Gender-Based Violence Incentive Fund Awards Summaries 

​Over the past several years, USAID has worked to establish incentive funds to missions seeking to address gender violence. 

• In Benin, USAID's Advancing the Development of Vulnerable Organizations and Communities for Active Transformation (ADVOCAT) program will provide protection and specialized services for people with disabilities (PWD). ADVOCAT aims to do this through enhancing the ability of disabled persons organizations to address gender-based violence (GBV) issues; increase awareness of the rights of PWD and risks of GBV; and increase GBV prevention and response activities for PWD. It will also expand the use of mobile technology to identify and address intimate partner violence among female patients receiving family planning and prenatal care.
• In Bangladesh, USAID's Protecting Human Rights program aspires to reduce child marriage through enhancing advocacy initiatives for child marriage legislation and enforcement. The program aims to increase public awareness and buttress civil participation in shaping policy.
• In Egypt, USAID seeks to reduce sexual harassment in agribusiness firms by addressing attitudes about sexual harassment in the workplace. The program aims to take advantage of the narrowing employment gap in gender to increase the voluntary participation of agribusiness companies participating in the change of attitudes directed toward sexual harassment.
• In Ethiopia, funding will increase the capacity of law enforcement agencies to investigate, prosecute, and adjudicate child marriage and female genital mutilation.
• In Georgia, USAID will support the Government of Georgia’s National Action Plan to address domestic violence prevention and protection services by institutionalizing the role of domestic violence social workers, establishing a national referral system, and providing anti-domestic violence education.
• In Guinea, USAID will build on an existing maternal health project to decrease domestic violence by creating linkages between maternal and child health services and referrals to mission-supported legal clinics. The project will support establishing hot lines to complement legal clinics and provide legal education and aftercare for survivors of gender-based violence.
• In Haiiti, USAID will strengthen gender-based violence (GBV) survivor-centered services and referral pathways through improving institutional capacity, while also preventing future instances of GBV through bolstering community resilience. This program plans to accomplish this by improving access to medical care and referral services, providing physiological care to survivors, and opening economic opportunities to reduce the vulnerability of survivors.
• In India, USAID will expand the use of mobile technology to identify and address intimate partner violence among female patients receiving family planning and prenatal care.
• In Kenya, USAID will build on an existing project and work with the newly elected county officials to address gender-based violence and empower civil society to advocate for services through a civil education and information campaign.
• In Nepal, USAID's Safe Schools program aspires to reduce the prevalence of GBV toward children and adolescents in 20 districts of mid and far Western Nepal.  The program plans to accomplish this through decreasing the acceptability of GBV amongs students, teachers, school administrators and parents while also implementing policies and tools that address and monitor GBV.
• In South Africa, USAID aims to enhance the role of the Government of South Africa's flagship rape crisis and counseling centers, to address the nation's epidemic of gender-based violence and sexual assault. This award aims to prevent sexual violence through behavior change efforts for youth.
• In Uganda, USAID will establish a cross-sectoral integration of young fathers program to prevent intimate partner violence (IPV). The program plans to integrate a male-focused IPV prevention effort in youth, livelihood, and early childhood development programs. Expected results from reduced incidences of IPV include an increase in economic stability, a higher school retention rate for girls, increased self-efficacy of men and boys to prevent IPV, and an increase in capacity and political will to address gender-based violence.
• In Yemen, USAID's Yemen Early Marriage Project (YEMP) will foster a legal, social, and economic environment that discourages early marriage. YEMP seeks to achieve this through advocating for the passage of laws that address the cause of early marriage, while also increasing public awareness of the developmental, physical, and psychological dangers of early marriage for girls.
• In Zambia, the Boys to Men project will reduce social acceptance and the occurrence of gender-based violence (GBV) by promoting positive, non-violent male development. The project aspires to achieve this through engaging boys and young men in schools and strengthening bonds with traditional leaders to support GBV prevention and response in rural areas. These activities should shift attitudes, awareness, knowledge, and practices among boys and young men in targeted communities.
• In Zimbabwe, USAID will provide gender-based violence prevention and protection services for adolescent girls, including those who are living with disabilities.