Gender Equity and Governance

Program Overview

We promote gender equity and responsive governance in East and West Africa, Mexico, and the U.S. to foster inclusive societies where everyone can thrive. In 2024, the program awarded $148.5M through 278 grants.

Grants

Priorities

Expand access to reproductive freedom and health care so that women and girls can further their life aspirations.
Promote macro-level policies that support women’s economic opportunity and well-being.
Strengthen the efforts of women and youth to exercise power and ensure governments are more responsive to people’s needs.
Encourage the use of evidence to improve people’s well-being and trust in the policymaking process.

Strategies

Global Reproductive Equity

Our Global Reproductive Equity strategy aims to ensure that women and girls, especially those facing the greatest barriers, have access to reproductive care and rights so they can further their health, well-being, and life aspirations.

Our work focuses on East Africa and Francophone West Africa — regions with a high need for reproductive health care. We strengthen ecosystems of organizations and movements driving solutions to advance policies, public support, and access to contraception and safe abortion care.

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U.S. Reproductive Equity

Our U.S. Reproductive Equity strategy seeks to ensure people in the U.S. — particularly those facing the greatest barriers — have the freedom and resources to access the reproductive health care they need to fulfill their life aspirations.

We fund organizations leading innovative advocacy, service delivery, and communications efforts that bolster public support for and access to contraception and safe abortion care. We strengthen organizations and ecosystems at the regional, state, and local levels led by people who understand unique barriers and opportunities in their communities.

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Women’s Economic Empowerment

Our Women’s Economic Empowerment strategy promotes the adoption of macro-level policies that support women’s economic opportunity and well-being in East and West Africa.

Our work is grounded in the understanding that when women prosper, so do their families and communities. We seek to place gender at the center of macroeconomic policy development by bolstering the work of a diversity of organizations including research institutions, women’s rights organizations, multilateral agencies, and international financial institutions.

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Inclusive Governance

Our Inclusive Governance strategy seeks to ensure that those systematically excluded from decisions, especially women and youth, can exercise power to make governments more responsive to their needs and aspirations.

We resource movements and coalitions, support independent and pluralistic media, and enable communities to make use of key governmental information. Geographically, we support organizations working in Kenya, Ghana, Senegal, Mexico, Tanzania, and Burkina Faso, alongside global and transregional efforts.

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Evidence-Informed Policymaking

Our Evidence-Informed Policymaking strategy aims to promote the consistent, responsible use of inclusive data and evidence to inform and improve policymaking in East and West Africa.

We resource organizations enhancing the capacity and incentives of policymakers to use data and evidence in addressing citizens’ needs, and strengthening the evidence ecosystem at the local, regional, and global levels. Our grantmaking aims to address power imbalances in this field, so that policymakers, institutions, and communities can engage in a more inclusive and trusted policymaking process.

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