Value Added: Women and U.S. Foreign Assistance for the 21st Century

New ICRW, Women Thrive Worldwide white paper supports foreign aid overhaul and
urges placing investments in women at the core

WASHINGTON, July 31 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- International women's
organizations join the growing call to revamp U.S. foreign assistance from top
to bottom, and say aid will go much farther by placing investments in women at
the core, according to a new policy paper by the International Center for
Research on Women (ICRW) and Women Thrive Worldwide, released in advance of
today's Senate and House hearings on reforming aid.

In June, The Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (M-FAN), a group of U.S.
think tanks, academics and international nongovernmental organizations,
launched a proposal calling for a sweeping overhaul of the how the U.S.
approaches foreign assistance. ICRW and Women Thrive Worldwide support their
recommendations for reform (see below), and have gone a level deeper by
putting forward ideas on how a commitment to women and gender equality as a
priority of foreign assistance will enhance the impact of our country's aid.

Years of evidence show that investing in women pays huge dividends toward
reducing poverty and growing economies, according to the new policy paper,
"Value Added: Women and U.S. Foreign Assistance for the 21st Century."

Women in developing countries are the producers and income earners, farmers
and entrepreneurs, wage-workers and the self-employed, the report says. In
India's economic transformation of the past 15 years, the World Bank finds
that states with the highest percentage of women in the labor force grew the
fastest and had the largest reductions in poverty.

"Investing in women is smart because it has a multiplier effect," says ICRW
President Geeta Rao Gupta. "Women are half the population, yes. Yet when you
invest in women, it benefits whole families and communities -- the very people
we intend to reach."

"Value Added: Women and U.S. Foreign Assistance for the 21st Century
(http://www.icrw.org/docs/ForeignAidReform_Gender08.pdf)," builds upon the
M-FAN priority actions, outlined below, in order to advance women's
empowerment and gender equality:

1) Develop a national strategy for global development
Value Added: Develop a global development strategy that capitalizes on women's
roles in reducing poverty and expanding economic growth.

2) Reach a "grand bargain" between the Executive branch and Congress on
management authorities and plan, design and enact a new Foreign Assistance Act
Value Added: Rewrite foreign assistance legislation to ensure that development
assistance benefits both women and men.

3) Streamline the organizational structure and improve organizational capacity
by creating a Cabinet-level Department for Global Development, by rebuilding
human resource capacity and by strengthening monitoring and evaluation
Value Added: Streamline organizational structures and improve the capacity to
fully promote gender equality and women's empowerment.

4) Increase funding for and accountability of foreign assistance
Value Added: Increase funding for and improve monitoring of programs to
address gender inequality and empower women.

As congress explores foreign aid reform through hearings, legislative aides
and members of the development community have begun to write proposed
legislation for a new Foreign Assistance Act. "We have a unique, perhaps
unprecedented, opportunity to rethink our entire approach to international
development," says Rao Gupta. "We call upon the U.S. Congress and the broader
development community to integrate the recommendations for investing in women
into new legislation to strengthen economic growth and poverty reduction in
developing countries."

Since its origins after World War II, U.S. foreign assistance has focused on
enhancing national security, expanding global economic opportunities -
including international development and humanitarian assistance - and
promoting U.S. values. The basic legislation has not been updated since its
original inception in 1961.

About ICRW
ICRW's mission is to advance gender equality, empower women and fight poverty
in the developing world. To accomplish this, ICRW works with partners to
conduct empirical research, build capacity and advocate for evidence-based,
practical ways to change policies and programs. Learn more at www.icrw.org.

About Women Thrive Worldwide
Women Thrive Worldwide (formerly the Women's Edge Coalition) is the leading
non-profit organization shaping U.S. policy to help women in developing
countries lift themselves out of poverty. Women Thrive brings together a
diverse coalition of over 50 organizations and 34,000 individuals to advocate
for policies that foster economic opportunity for women living in poverty.
Learn more at www.womenthrive.org.

SOURCE Women Thrive Worldwide

Shanta Bryant Gyan, +1-202-412-4603, shanta@sbgcommunications.com, for ICRW;
Sandra Bunch of ICRW, +1-202-742-1240; sbunch@icrw.org; or Anugraha Palan of
Women Thrive Worldwide, +1-202-884-8399, apalan@womenthrive.org