and (4) closer collaboration with development partners and implementing organizations, including research institutions and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Results of these discussions point to the need to more closely integrate programming with mission democracy and governance portfolios. Therefore, a new contract will be awarded this year that specifically links this program to missions' work while maintaining high-quality worldwide results.
Other Donor Programs: Relationships are maintained with a number of development partners and multilateral and bilateral donors in order to advance women's legal rights. Key partners in this area are the President's Interagency Council on Women, which coordinates USG work on sexual trafficking; the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, which is the major UN forum to raise gender issues (including those of women's rights and status); the Working Party on Gender Equality and the Network on Poverty Reduction of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development/Development Assistance Committee, which produces policy documents and holds high-level meetings on gender issues (including those of women's rights); the United Nations Children's Fund, which is including issues of gender-based violence into country and regional programs; and the World Bank, which has disseminated research on laws which constrain women's full participation in society.
Principal Contractors, Grantees or Agencies: Current grantees and contractors include the International Center for Research on Women; the Center for Development and Population Activities; the Asia Foundation; Women, Law, and Development International; DevTech Systems, Inc., and Development Alternatives, Inc. WID anticipates the award of a new competitive contract in FY 2000.
Baseline
Actual
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Target4 13 8 11 15 18 2 9 4 5 7 10 9 22 3 5 5 5 *FY 1998 actual numbers are based on G/WID's original strategy which was revised in FY 1999 to better reflect accomplishments under revised intermediate results.
U.S. Financing Table for 941-003 (Microsoft Excel Document - 28 kb)
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Last Updated on: September 08, 2000 |
