Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Armed conflict negatively impacts men and women in gender-specific ways, and is likely to exacerbate inequalities that existed in pre-conflict periods. Mainstreaming gender concerns into post-conflict reconstruction, peacebuilding, and interventions requires coordination between affected states, non-governmental organizations working on the ground, and international donors who provide financial and technical support for programs. However, there is very limited literature that compares and contrasts national donor approaches to this type of programming. In this study, our aim is to explore national and cross-national patterns in effective and ineffective gender programming in two low-income, conflict-affected countries in Africa and Asia: Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. To accomplish this, we characterize and compare three donor nation international aid agencies – American (United States Agency for International Development, USAID), British (The Department for International Development, DfID) and Dutch (Dutch Development Cooperation) – that have high presence as well as unique and innovative programming in each of the two beneficiary countries. Our goal is to study these national approaches and evaluate how they fit into the beneficiaries’ national priorities. We are conducting desk reviews of program-related documentation and evaluations for each of the donor nations, beginning at the strategic level and reaching to the implementation level. In addition, we are conducting semi-structured interviews with subject matter experts including donor nation government officials with knowledge of gender programming activities, staff from implementing partners (such as donor-funded non-governmental organizations) working on the programs, and partner nation government officials with knowledge of gender programming activities. From this, we expect to learn if and how well donor strategies are translated into country-specific programs, whether there are gaps in services as a result of this process, and how implementation of donor nation strategies can be enhanced in order to build more equitable, and gender-sensitive post-conflict societies.