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Welcome to the IGWG Website

You've reached the website of the Interagency Gender Working Group, where you can find tools and information on promoting gender equity within population, health, and nutrition programs worldwide.

The Interagency Gender Working Group is a network of nongovernmental organizations, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), cooperating agencies, and the Bureau for Global Health of USAID. Its goal is to foster sustainable development and improve reproductive health and HIV/AIDS outcomes.

Recent Events

Femicide: What Is It and Why Isn't Anyone Talking About It?

The IGWG, USAID, WHO, Intercambios, the Medical Research Council, PATH, and PRB recently sponsored a half-day panel discussion on femicide—the murder of women by men, especially by intimate partners. The April 14, 2008 event featured experts from around the world who spoke on identifying and understanding femicide in its various forms, its prevalence, and its relationship to international development and reproductive health. The agenda, participant list, speaker bios, powerpoint presentations, and a bibliography on femicide are now available here.

Gender News

Film Raises Awareness of Gender-Based Violence

Women Prevail Against Violence
Mama Joyce and Josephine are unlikely heroines. Both women were brought low by abusive husbands who beat them, took away their dignity and choices, and left them with AIDS. Yet both women emerged as heroines in "SASA! A Film About Women, Violence and HIV/AIDS." This film tells the story of how these courageous women triumphed over gender-based violence and HIV/AIDS and gained power that helped them organize, become activists in their communities, and build meaningful and rewarding lives. (January 2008)

New Report on Cross-Generational Sex

Addressing Cross-Generational Sex: A Desk Review of Research and Programs (PDF: 800KB)
This publication, produced by the IGWG and the Interagency Youth Working Group (IYWG), presents definitions and prevalence of cross-generational sex, explores interventions and promising practices aimed at reducing risks associated with cross-generational sex outside of marriage, and makes recommendations for next steps. (August 2007)

New Report on Child Marriage

New Insights on Preventing Child Marriage: A Global Analysis of Factors and Programs (PDF: 1.2MB)
A new study conducted by ICRW for the IGWG found that key factors such as girls’ education, spousal age gap, and poverty strongly determine whether girls in the developing world will become child brides. (April 2007)

New Resource on Male Engagement

SysteMALEtizing Electronic Brochure
Decades of research on reproductive and child health show that everyone can benefit when men are thoughtfully engaged. But distinguishing among the number and diversity of programs, research, and tools is daunting.  This electronic brochure, prepared by Margaret Greene for the IGWG, lays out many of the key resources for working with men and provides a framework for distinguishing among varied programs, illustrating the range with strong examples. (July 2006)

Gender-Based Violence Events

GBV Regional Workshop in Uganda
Strengthening regional work on gender-based violence was the topic of a regional meeting held in Kampala, Uganda in November 2006. More than 100 community activists, advocates, researchers, service providers, health care professionals and practitioners from 15 countries shared innovative interventions, unexpected challenges and lessons learned from their collective experiences in the field. The meeting was a collaborative initiative of PATH, the IGWG, Raising Voices, the Gender-Based Violence Prevention Network, and the East Africa Regional Office of USAID. A synthesis report, Strengthening Regional Work on Gender-Based Violence, on the workshops, presentations and discussions is available here (PDF: 1MB).

Materials from the Second Technical Update
The second IGWG Technical Update on Gender-Based Violence was held in Washington, DC, on November 30, 2005. The day-long seminar focused on lessons learned and impact of interventions that address GBV from a reproductive health perspective. Featured speakers included Dr. Kent Hill, Assistant Administrator of USAID’s Bureau for Global Health, as well as representatives of global interventions in Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.

Topics covered included: strengthening health services to address GBV; changing gender norms through edutainment; community mobilization; and evidence-based advocacy

Panelists included representatives of CEDOVIP (Uganda), Intercambios (Latin America), Men as Partners (South Africa), Puntos de Encuentro (Nicaragua), Raising Voices (East Africa), Rifka Annisa (Indonesia), and Soul City (South Africa). The agenda, participant list, speaker bios, powerpoint presentations are available here.

GBV Resource from USAID

Addressing Gender-Based Violence Through USAID’s Health Programs: A Guide for Health Sector Program Officers (PDF: 376KB)
This guide, prepared by the POLICY project, complements the 2004 literature review by Alessandra Guedes and is intended to help USAID program officers integrate gender-based violence (GBV) initiatives into their health sector portfolio during project design, implementation, and evaluation. (October 2006)

 

This website was prepared by the Population Reference Bureau for the Interagency Gender Working Group (IGWG), with funding provided by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) under the BRIDGE project (GPO-A-00-00004-00). The contents of the website and the links herein do not necessarily reflect the views of the members of the IGWG, USAID, or the Population Reference Bureau or its sponsors

Updated 2/26/08