Working for Women Worldwide - Embassy of the United States

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Top, Fatouma Djibril Issifou from Benin with her vegetable-selling business. Center left, small loans provided by a U.S.-funded NGO allowed women in the village of Sambaya-Nafa, Guinea, to develop small businesses. Center middle, a farmer from Mozambique shows off her cashew crop. Center right, Agustina Urbina of El Salvador applied for a USAID-assisted loan to purchase a permanent location for her growing business selling a local candy, “hojaldre.” Bottom, Bangladeshi women beneficiaries of the aquatic ecosystem management project (MACH). 32
Success Story Water for the Poor in Bangladesh A major U.S. international initiative to improve sustainable development, such as the management of water resources, illustrates how many U.S.-funded projects in developing countries are designed zto provide women with the skills and credit needed to improve their own lives and those of their families. The Water for the Poor Initiative, announced by the Bush administration at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, calls for a U.S. investment of $970 million over three years, from 2003 to 2005, to increase access to clean water and sanitation services, improve water management, and increase the productivity of water for millions around the globe. One project under this initiative already has made a big difference for hundreds of women in Bangladesh, where the needs of an expanding population have placed severe stress on the country’s natural resources. Bangladesh’s population is heavily dependent on freshwater fish, which represent 50 percent of all the animal protein consumed in that country. This precious wetlands resource, however, is believed to have declined by 40 percent or more in the past two decades. The decline in this source of food is adversely affecting the nutrition of all Bangladeshis, as well as the income and employment of 13 million or more rural poor. The $12-million Management of Aquatic Ecosystems Through Community Husbandry (MACH) project in Bangladesh, sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), has as its goal enhancing the productivity of fisheries and farmlands to ensure a sustainable supply of food to the poor. But what is most interesting about MACH is that, from the start, it has emphasized a role for women, both as beneficiaries and as staff running the project. For instance, MACH is providing 25 percent of all large-enterprise loans to female members of its Resource User Groups. As a result, more than 1,500 women are directly benefiting and contributing in improving the management of Bangladesh’s wetland resources. Through MACH, women are receiving credit, skills-development training, awareness-raising sessions on socioeconomic and life issues, leadership training, and adult literacy training. All these women, as well as their families, are benefiting from the increased fish yields brought about through their own conservation efforts. In 2004, MACH included an additional 240 women in Resource User Groups, and some of these were incorporated into the resource planning organizations that are increasing fish yields through conservation. USAID expects that, by the end of the second round of this project, an additional 350 women in Bangladesh will receive leadership training, while another 620 women will have received adult literacy training. For more on this project, see http://www.usaid. gov/bd/index.html. Z 33
Page 1: Working for Women Worldwide The U.S
Page 4 and 5: C ontents 3 4 9 14 16 18 26 25 28 3
Page 6 and 7: Introduction In 1995, at one of the
Page 8 and 9: As the section on economic empowerm
Page 10 and 11: Health: Prevention and Treatment Wo
Page 12: Through its sizeable public and pri
Page 15 and 16: Reform Efforts. In October 2004, th
Page 17 and 18: with its ministry of education to d
Page 19 and 20: the right to an education, the righ
Page 21 and 22: Protecting Women and Girls From HIV
Page 24 and 25: of hospitals and health centers to
Page 26 and 27: Top, an Afghan nurse checks the blo
Page 28 and 29: Success Story One Child at a Time R
Page 30 and 31: Promoting Economic Opportunities fo
Page 32 and 33: percent of the agricultural labor f
Page 36 and 37: Success Story Microenterprise Lifti
Page 38 and 39: Championing Women’s Political Emp
Page 40 and 41: skills, coalition building, organiz
Page 42 and 43: turned out, hundreds of Afghan wome
Page 44 and 45: Success Story Training Women Leader
Page 46 and 47: Building Peace in War-Torn Countrie
Page 48 and 49: has been a positive shift in intern
Page 50 and 51: Success Story Afghanistan Ordinary
Page 52 and 53: Combating Violence Against Women A
Page 54 and 55: and assistance for victims, bilater
Page 56: Some of the immediate health conseq
Page 59 and 60: In Eastern Europe, the desire to jo
Page 61 and 62: Education Americans recognize that
Page 63 and 64: Top, Dr. Tasha Inniss, who received
Page 65 and 66: jobs in his second administration.
Page 67 and 68: Official U.S. Statements, Proclamat
Page 69 and 70: Under Secretary for Global Affairs
Page 71 and 72: Special Topics: Women’s Rights Am
Page 73 and 74: U.S. Department of Education Instit
Page 76: Prepared for the 10th Anniversary o

Working for Women Worldwide - Embassy of the United States

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