Our Work in Gender

Gender equality and women’s empowerment are essential for successful international development. We believe that a gender focus must be integrated into all phases of the development process, from project design and implementation to monitoring and evaluation. Banyan Global takes a gender transformative approach in our work that addresses the legal and policy environment, social norms and beliefs, access to and control over assets and resources, and patterns of power and decision-making. We examine social systems, community structures and power relations that create, reinforce and perpetuate vulnerability, stereotypes and inequalities to achieve sustainable growth. We adopt a market driven approach that facilitates stakeholder involvement and leverages government and private sector participation to ensure sustainability.  We engage men and boys as key stakeholders and partners, while ensuring that women and girls can meaningfully participate in and benefit from development. Our work mitigates risk and unintended consequences, such as gender-based violence.  Banyan Global’s gender practice works across sectors.

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Our gender expertise includes the following:

• Women’s economic empowerment: Banyan Global works throughout the world to strengthen women’s economic empowerment.  These efforts include improving access to finance, strengthening women-owned enterprises, promoting women’s entrepreneurship, supporting workforce development, and addressing the enabling environment barriers that constrain women’s role in the economy.  Banyan Global also supports the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and other donors to develop analytical tools, guidance and research to design and implement evidenced-based women’s economic empowerment programming.
• Gender analyses, assessments, and audits: Banyan Global conducts gender analyses, assessments, and audits to assist USAID, other donors and implementing partners to identify advances, constraints and opportunities to enhance gender equality.  We implement gender analyses in line with USAID’s Automated Directives System 205 and have supported USAID missions to conduct gender analyses for projects, program design, and Country Development Cooperation Strategies.
• Program design and implementation: Banyan Global integrates gender into the design and implementation of a range of international development projects, including ones focusing on economic growth, agriculture, health, youth and democracy and governance. This work includes developing gender policy statements and designing and implementing gender-integration and women’s empowerment activities within projects.
• Training: Banyan Global conducts gender-integration and gender-sensitivity trainings and workshops for USAID staff, other donors, development projects and local organizations. Trainings include modules on gender concepts, gender-integration tools and techniques, and USAID’s Gender Equality and Female Empowerment Policy.
• Gender-based violence (GBV): Banyan Global designs tools and implements programming to integrate GBV prevention and response into programming. Our expertise includes work on child, early, and forced marriage, public harassment and intimate partner violence.
• Research:  Banyan Global conducts research and analysis on gender-related topics to identify innovative solutions to increase women’s equality and female empowerment. This work includes research on social norm change and engaging men in women’s economic empowerment, as well as the identification of opportunities and constraints to market information, financial services, and technology.  It also includes research on GBV, including child, early and forced marriage, and the socio-economic costs of multiple forms of violence.
• Monitoring and evaluation (M&E): Banyan Global provides monitoring and evaluation services at the program, institution, sector and mission levels focused on gender equality and women’s empowerment.  We conduct impact evaluations; performance evaluations; portfolio, sector and institutional assessments; and implement monitoring systems, knowledge management and training and capacity building. We also manage project-level M&E activities, including the collection of sex-disaggregated data and development and use of gender indicators.