Gender
Assessment and
Gender Plan of
Action for
USAID/Angola
A project funded by the Office of Women in Development, Bureau for Global Programs, Field Support and
Research, U.S. Agency for International Development under contract number FAO-0100-C-00-6005-00
with Development Alternatives, Inc.
August 2001
A Women in Development Technical Assistance Project
TECH 1717 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Suite 302, Washington, DC 20036 USA
Tel.: 202-332-2853 FAX: 202-332-8257 Internet: WIDinfo@widtech.org
Development Alternatives, Inc. 
 International Center for Research on Women
Academy for Educational Development 
 Development Associates, Inc.
This publication was made possible through support provided by the Office of Women in Development, Bureau
for Global Programs Field Support and Research, U.S. Agency for International Development, under the terms
of Contract No. FAO-0100-C-00-6005-00. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not
necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Gender Assessment and Gender Plan 
of Action for USAID/Angola
by
Marcia E. Greenberg
Development Alternatives, Inc.
August 2001
TECH
A Women in Development
Technical Assistance Project
A project funded by the Office of Women in Development, Bureau for Global Programs, Field Support and
Research, U.S. Agency for International Development under contract number FAO –0100-C-00-6005-00
i
PREFACE
Since the early months of the WIDTECH project in 1997, USAID/Angola has recognized the
importance of engaging women in its work—for the sake of women as beneficiaries and as a
means of enhancing the achievement of U.S. objectives in Angola. WIDTECH has been most
effective when it has had the opportunity to do more than a single, isolated piece of work
with a Mission. Follow-up and ongoing consultation have been critical to achieving the
capacity building and results critical to WIDTECH’s mission as a project.
USAID/Angola has been the ideal partner. Since inviting us to work with the Mission in
1997, it has remained in contact, requesting assistance at a distance. Later, the Mission asked
our assistance in the elaboration of a new democracy and governance strategy and yet once
again to ensure that gender issues are addressed both in the transition from humanitarian
assistance to development support and in performance monitoring. WIDTECH appreciates
these opportunities and hopes the Mission has found this strategic collaboration to be
effective.
This time, in 2001, we owe our thanks to everyone in the Mission, including the Strategic
Objective teams, which were open to increasing their understanding of the gender issues
within their work and responsive in their questions and collaboration. We wish particularly to
thank Ana Graciana and Ana Branco, who arranged an intense series of meetings within a
very short period of time. 
This report focuses on:

 Identification of particular changes in women’s roles and needs resulting from conflict
and anticipating transition; and

 Gender-related performance monitoring.
This is not a full study of women in Angola; however, such a study was conducted in 1997
by a five-person team over five weeks.1
 This report focuses principally on gender and
results—on how strengthening women’s participation and paying attention to gender issues
can enhance USAID/Angola’s results, and how monitoring and evaluation can track both the
success stories of women’s involvement in USAID programs and any unintended negative
impacts that can be remedied once observed.
 
1 Studies of women in Angola include those commissioned by the Swedish embassy and USAID, the latter
including the WIDTECH reports of 1997 and 2000. It should be noted that, because most of the current
USAID/Angola staff have arrived in recent years, few were aware of the 1997 WIDTECH report, which
presents an accurate description of women in Angola, and its recommendations remain relevant.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY vii
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION 1
PURPOSE .............................................................................................................................. 1
METHODOLOGY.................................................................................................................... 1
CHAPTER TWO
KEY ISSUES FOR WOMEN—PARTICULARLY IN LIGHT OF CONFLICT
AND ANTICIPATED TRANSITION TO DEVELOPMENT 3
HURDLES, OBSTACLES, AND THE NEEDS OF ANGOLAN WOMEN.......................................... 4
Information Channels.............................................................................................. 4
PROGRESS AND OPPORTUNITIES........................................................................................... 9
CHAPTER THREE
GENDER ISSUES AND SO 5: AGRICULTURE AND FOOD SECURITY 11
PAYING ATTENTION TO WOMEN’S ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES ..................................... 11
IR 5.2, THE RECENT RFA, AND PROGRAM DESIGN ........................................................... 12
PERFORMANCE MONITORING ............................................................................................. 14
CHAPTER FOUR
GENDER ISSUES AND SO 6: DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE 
STRENGTHENED 19
WOMEN WITHIN THE SO LANGUAGE AND STRUCTURE ...................................................... 19
QUESTIONS REGARDING IMPLEMENTATION AND WOMEN WITHIN THIS SO’S PROGRAM .... 20
IR 6.1: Greater Availability of Information on Key Issues................................... 20
IR 6.2: Improved Civic Advocacy on Key Issues................................................. 22
IR 6.3: Improved Government-Constituency Relations........................................ 22
PERFORMANCE MONITORING ............................................................................................. 24
Definitions............................................................................................................. 24
Data Collection...................................................................................................... 26
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CHAPTER FIVE
GENDER ISSUES AND SO 7: HEALTHCARE AND HIV/AIDS 31
MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTHCARE ............................................................................... 31
ACCESS, DEMAND AND QUALITY: ISSUES RELATED TO PROJECT DESIGN ......................... 32
HIV/AIDS, WOMEN’S NEEDS, AND GENDER-BASED BARRIERS AND OPPORTUNITIES ...... 33
PERFORMANCE MONITORING ............................................................................................. 35
CHAPTER SIX
CROSS-CUTTING PERSPECTIVE ON PERFORMANCE MONITORING 41
GENDER AND PERFORMANCE-MONITORING IN GENERAL: TO WHAT END?....................... 41
DIFFERENT KINDS OF PERFORMANCE MONITORING: INPUTS, OUTPUTS, AND IMPACTS..... 41
USEFUL SECONDARY DATA SOURCES ................................................................................ 44
KEY ENTRY POINTS............................................................................................................ 45
CHAPTER SEVEN
GENDER ACTION PLAN 47
THE GENDER ACTION PLAN ............................................................................................... 47
Recommended Actions for Each Strategic Objective........................................... 47
Cross-Cutting Processes........................................................................................ 47
MONITORING PERFORMANCE AND IMPLEMENTATION OF GENDER ACTION PLAN .............. 51
Step One: Identify a WID Officer and Form a WID/Gender Committee ............. 51
Step Two: Engage Mission Staff in Finalizing a Gender Performance 
 Monitoring Plan................................................................................................ 52
BIBLIOGRAPHY 57
ANNEX A: RECOMMENDED AREAS OF INQUIRY FOR SO 5 
HOUSEHOLD BASELINE SURVEY A-1
ANNEX B: GUIDELINES FOR SO 6 PANEL TO ASSESS STRENGTHENING 
OF WOMEN AS CONSTITUENCY B-1
ANNEX C: WORKSHOP MATERIALS: TOUCHSTONES AND LANGUAGE 
FOR RFAS C-1
ANNEX D: SAMPLE QUESTIONS FOR EVALUATIONS D-1
ANNEX E: INTERVIEW-BY-INTERVIEW SUMMARIES E-1
ANNEX F: PERSONS INTERVIEWED F-1
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LIST OF TABLES 
Table
1 Key Issues for Women and Recommended Interventions and Monitoring 8
2 Ways to Address Women’s Participation in Producer Associations 14
3 Gender Issues in the SO 5 Strategic Framework 16
4 Examples of Women’s Civic Advocacy During Last Year and Need 
for Follow-Up 22
5 Gender Issues in the SO 6 Strategic Framework 27
6 Gender Issues in the SO 7 Strategic Framework 37
7 Draft Plan for Program Office to Develop with Gender/WID Committee 53
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Following up the 1997 WIDTECH gender assessment and the 2000 WIDTECH consultation
for the new democracy and governance strategy, WIDTECH returned to USAID/Angola in
August 2001. The terms of reference called for three components: (1) identifying key issues
for women, particularly in light of conflict and the anticipated transition from humanitarian
to development assistance; (2) working with the three Strategic Objective (SO) teams on
gender and performance monitoring related to their sectors and activities; and (3) providing
training addressing new gender requirements in USAID’s Automated Directives System
(ADS) and gender and performance monitoring. 
KEY ISSUES FOR WOMEN, PARTICULARLY IN POST-CONFLICT CONDITIONS 
AND RELATING TO TRANSITION
WIDTECH identified key issues for women pursuant to three criteria:

 Whether gender-based obstacles or opportunities would affect achievement of USAID’s
results;

 Whether there are critical issues of gender equity and women’s exclusion that need to be
addressed for equitable and sustainable development in Angola; and

 Whether paying attention to women or gender issues is practicable in the context of
USAID’s work.
Based on those guidelines, WIDTECH identified the following hurdles, obstacles, and needs
of women in Angola.
Illiteracy. Very high, and apparently increasing, levels of women’s illiteracy impede the
dissemination of information to women and limit women’s contributions to social, political,
and economic development. At the same time, women’s intense desire to achieve literacy
provides an opportunity to attract participation in sectoral programs, such as the democracy
work of the Mississippi Consortium for International Development (MCID).
Information Channels. Much of the information dissemination by USAID partners, both
democracy and governance and within agriculture and healthcare, is through traditional
means—television, newspapers, and radios. Women represent at least 50 percent of the adult
population, and thus their receipt of information is often critical for achieving results. It is
essential that USAID partners think in terms not only about getting the information out
(outputs) but also about who receives it. Angolan women seem to receive their information
from three sources: word-of-mouth, church groups, and theatre. The design of USAID￾funded activities should take this into account, and performance monitoring should evaluate
women’s receipt of information. 
viii
Fatigue and Trauma. Forty years of war have left Angolan women exhausted and
emotionally scarred, and the experience has also shaken the confidence and stability of many
Angolan men. USAID partners may need to consider women’s fatigue when trying to
increase the participation of women or expecting them to take on new burdens. Scheduling
activities and technical assistance must take account of the fragile physical and emotional
status of both individuals and families; these efforts potentially could increase gender-based
tensions and even violence. USAID partners may find that their customers and beneficiaries
will gain more from USAID resources if the partners take some steps to mitigate fatigue and
trauma.
Internal Displacement—Internally Displaced Females. There is uncertainty about whether
women and children will return to their homes. These decisions will depend on when they
left—that is, how long they have been in their new homes. In addition, young women who
either do not know the homes their mothers left or who were young when they fled are likely
to stay in urban environments that are familiar. For those who remember and would like to
return home, their decisions will likely depend on what they hear about safety and security,
land tenure, and economic opportunities. The discussions of African Humanitarian
Action/Save the Children (AHA/Save-UK) with internally displaced women should be an
excellent way to determine their concerns, intentions, and needs. This information will be
important for designing the new agriculture and food security activities.
Poverty and Economic Activity. According to preliminary results from the Angolan
National Institute of Statistics’ Household Budget Survey (2000-2001), extreme poverty in
Angola has increased from 11 percent to 23 percent. Fundamental health, education, and food
security are lacking. Further, Angolan women’s place in the economy stems from three
factors: (1) years of living in a centrally planned economy without market-economy
experience; (2) years of functioning in the informal sector or engaging in subsistence
agriculture; and (3) having to be the primary economic actor in a family or household. At the
same time, however, women lack skills to improve their economic circumstances and to
function in a stable, competitive environment. The poverty of women may affect their
demand for and access to healthcare, as well as practices such as using contaminate water or
needles. Before explaining women’s behavior as a function of knowledge, USAID partners
should determine whether poverty is a motivating factor.
Circumstances of the Girl Child. Because of poverty, illness, and the extreme hardships of
surviving in Angola, girls are extremely at risk. In a survivalist environment stemming from
poverty and destroyed infrastructure, mothers do not have time to care for their children. As a
result, older girls are forced to take more responsibility. As HIV/AIDS causes greater
sickness, girls will be expected to take on work of sick mothers or help their mothers with
responsibilities for aunts and uncles who are ill. Girls’ education in Angola is already among
the worst in the world, and socio-economic factors will only exacerbate the circumstances of
girls. Insofar as girls’ education is now acknowledged as a critical factor for sustainable
development, the circumstances of Angolan girls will have negative repercussions.
Low Status of Women. Despite increased responsibility and expanded roles of women in the
absence of men, in much of traditional Angolan culture women have very low status. This
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affects property rights and, therefore, women’s roles in agriculture and economic
development. As a result of polygamy, women become homemakers and caretakers, and
often the only functional head of household for men who have several families. These factors
should be taken into account for data collection, identification of activity participants, and the
sustainability of USAID technical assistance. To the extent that women’s participation
contributes to achieving USAID’s results, it is important to ensure that the low status of
women does not undermine the level and quality of their participation.
Violence Against Women. Violence and post-traumatic stress are endemic in Angola, sad
and powerful legacies of the military and war years. When monitoring activity impacts,
USAID partners should be aware of whether their interventions may cause unintended
negative impacts—that is, increased violence in the home or the community. If monitored,
the issue can be addressed. However, women’s concerns about violence may be an
opportunity for democracy building because women have demonstrated their determination
and organization as civic advocates to address this concern. Examples of such determination
include the October 2000 nationwide March against Poverty and Violence against Women,
their meeting with President Dos Santos, and current efforts to obtain funding for research
from which to develop new legislation.
There also are positive conditions relating to Angolan women—assets for USAID’s
contributions to improving household food security, strengthening democratic constituencies,
and increasing demand for and use of health services. Although the burdens of war and
poverty have fallen on women’s shoulders, women have also risen to the challenge.
Economically, women in rural areas have farmed while those in urban areas have gained
experience with free-market entrepreneurship within the informal sector. Within civil society,
women have provided social services that include healthcare, orphanages, shelter for street
girls, education, and legal counsel. Women also have been among the first to organize and
advocate—starting the women’s network—Rede Mulher—and learning to work with
government counterparts that include women parliamentarians and the Ministry for Family
and Promotion of Women and other ministries.
One positive change in the conditions of women since 1997 has been their continued
progress in organizing and advocating. With the exception of OMA, the MPLA’s women’s
branch, all other women’s organizations have been formed since passage of Angola’s law on
associations in 1991. Relatively quickly, Angolan women leaders recognized that isolated
organizations could not overcome obstacles. Informally established in January 1995 for the
“Fourth World Conference on Women,” in Beijing, Rede Mulher was formalized in August
1998. Rede Mulher now spans the country, including representation in two provinces and
“nucleos” in seven more. Currently, women’s organizations abound, from professional
associations to service organizations and advocacy groups around the country.
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GENDER AND SO 5, ENHANCED HOUSEHOLD FOOD SECURITY
Identifying gender-based barriers and opportunities within this SO must begin with
recognition that this is not an economic growth SO. The focus goes beyond increasing gross
domestic product or trade within a region. Rather, the emphasis is on food security—growth
of agricultural products to increase food security. With food security at the core of this SO,
four factors become critical:

 Whether more agricultural produce is grown;

 Whether that food is consumed within the household or sold to generate monetary
resources that are spent on consumable food;

 Who within the household gets the food; and

 What is the nutritional value and diversity of the foods consumed.
With regard to those factors, it is important to think of women in many different roles: heads
of households; “critical partners” within households with men; producers of food; marketers
of food; potential processors of food; and those who select, cook, and distribute food within
the household. To design and implement effective technical assistance, USAID implementing
partners need to consult with women in the very earliest phases of activity design.
Several factors will be critical as SO 5’s new implementing partner designs its new activity.
First, the selection of crops to grow should depend not only on the identification the five
most high value crops; with food security as the objective, the value of crops is but one factor
among many. Second, work with agricultural associations may or may not include women
farmers; if they are included, their incorporation may or may not be substantive or effective.
The implementing partner should take care to ensure that women are included in this effort,
either in the associations or as women’s farmer groups.
There are three entry points for including gender in this SO’s performance monitoring:

 The SO 5 household baseline survey should be used to collect information on women’s
roles in households and the community, as well as to monitor changes. 

 The SO team needs to ensure that the new IR 5.2 implementing partner includes women’s
input and information about women’s roles within its six-month design phase and activity
monitoring process.

 The mid-term evaluation should address practices concerning women’s roles and
contributions—in cultivating, harvesting, processing, marketing, cooking, spending, and
distributing food within the household.
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GENDER AND SO 6, STRENGTHENED CONSTITUENCIES PROMOTING DEMOCRACY
Up until the very last moments of strategy design, this SO included IR 6.4: “Women’s
Participation in Political Processes Strengthened.” There were two reasons for the IR: (1)
women are not simply one subset of civil society or constituencies but have the possibility to
lead others into civic action and advocacy; and (2) without an explicit IR, the Mission (and
its partners) might fail to work with and monitor the success of women. The SO 6 team
ultimately eliminated the IR for two reasons. First, the team was apparently concerned about
its partners’ capacity to achieve the result and the team’s ability to measure it. More
important, however, it was determined that women’s participation should be an integral part
of each of the other IRs. Having a separate IR risked the failure to address women in the
other IRs. Integrating attention to women across the SO is ideal as long as the reason for an
explicit IR is not forgotten: that without an explicit IR, the team may fail to work with and
monitor the success of women. Achieving effective integration across the SO will depend on
how SO 6 partners target their resources and on how SO 6 incorporates gender in its
performance monitoring.
The SO 6 team and its partners must think of women in relation to all three touchstones:

 Women as Key to Results. Women are needed as role models and as leaders.

 Women’s Needs and Gender Inequality. When assessing the effectiveness of
governance, the SO 6 team and its partners should recognize the extent to which the
interests of women are not represented, government does not address their needs or
priorities, and women’s rights are violated. 

 Strategic Opportunities. There are committed women with whom to work in Angola.
With the support of the Swedes and the UNDP, and with the exposure and experience
women have gained through the “Fourth World Conference on Women” and through
“Beijing +5,” women are mobilized. 
The language and focus of the IRs themselves suggest issues relating to women’s
participation and contributions. Efforts to increase the “Availability of Information on Key
Issues” must ensure that information is available to women and that the identification of key
issues takes into account those issues that are key for women, such as land tenure and
violence against women. Both improve civic advocacy
And improved government-constituency relations involves women because they are already
civic advocates and engaged in relations with government institutions. However, women
need capacity-building skills to achieve greater success.
There are three entry points for inserting gender into the SO 6 performance monitoring plan.
First, several indices measure change. Each index must include gender-related factors. Each
group of experts must include both women and people who are knowledgeable about
women’s activities as democratic constituencies. Second, the annual assessment of women’s
status should be narrowed to focus on improvements in women’s civic and political
xii
participation. Third, many of the indicators focus on inputs and outputs rather than impacts.
Greater focus on impacts will improve attention to women.
GENDER AND S0 7, INCREASED USE OF MATERNAL/CHILD 
HEALTH AND HIV/AIDS SERVICES
With regard to women’s participation, maternal and child healthcare programs are unique
because women are the primary beneficiaries and partners. But how a program engages
women and involves them in needs assessment and in project design and implementation
may be less clearly defined. Paying attention to women’s participation and to gender-based
roles and responsibilities is particularly important within a transition and development
context. Once USAID shifts to a development perspective, activities must be designed to
address such issues as capacity building and sustainability. Thus, the capacity of women
must be considered in relation to their roles as mothers, as people responsible for their own
health, as key caretakers within families and communities, and as health professionals.
Women may play an integral role in building institutions and processes, as well as serving as
key constituents with government to ensure resources and quality care.
There are four areas where women’s input and gender relations must be considered in
activity design and monitoring:

 Access. USAID partners must understand from women themselves what impedes access.
Potential issues include access to transportation, affordability/cost (unofficial even more
than official), frequency, and knowledge.

 Demand. The demand for children’s and maternal healthcare depends on women. It is
important to know or test the factors on which demand depends, including how men in
the household affect demand. From an economic standpoint, demand is influenced by
price. If women know that services are not really free—that is, that they must make
informal payments all along the system—cost may affect demand. 

 Quality. USAID partners must understand what quality is important to the woman
consumers—for example, the results of the medical treatment or how women are treated
as patients or as mothers of children needing care. Comfort and courtesy may be more
important, or the long waits may raise the opportunity costs of a woman’s time—the
option of using her time to harvest food for her children or to sell in the market to
generate the income with which to purchase the day’s food. The report, “Willingness and
Capacity to Pay for Social Services” by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) and
UNICEF, provides relevant information on how users perceive quality and on factors that
affect demand for healthcare services. USAID partners also must talk to women to
determine what quality constraints may limit demand for healthcare services among their
target population.

 Health Committees. SO 7 anticipates the importance of health committees, but their
relevance and impact may depend on who are on these committees and the nature of their
xiii
activities. For women to be real assets, it is important to determine whether women have
time to participate and whether they have the opportunity to lead. 
GENDER AND HIV/AIDS
USAID/Angola is focusing its HIV/AIDS work on two groups: commercial sex workers and
youth. Activities targeting sex workers may not raise issues of women’s participation, but
they do raise issues of gender-based roles and power. For example, to what extent do women
in such situations have the power to insist on use of a condom? Will knowledge about the
spread of AIDS suffice to change their behavior? Or might it be necessary to work with the
men who are customers? Might it be more effective to make sure that men realize that if they
have unprotected sex with sex workers not only they themselves may become infected but
that they also can infect their wives, and leave themselves without their wives and without
mothers for their children?
With regard to youth, there may be issues concerning young women’s participation and
gender-based roles. Young women need to know about the dangers of AIDS and may decide
as a result to forgo sexual relations. Yet a poor young women, who lives in an internally
displaced persons camp and has the chance to be treated well by a rich, powerful man may be
unable to insist he use a condom. Information alone may not to protect them.
AIDS threatens various groups of women, including young women wooed by older men;
married women, from husbands who have other wives and/or mistresses; women contracting
AIDS from avoidable sources caused by poverty—for example, needles re-used in clinics,
blood transfusions, and healthcare workers with People Living with AIDS (PLWA) working
without proper gloves; and women victims of violence. 
At the same time, USAID and its partners must regard women not only as potential victims
but also as part of the solution.
There are four key entry points for working with women and addressing gender issues:

 Information. Social marketing strategies must anticipate not only which population
segments get the information—for example, young men versus young women, middle
class versus poor internally displaced women, citizens of Luanda or of provincial cities—
but also whether those people can use the information. USAID partners should be able to
identify the group that a particular billboard or television commercial reaches. They also
should be able to identify which communications media are effective for reaching
different populations—such as illiterate women or people who do not have television or
radio.

 Partnerships. For education and social action, it is important to identify appropriate
partners. For example, depending on their belief system and how they might choose to
participate, churches could be effective partners with and on behalf of women. Although
some churches may regard condoms as encouraging sex and choose not to support their
xiv
use to prevent AIDS, others have taken a more pro-active role in supporting the use of
condoms. This could be an important intervention in Angola because there is a real
problem when polygamous men may put multiple families at risk. In other cases, peer
advocates (such as those used by Adventist Development and Relief Agency
International [ADRA]) may be effective partners.

 Choice of Protection. Women complain that they cannot control whether male condoms
are used. Women would like their own so they can control use. Although the cost of
female condoms may be significantly higher than that of male condoms, if the usage
would be greater, the cost per person actually protected would be lower and the final
result of limiting the spread of AIDS greater.

 Women as Allies. There are a number of opportunities to work with women to address
HIV/AIDS:
− Mothers can teach children/sons/daughters;
− Including AIDS education within adult literacy and school curricula will reach many;
− Some women’s church groups, such as Methodist women, have expressed interest in
the topic; and
− Women’s groups, which need technical assistance and resources (such as MCID’s
nucleos or Women, Peace and Development) want to raise awareness.
Performance monitoring should address gender issues in three areas: (1) girls and women as
beneficiaries of healthcare, recipients of information, and participants in training and
capacity building; (2) monitoring of implementation to identify any gender-related barriers or
opportunities; and (3) success stories related to women’s participation or addressing gender
issues.
The existing indicators raise some concerns:

 Counting buildings may not measure access to health clinics. For example, access to
maternal and child healthcare services may involve the service making a community or
house-call, such as those made by traditional birth attendants. Tracking reconstruction of
buildings will not capture this mechanism for increased access to services. 

 Knowledge may not necessarily increase demand or use. There is a fundamental
assumption that increasing women’s knowledge will increase the demand for USAID￾funded healthcare services. But women’s failure to use services may not be because they
do not know the signs and symptoms of a childhood disease, but because they have to
make judgments about when to use money and time for one child’s care to the detriment
of the care of the other children.

 Establishment of committees may not increase demand. The establishment of a health
committee may lack sustainability or fail to achieve the intended results. For example, if
there is a broad and strong committee that includes some charismatic, traditional health
xv
advisor, the committee may cause women to use traditional methods more and the clinic
less.
GENDER AND PERFORMANCE MONITORING
The WIDTECH consultation produced three important findings regarding gender and
performance monitoring. First, it is critical that USAID staff recognize the difference
between monitoring gender impacts at the national level and reporting them to Washington
and monitoring gender impacts at the activity level to assess the effectiveness of design and
implementation while there is time to learn and modify accordingly. In the case of Angola,
the Mission is not investing sufficient resources to take responsibility for impacts at the
national level. But at the activity level, USAID’s partners must be aware of gender impacts,
including intended and unintended positive impacts that can be reported to Washington as
success stories and unintended negative impacts that should be reported as important lessons
learned.
Second, several resources were identified as important tools for gender-based monitoring and
evaluation. Important studies include UNICEF’s Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS),
the updated MICS and a special study of internally displaced persons (both of which address
HIV/AIDS), the January 1999 “Analises Estatisticas Sobre O Genero” (hopefully updated
from the 2000-2001 Household Baseline Study of INE), an INE/UNICEF report on
“Willingness and Capacity to Pay for Social Services,” and the AHA/Save-UK “Conversa no
Jango—A Voz das Mulheres Deslocadas” with internally displaced women. In addition,
there are several good reports, including “Towards Gender Equality in Angola,” by the
Swedish embassy; Rede Mulher’s “Alternative Report on Implementation of the Beijing
Platform of Action in Angola”; and Angola’s 1998 report to the Committee on the
Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Furthermore, USAID has the
opportunity to include some targeted questions in its SO 5 household baseline surveys.
And finally, each sector—agriculture and food security, democratic constituencies, maternal
and child healthcare, and HIV/AIDS—raises particular issues regarding gender impacts.
Some of the key factors to monitor are the following: (1) Beyond sex-disaggregated tracking
of participation in training or receipt of technical assistance, how do new information and
skills change the behavior and effectiveness of men and women? (2) What are some of the
positive impacts on women, the success stories? (3) Has USAID-supported assistance had
any unintended negative impacts on women, or on how men and women manage their
respective roles and responsibilities? 
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR USAID/ANGOLA’S GENDER ACTION PLAN
The WIDTECH report addresses two aspects of the gender action plan: (1) some steps that
should be included; and (2) suggestions of how to monitor its implementation. Just as the
report suggests ways to monitor and evaluate gender impacts within USAID’s strategic
framework as a way of ensuring that resources are used effectively and that results are
xvi
achieved, the Mission needs to put in place a plan for monitoring the integration of and
attention to gender in its program.
The key steps are the following:

 Ensure that USAID uses the RFA or RFP process to ensure attention to gender
issues. The process can be used to determine the specific gender issues related to the
proposed activities, how prospective partners would propose to address them, and what
gender-related expertise and experience companies or organizations can apply to the
subject. Where an RFA has already been issued, as with SO 5, make sure to use the six￾month design period to get input from women and to determine their roles in planting,
harvesting, processing, and marketing.

 Build USAID familiarity and USAID partners’ capacity to employ participatory
research methods that will engage and include women and to use household surveys to
gather critical information regarding women’s perspectives, needs, and roles.

 Ensure that the terms of reference for all mid-term and final evaluations go beyond
simple reference to gender. They must clearly articulate the expectation that the review
identify intended and unintended positive impacts on women, unintended negative
impacts, lessons learned, and success stories. Because a number of professional
institutions, such as INE and Centro de Ensino e Investigacao em Populacao (CEIP)
undertake such evaluations, gender-aware evaluations may be improved by sponsoring
training for local institutions and experts.

 Obtain successes and lessons learned from the USAID community and from other
donors and organizations. To ensure that USAID partners understand USAID/Angola’s
commitment to collecting this information, the Mission Director should send a
memorandum to all partners. USAID also should take advantage of quarterly partners’
meetings to raise gender issues in the context of discussions of cross-sectoral linkages.

 Facilitate the exchange of information relating to women in Angola and gender
issues in development assistance by (1) supporting the launch of an association of men
and women looking at WID/gender and development in their professional work and/or;
(2) encouraging the United Nations to convene a regular donors gender working group;
and/or (3) starting a USAID gender and development study group.
The gender performance monitoring plan would require three steps:
1. Identifying a WID officer to head a WID or Gender Committee, composed of all team
leaders, representation from the Program Office, and the front office when necessary;
2. Convening a meeting to discuss WIDTECH’s draft performance monitoring plan—
deciding what should be included; who would be responsible; and how to track inputs,
outputs, and impacts. This meeting is critical to ensure that the content is defined by
those who will be responsible; and
xvii
3. Collecting information pursuant to the plan and reporting noteworthy impacts and
successes to Washington.

Chapter One—Introduction
1
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
PURPOSE
USAID/Angola requested WIDTECH’s assistance to “provide an assessment of the
Mission’s strategic plan from a gender perspective and propose recommendations for
integrating gender activities and indicators in the implementation of the plan.” The
assignment included four tasks: 

 Identify “issues that USAID/Angola should address for women beneficiaries, given the
ongoing conflict and transitional nature of Angola”;

 Assess the strategic framework and ways to incorporate gender considerations into
ongoing and proposed activities;

 Provide technical advice on the Mission’s performance monitoring plan to reflect the
cross-cutting theme of gender in USAID/Angola’s programs; and

 Train staff and partners on gender issues.
METHODOLOGY
During the two weeks of the assignment, WIDTECH’s consultant met with USAID partners
from all three strategic objectives (SOs), including representatives of Africare, CARE,
Christian Children’s Fund (CCF), Catholic Relief Services (CRS), MIACOOP, Mississippi
Consortium for International Development (MCID), National Council of Churches (NCC),
National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), Population Services
International (PSI), Save the Children-US, World Learning, and World Vision. Meetings
were also held with the Adventist Development and Relief Agency International (ADRA),
African Humanitarian Action, Action against Hunger (AAH), Concern, Development
Workshop, and Oxfam. Additional meetings with UNICEF, United Nations Population Fund￾Angola (UNFPA), and Social Action Fund (FAS)/World Bank addressed the multilateral
institutions’ efforts to focus on women.2
 To develop a gender perspective on healthcare, the
consultant met with the National Directorate for Public Health, the Luanda Provincial
Delegate for Health, and the Maternity Services “Lucrecia Paim” of the Banco de Urgencia. 
For information relating specifically to women, WIDTECH met with the women’s network
(Rede Mulher), women parliamentarians (Grupo Mulheres Parlamentares [GMP]), Vice￾Minister of the Ministry for Family and Promotion of Women (MINFAMU), National
 
2 UNDP cancelled a scheduled appointment because its representative was outside of Luanda.
Gender Assessment and Gender Plan of Action
2
Institute of Statistics (INE), and Swedish embassy. For a complete list of contacts, see Annex
F.
To build capacity among USAID staff, WIDTECH delivered a two-hour workshop that
covered (1) new provisions of the Automated Directives System (ADS) (sections 200 and
300 regarding assessment, performance monitoring, and procurement); (2) gender and RFAs;
and (3) performance monitoring. WIDTECH was pleased with the attendance and
participation. See Annex C for select materials from workshop. Because performance
monitoring depends so much on the observations, record keeping, and reporting by partners,
WIDTECH also held short working sessions with NDI, two subgrantees (MIACOOP and
NCC), and additional SO 5 and SO 7 partners.
Chapter Two—Key Issues for Women: Particularly in Light of Conflict
And Anticipated Transition to Development
3
CHAPTER TWO
KEY ISSUES FOR WOMEN—PARTICULARLY IN LIGHT OF CONFLICT 
AND ANTICIPATED TRANSITION TO DEVELOPMENT
Although much regarding the conditions of Angolan women remains the same as those
described in WIDTECH’s report of 1997, there have been two sweeping changes, one
negative and one positive. On the negative side, since the resumption of war in 1998, poor
women’s lives have gotten worse because of the continuing disintegration of their social and
economic circumstances, further displacement and internal migration, and additional war￾related injuries.
On the positive side, women with education and economic means have made important
strides. They have:

 Raised awareness of women’s rights;

 Organized and learned increasingly how to work together;

 Initiated and built nongovernmental organizations; and 

 Become real participants in civil society. 
Looking at the situation in 2001 as a snapshot in time, it is possible to wish for more; but
taking a dynamic look that compares women’s voices, capacity, and influence in 2001 with
their circumstances in 1992 reveals substantial progress.
To respond to USAID/Angola’s request that WIDTECH identify key issues for Angolan
women in transition, we first need to identify our criteria for identifying issues as “key.”
Issues that are key will be those where:
1. An issue presents a gender-based obstacle or opportunity that will affect USAID’s
results;
2. An issue represents a critical problem of gender equity and women’s exclusion that needs
to be addressed to achieve the equitable and sustainable development of Angola; or 
3. The issue is one that it is practicable for USAID to pay attention to in the context of its
work.
Issues that are thus considered key will be those that USAID staff and implementing partners
should consider in program design, implementation, and evaluation. With reference to those
criteria, it is important that USAID and its implementing partners take the factors discussed
below into account when designing, implementing, and monitoring their projects.
Gender Assessment and Gender Plan of Action
4
HURDLES, OBSTACLES, AND THE NEEDS OF ANGOLAN WOMEN
Illiteracy. Although there are no data yet to confirm
this, it is widely reported that the already high levels
of illiteracy for girls and women are on the rise.
This change can be attributed to two factors: first,
older women had access to some schooling, based
on ideologies and policies of both the MPLA and
UNITA and on stability of resources in earlier years.
In recent years, however, those systems have
disintegrated and access has become limited.
Second, women and girls now must devote their
time increasingly to economic survival and to caring
for children. Thus, illiteracy is particularly a
problem for younger women and older girls—those on whom Angola’s socio-economic
development will depend.
Minimal educational resources + Dislocation + Problems of access (lack of
transport, roads free of landmines, etc) + demands of economic survival +
girls’ care-taking of younger = Fewer and fewer girls getting any education,
and hence illiterate.
Relevance. Programming needs to take account of this fundamental impediment to women’s
participation and to opportunities to respond to women’s hunger for learning. See, for
example, the women’s literacy program of MCID, an SO 6 partner.
Information Channels
Women Receiving Information. Whether information relates to elections or to HIV/AIDS,
women will receive it from sources different than those of men. Traditional media
(television, newspapers, and radio) do not reach a great proportion of Angolan women.
Women are more likely to get information from church groups, traditional theater, and face￾to-face interaction. Relevance: Nearly all USAID programs involve dissemination of some
information and efforts to understand and change behavior through the exchange of
information. Women constitute at least 50 percent of the population, and informing them is
often critical to results. Therefore, it is imperative that USAID partners design information
dissemination to reach women, and then monitor whether it reaches women or not.
Women Disseminating/Contributing Information. Another issue for women is whether
they are getting their own stories out to the public and to policy makers at multiple levels.
From Rede Mulher to women at local levels, women’s groups and women as individuals
possess limited capacity for utilizing various media. Through their determination and concern
about social issues, women are at the forefront of civil society action in Angola. This is
important not only for women and their particular issues but also as leadership and
inspiration for other groups to be active citizens. And others need to know about what these
The following factors are addressed in
this section:

 Illiteracy;

 Information channels;

 Fatigue and trauma;

 Internal displacement (internally
displaced females);

 Poverty and economic activities;

 Circumstances of the girl child;

 Low status of women; and

 Violence against women.
Chapter Two—Key Issues for Women: Particularly in Light of Conflict
And Anticipated Transition to Development
5
women are doing, as do the donors. Relevance: It is important that USAID’s partners make
efforts to help to use various media to ensure public knowledge of their initiatives. Key
actors and potential customers in this respect include the women of Rede Mulher with regard
to the October March against Poverty and Violence against Women, Women, Peace and
Development (MPD) working for peace, and small women’s “nucleos” in the provinces.
Fatigue and Trauma. Forty years of war, including renewed hostilities and dislocation in
1992 and again in 1998, have left the Angolan people—and women, in particular—exhausted
and emotionally scarred. This is certainly the case for the poor and for internally displaced
persons (IDPs). But it is also true for middle class women who similarly work more than one
job, struggle in an expensive city, and try to purchase whatever normality they can for their
children. Relevance: USAID partners seeking to engage women in their activities must be
cognizant of what women can bear.3
 USAID partners should assess and monitor women and
men customers’ allocation of time to avoid possible negative impacts of overburdening them
with project-related expectations and commitments. At the same time, programming that
includes some counseling or some mechanisms for addressing trauma may enhance the
success of some activities.
Internal Displacement (IDPs) and Women in Transition. What may we expect regarding
the movement of women (and their families) from Luanda, provincial cities, and IDP camps
to their original homes? First, it is important to note that there are different generations of
IDPs. Some left their homes so long ago they do not remember them well, and their children
do not know the homes at all. Some IDPs are more recent, having fled since 1998. In
addition, some left their homes and have been in one new location or camp; others have been
in multiple sites. Some left before real horrors; some experienced horror and trauma at home
(and therefore may not want to return). While some IDPs may be new to urban environments,
they may decide to stay in them and, consequently, need skills for urban life. Others may
choose to return to the countryside and may therefore need resources to resume an
agricultural or pastoral life style. (Note: There also is some likelihood that some men will
stay in the urban areas to take jobs there, while women return home with their children. This
will have an impact on who actually is tilling the land—men or women.)
Whether women will opt to return home will depend both on what they know and on what
they hear about:

 Security and safety;

 Land tenure; and

 Economic opportunity.
There is some information now about women’s perspectives and preferences since the
UNHCR/Search for Common Ground (CCG) held meetings this spring. Valuable
information will soon be available from the “Conversations” of AHA/Save-UK with IDP
 
3 Although some may think that travel and conferences are costly without commensurate benefit, there are
extra benefits for Angolan women. Travel and conferences give Angolan women an opportunity inform and
renew their activism and to continue the struggle at home—for themselves, for their families, for their
communities, and for other women.
Gender Assessment and Gender Plan of Action
6
women and from a UNICEF study that supplements the MICS (which did not address people
in IDP camps). Relevance: The perspective of IDP women will be helpful in designing
agriculture and health programs. For SO 6, identification of IDP women’s concerns may flag
issues for advocacy and coalitions.
Poverty and Economic Activities. According to preliminary results from the Angolan
Institute of National Statistics’ Household Budget Survey (2000-2001), extreme poverty in
Angola has increased from 11 percent to 23 percent. Fundamental health, education, and food
security are lacking. Further, Angolan women’s place in the economy stems from three
factors: (1) years of living in a centrally planned economy without market-economy
experience; (2) years of functioning in the informal sector or engaging in subsistence
agriculture; and (3) having to be the primary economic actor in a family or household. At the
same time, however, women lack skills to improve their economic circumstances or to
function in a stable, competitive environment. Relevance: When it may seem that women’s
behavior is evidence of ignorance—for example, when they do not bring their children to
health clinics—poverty may be a critical factor. For Angolan women, knowledge does not
necessary result in actions if the necessary resources are not accessible. When there is a need
and no alternative, women may do what they know is not good, such as using water from an
infected well if no potable water is available or re-using needles for shots when absent a
sufficient supply of needles. Although health services offer free care, accessing it usually
depends on having some resources, which in turn depends on a family’s economic resources
and viability.
Circumstances of the Girl Child. Because of poverty, illness, and the extreme hardships of
surviving in Angola, girls are extremely at risk. In a survivalist environment stemming from
poverty and destroyed infrastructure, mothers do not have time to care for their children and
thus older girls are forced to take on more responsibility. As HIV/AIDS causes greater
sickness, girls will be expected to take on work of sick mothers and help their mothers with
responsibilities for aunts and uncles who are ill. The education of girls in Angola is already
among the worst in the world, and socio-economic factors will only exacerbate their
circumstances. Further, findings from a recent Save-UK evaluation suggest that concern for
children separated from their families is predicated on gender bias—looking at the well-being
of boys who have left their families (street children) but not at the girls who are kept at home
to perform family and household labor. 
With UNICEF’s assistance, the Government of Angola has launched a campaign to register
children. It is extraordinarily important that monitoring be disaggregated by sex. Lower
registration rates for girls will not only be evidence of a cultural or social distinction
regarding the importance of girls’ education, but will also expose a practical impediment to
girls’ education because children cannot attend school without registration documents.
Relevance: Worldwide, donors and governments cite the importance of girls’ education for
development. (When asked at Cornell University in August 2001 what was needed to end
world hunger, the Executive Director of the World Food Programme, Catherine Bertini,
answered, “girls’ education.”) In Angola, girls’ lack of education and literacy is planting real
disadvantages for the country’s development because Angola needs women as cultivators of
Chapter Two—Key Issues for Women: Particularly in Light of Conflict
And Anticipated Transition to Development
7
agriculture, economic players (as owners of businesses, as traders, as employees), as
mothers, and as politically active citizens.
Low Status of Women. Despite women’s increased responsibility and expanded roles in the
absence of men, many whom have died or migrated, women have very low status in much of
traditional Angolan culture.4
 Polygamy is one cultural practice that relates to women’s
status—as they become the homemakers and caretakers for men who have several families.
There are also issues of inequities concerning property rights, inheritance, and protection by
families, communities, and the law that must be taken into account. 
Relevance. To the extent that women’s participation is important for achieving results,
USAID partners must ensure that women’s low status does not undermine the level and
quality of women’s participation—for example, within farmers’ associations and community
health committees, in local government and contributing opinions and perspectives in
democratic debate, and when voting.
Violence against Women. Violence is endemic in
Angolan society; it is part of the military and war
legacy and part of the trauma and stress of years of
war. There is violence at the family, community,
and national levels. Angolan women’s references
to violence include not only physical injury but
also such treatment as a man throwing his wife and
children out of the house. In 1997, women
complained of harassment and violence by corrupt
police awaiting women leaving the informal
market with their day’s earnings. 
Further, there are many psycho-social bases for
violence, from those boys and young men who
suffer the emotional legacies of war experience to
those who suffer permanent physical disabilities to
the many who lack jobs and sources of self￾esteem. The consequences of their anger,
frustration, and despair fall on those in their
families and communities who are not able to
defend themselves—women and on children. In
the IDP camps, women have raised the issue of
violence. On the national level, GMP,
MINFAMU, and Rede Mulher want to undertake
research as a predicate for passing legislation on
violence against women. Relevance. Violence has
impacts on the economic well-being of families and on children when women whose labor
 
4 Note, however, that in southern Angola communities take much better care of women—for instance, fathers
ensure that their daughters have property so if a marriage does not work out they have their own economic
means upon which to rely.
Polygamy and Development
Assistance Ramifications
The practices of polygamy and keeping
of mistresses have implications for
USAID’s work that have nothing to do
moral judgments. For example, what
does it mean if we view a man as “head
of household” when in fact he enjoys
two or three households, of which a
woman runs each and care for him?
Who in such a household is responsible
for food security? With regard to AIDS
prevention, what are the ramifications if
men claim to be monogamous but are in
fact engaging in sexual relations with
several wives, with mistresses, and with
prostitutes—thereby putting women who
head households and care for children
at risk. As a matter of gender relations
and power differentials, what does it
mean that rich men are happy to have
short-term relations with young girls
who, apart from those actually engaging
in prostitution for economic resources,
see that their time with a rich man can
lead to economic means that are
otherwise entirely out of their reach?
Gender Assessment and Gender Plan of Action
8
generates income and food are incapacitated. Violence may also be a key issue for programs
related to advocacy, rule of law and human rights. With regard to performance monitoring, it
is very important that USAID partners pay attention to heightened proclivities toward
violence when they are concerned about unintended negative consequences of their
assistance. Table 1 summarizes key issues for women and suggests how to address them and
to monitor the effectiveness of the assistance.
Table 1: Key Issues for Women and Recommended Interventions and Monitoring 
Particular Issues for Women How to Address Women’s
Particular Circumstances
How to Measure/Monitor
Effectiveness
High levels of illiteracy

 Focus on registration of girls

 Support campaign for girls to
attend school

 Address household and family
tasks that require girls’ labor

 Count girls registered

 Include in community surveys

 Check data from the new MICS
Lack of education and skills

 Adult literacy

 Vocational training

 Focus agriculture technical
assistance on women farmers

 Include in community surveys

 Monitor participants in MCID literacy
training and their use of new
information

 Track women trained in agriculture
activity
Extreme poverty

 Micro-credit along with technical
assistance

 Technical support for women in
the informal market

 Focus agriculture assistance,
including processing and
marketing, on women farmers

 Include in community surveys

 Check data from the new MICS

 Consult IDP studies (AAH and
Save-UK)
Mental health, trauma, and
fatigue

 Add traditional and psycho-social
assistance to women at clinics
(with children or for maternal
healthcare)

 Collect and disseminate success
stories

 Include attention to negative impacts
in performance monitoring

 Measure number of information
releases (or, better, test women’s
knowledge of what other women are
doing)
No time for public
discussions/realm

 Support time-saving technologies

 Give double technical assistance
at same times (e.g., Concern:
nutrition plus seeds)

 Meet with women while at church

 Count meetings with women

 Track women’s participation in
public meetings

 Incorporate input, e.g., producer
associations
Patriarchal society, women’s
rights violated, women do not
know their rights

 Support women’s rights
campaigns and legal literacy
training

 Add women’s rights component to
other places/activities, e.g., health
clinics

 Work with traditional leaders as
allies

 It is hard to monitor the violation of
rights because there is little
reporting. This may require a start
with “outputs,” and measurement of
impacts only in the future
HIV/AIDS: Women increasingly
ill, infected by husbands and
others; women taking on
burdens of care-taking; women
not able to insist on use of
condoms

 Support women forming
group/hospice care

 Healthcare outreach to
communities

 Focus information campaigns on
men with power/opportunity

 Distribute female condoms

 Report on information targeted at
men and at women; evaluate reach
in focus groups

 Try to determine usage of male vs.
female condoms

 Request reporting on health
practices reaching out to women
with AIDS or women caring for
AIDS-stricken family members 
Chapter Two—Key Issues for Women: Particularly in Light of Conflict
And Anticipated Transition to Development
9
PROGRESS AND OPPORTUNITIES
At the same time that USAID and its partners must be aware of the needs of women as
beneficiaries, it is important to have a full perspective on how women may play a role in
achieving the goals of USAID, the Government of Angola, and the citizens of Angola.
Although the burdens of war and poverty have fallen on women’s shoulders, they have also
managed to carry them. Economically, women in rural areas have farmed without men’s
assistance and women in urban areas have engaged in economic activities in the informal
sector. Within civil society, women have provided social services, such as healthcare,
orphanages, shelter for street girls, education, and legal counsel. They have also been among
the first to organize and advocate.
One positive change in women’s conditions since 1997 has been their continued progress in
organizing and advocating. With the exception of OMA, the MPLA’s women’s branch, all
other women’s organizations have been formed since passage of Angola’s law on
associations in 1991. Relatively quickly, Angolan women leaders recognized that isolated
organizations could not overcome obstacles. Informally established in January 1995 for the
“Fourth World Conference on Women,” Rede Mulher was formally established in August
1998. Rede Mulher now has national span, including representation in two provinces and
nucleos in seven more.5
 There are now many women’s organizations, from professional
associations to service organizations and advocacy groups. 
Although one USAID SO 6 implementing partner has recognized women’s strategic
importance, another has focused on women’s groups’ lack of capacity. In the context of a
country just beginning to experiment with democratic processes and women’s groups that
demonstrate some courage and determination to be active in civil society, the lack of capacity
should not be a reason to discount them. Rather, as one purpose of foreign assistance is to
build capacity, it is sometimes more important to find the people who have the drive or “fire”
and give them capacity than to give resources to people who have capacity but lack any real
commitment to social justice and democracy.6
Further, there have been noteworthy accomplishments among women in recent years.
Gradually, the tensions between women in the Executive Branch (MINFAMU), Parliament,
and civil society have decreased and there is greater collaboration. Although this may not be
perfect, there are at least efforts to work together, illustrating the value and challenge of
government and citizens working toward similar ends. This women’s collaboration offers
very good opportunities, ranging from general issues of government-constituent relations to
 
5 Since 1999, there are representatives in Benguela, Luanda, and Huila with the addition of Namibe, Cabinda,
and Uige in 2000. 6 It is also important in Angola to be wary of the sources of judgments. First, a lot of judgments are made with
limited information or with mis-information and biases. Second, in cases of competition for scarce resources,
those competing will not give strong endorsements; rather, they will undercut. Third, information often
depends on an organization’s capacity to promote itself, both generally, such as with the media and with
donors. For example, when we asked the Rede Mulher for information about the March against Poverty and
Violence against Women in October 2000, it turned out that there was a report, video, and newspaper articles
but the organization lacked the time and resources to send them to donors.
Gender Assessment and Gender Plan of Action
10
further work on HIV/AIDS, advocacy for peace, healthcare, education, and combating
violence against women.
Chapter Three—Gender Issues and SO 5: Agriculture and Food Security
11
CHAPTER THREE
GENDER ISSUES AND SO 5: AGRICULTURE AND FOOD SECURITY
PAYING ATTENTION TO WOMEN’S ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Identifying gender-based barriers and opportunities
within this SO must begin with recognition that this
is not an economic growth SO. It does not aim only
to increase GDP or trade within a region. Rather, the
focus is on food security—growth of agricultural
products in order to increase food security. Once
food security is at the core of this SO, four factors
become critical:
1. Whether more agricultural produce is grown;
2. Whether that food is consumed within the household or sold to generate monetary
resources that are spent on consumable food;
3. Who within the household gets the food and/or money generated from market sales; and
4. What is the nutritional value and diversity of the foods consumed.
In relation to those factors, it is important to think of women in many different roles: heads of
households; critical partners with men within households; producers of food; marketers of
food; potential processors of food; and those who select, cook, and distribute food within the
household. To design and implement effective technical assistance, USAID implementing
partners need to consult with women in the very earliest phases of activity design about the
crops, types of technical assistance, and the like:

 In defining, working with, and monitoring households, pay attention to women’s
roles relating to the production, preparation, and distribution of food. This SO
involves the labor and nourishment of households, so it is important to look at the roles of
all adults, irrespective of who is officially deemed the head of household. Although
progress has been made in recognizing female-headed households, the fact of a man
being in or affiliated with a household does not mean he is that household’s “head” (see,
for example, the discussion of polygamy above). Further, men are often not responsible
for food security or are the most effective partners for USAID assistance, female-headed
households have limited resources and time, some households are now headed by
children, and some households are headed by disabled women. Understanding the
assignment of roles and responsibilities in a household is not only important for surveys
and monitoring, such as determining whether household food security increases more in
female-headed households or whether they use USAID technical assistance and resources
SO 5: Enhanced Household Food
Security in Targeted Communities
5.1: Vulnerable Households Become
more Food Self-Sufficient
5.2: High Value Crops Produced and
Marketed More Efficiently
Gender Assessment and Gender Plan of Action
12
more effectively than male-headed households. Such information also is critical for the
design of activities and for determining the most effective partners.

 Ensure that technical assistance, from extension agents and others, reaches women.
There is little monitoring (or evaluation) of the extent to which information and capacity￾building efforts reach women. Absent knowing whether women are extension agents, or
whether the agents and training are reaching women farmers, it is not possible to know
whether there are any problems, or opportunities to enhance results. (This is an issue for
the new activity design, for monitoring, and for mid-term evaluations.)

 Pay attention to the three aspects of food sufficiency: access, availability, and
utilization. It is important to consider the extent to which increased self-sufficiency
depends on women growing more, marketing more, or processing more. USAID’s
partners must ensure that women are involved in deciding which crops are grown; in
receiving training and information; and in all phases of food cultivation, processing, and
marketing.

 Consider the impact of AIDS on women. Many women and young girls will be
afflicted with AIDS and therefore be unable to engage in agricultural production, other
income-generating activities, fetching of water and wood, and care taking and raising of
children. Women and girls will also have increased care-taking responsibilities for the ill,
which may decrease the time available for agriculture and economic activities.
IR 5.2, THE RECENT RFA, AND PROGRAM DESIGN
Food Security 
If IR 5.2 links with the SO and with IR 5.1, the objective is not simply to increase the amount
of agricultural commodities sold and the number of households producing the “five highest
value agricultural commodities” but to achieve those increases to enhance the household’s
food security. This means that the selection of crops is based on three assumptions:

 The crop itself will provide nutritional value.

 The income from a new crop will be used to purchase food of nutritional value.

 The newly grown or purchased food will reach all family members.
It is important that the newly selected USAID partner identify assumptions linking an
increase in the value of agricultural commodities sold with a corresponding increase in
household food security, and then test them through women’s input in the six-month design
phase.
Chapter Three—Gender Issues and SO 5: Agriculture and Food Security
13
Selected High Value Crops 
To the extent that women’s participation may determine the achievement of USAID’s
objectives, the selection of crops may be tremendously important. Crop selection will depend
on establishment of criteria, not only “high value” according to price and profit but also
factors such as labor required or opportunity for processing. Beyond the factors themselves,
selection may depend on who assesses and weighs the costs and benefits. Failure to consult
women—whether they will be growing, processing, marketing, or preparing those crops—
may result in inappropriate choices or in missed opportunities. This point cannot be
overstated: Designing a program around high value crops without considering gender-related
factors may lead to increased agricultural production but decreased food security.
Number of Households
IR 5.2.1 looks for a percentage increase in the number of households producing the five
highest-value agricultural commodities. Just increasing the number of households or just
counting the number of households may not suffice. The dynamics within households must
also be taken into account. It is possible, for example, that the chosen commodities may be of
greater interest to male farmers than female farmers, that the households participating in the
program will be those headed by men, and that the income generated may not be used to
increase food security. The mere “increase in households” may not correlate with the sought￾after result. Ideally, therefore, there would be a system for selecting households of different
types (male-headed, female-headed, etc.) and a means of tracking differentiated impacts
within households. 
Producer Association Members 
IR 5.2.1 focuses on crops “that Producer Association members sell or transport.” The
involvement of women may depend on the definition of a “producers association” and on its
“members.” It is important to determine whether women are members of producer or farmer
associations. Or if a household is a member, it is important to note the roles of women as
members of the household. It is also important to think of women farmers’ groups as
potential partners. If USAID’s implementing partner decides to work with women’s groups,
it needs to consider whether the activity should designed or implemented differently to
optimize women’s participation, taking account of such factors as burdens on women’s time,
care taking for children, illiteracy and how women get information, and whether women will
participate fully in mixed groups of men and women. It may be helpful to monitor different
impacts for male and female farmer participants, groups, or associations to learn from
implementation experience and identify useful program modifications.
Gender Assessment and Gender Plan of Action
14
Table 2: Ways to Address Women’s Participation in Producer Associations
Gender-based Obstacles Possible Approaches to 
Overcome Obstacles
Women are not members of associations Work with associations to broaden and
diversify membership; show examples of
those that do include women
Women have their own farmers’ groups Expand the scope of participation beyond
producers’ associations to women’s groups
Women have information that the
associations need
Include women in meetings or hold separate
meetings with women
Women need to be part of, or agree to,
associations’ decisions and learning
Meet separately with women, include them in
meetings, or send information (papers with
pictures) home so there is something for man
and woman to discuss
Sold by Households
The person of a household who actually does the selling may be a man, woman, or child.
Who sells a particular crop may depend on whether it is a crop traditionally marketed by men
or women. The effort of sale may vary—sometimes requiring transport or being away from
home—and therefore preclude, for example, women’s involvement in the selling process. In
addition, if one of the high value crops is being sold, that might be an opportunity to sell
something else produced by the household—which may also contribute to household food
security. Or the person who is selling the crop may, or may not, use the opportunity at market
to purchase another food that has important nutritional value for the family. 
Thus, it is important that the SO 5 team and the implementing partner pay attention to who
within the household is selling and what is being sold.
Processes
IR 5.2.2 tracks increases in the number of producer associations that process agricultural
commodities. Again, several assumptions are embedded within this, such as the expectation
that the benefits of increased producer association processing will filter down to the
household level for all households involved. But it is also possible that individual women, or
women’s groups, may make use of a new technology or skill to process and sell their
products. Or farmers associations that are all men might take up a processing opportunity that
is labor intensive, whereas an association that includes women may reject that crop and/or
the value-added processing opportunity because it requires too much time.
PERFORMANCE MONITORING
In terms of performance monitoring and USAID’s agriculture work, the gender issues relate
to two areas: food security and agriculture. Because IR 5.1 focuses on vulnerable households
Chapter Three—Gender Issues and SO 5: Agriculture and Food Security
15
in terms of providing humanitarian assistance, monitoring has reflected that approach. But
the new agriculture and development approach will require different monitoring and
reporting. The SO team needs to decide what gender-related information will be important
for (1) tracking the effectiveness of activity implementation; (2) monitoring what the IR
achieves; and (3) getting the story back to Washington. As currently crafted, the indicators
are unlikely to capture critical information. Table 3 provides suggestions to improve the
information tracked with regard to SO 5 indicators.
There are three entry points for including gender in this SO’s performance monitoring. First,
the SO team needs to determine what information is needed about women’s roles in
households and the community. The SO 5 household baseline surveys are one way to gather
such information as well as to monitor changes. Second, the SO team needs to ensure that the
new IR 5.2 implementing partner includes women’s input and information about women’s
roles within its six-month design phase. Depending on what information has a bearing on
implementation or what assumptions the implementing partner has about roles and
performance, some of that should be included in activity monitoring. Third, the mid-term
evaluation should address assumptions and expectations about women’s roles and
contributions—in cultivating, harvesting, processing, marketing, cooking, spending, and
distributing food within the household.
A Lesson Learned—Missed Opportunities in an Agriculture Evaluation
One of USAID/Angola’s partners brought a copy of a recent evaluation to the workshop held on
August 30, 2001. These evaluations illustrate opportunities missed—where questions could and
should have been asked about women and gender that would have provided meaningful
information regarding project implementation. Not knowing the terms of reference for the
evaluation, we do not know whether the USAID partner failed to ask about women in their activities
or whether the evaluators did not know how to address them. If the former, USAID needs to ensure
that all evaluations for all partners include instructions about evaluating positive and negative
gender impacts. If the latter, and if the evaluator in this case, CEIP is commonly employed to do
evaluations in Angola, there may be a need and opportunity to train CEIP evaluators regarding
gender and evaluation. 
Gender Assessment and Gender Plan of Action
16
Table 3: Gender Issues in the SO 5 Strategic Framework
Existing Indicator Weakness/Risks 
Regarding Gender
Potential Improvements
in Information Tracked
Enhanced Household Food
Security in Targeted
Communities.
Gender issues may account for
some households doing better
than others; household food
security may not detect insecurity
of girls and women
Disaggregate data
regarding the type of
household and the food
security of male/female
members of that
household
SO 5.1 Percent increase in
the total amount of agricultural
commodities sold by
households in targeted
communities
Households could increase the
amount of agricultural
commodities sold without having
positive (and risking negative)
changes in household food
security, e.g., if men sell and
money is not used for food
Focus the indicator on
food security in the
household—monitor what
is grown versus what is
sold, and what is fed to
family members. Helpful to
have some disaggregation
to learn about involvement
of women, or focus of
technical assistance to
females heading
households may enhance
results
5.1 Vulnerable Households
become more Food Self￾Sufficient
Self-sufficiency means not
depending on food aid.
Improvements may come from
informal production by women,
e.g., kitchen gardens and
processing that is not formally
recorded
Disaggregated data
regarding the type of
household: female￾headed, male-headed, and
joint-headed with active
female involvement
5.1.1 Percent increase in total
household production in
targeted communities
It is not clear what is
encompassed in “household
production.” This could reflect all
production, including women’s
kitchen gardens, but not be
attributable to USAID (or indirectly
caused but not recognized); this
could track only household
production of selected crops, and
a positive increase in production
could exist alongside a decrease
in food security. Will the percent
increase be over and above a
total household production or only
“commercial,” marketed
production?
For the baseline (and
activity design), it is
important to know
everything that the
household produces, by
whom and in what
[estimated] quantities.
Monitoring should show
who within the household
increases production and
of what
5.1.2 Increase in the number
of months that households can
provision themselves
This is good, and important. This
may be a way to detect negative
impacts—if for some reason, the
newly grown and marketed crops
cause a decrease in food for the
household. This will not capture
the nutritional value of
"provisioning.”
Some information
regarding the type and mix
of provisions for nutritional
value
Chapter Three—Gender Issues and SO 5: Agriculture and Food Security
17
Existing Indicator Weakness/Risks 
Regarding Gender
Potential Improvements
in Information Tracked
5.2 High Value Crops
Produced and Marketed
More Efficiently
Who will be expected to produce
and market, and might the choice
of crops be more or less
successful depending on the labor
needed and available from
women? Does efficiency take into
account the opportunity costs of
women’s labor?
Sex-disaggregated data
for who produces and who
markets. Some way to
capture time allocation
SO 5.2 Percent increase in
the number of households
producing the 5 highest-value
agricultural commodities
Could see a significant increase
while there is a drop in household
food security (depending on what
is grown and sold by whom).
Might be significant differences in
correlation of production and food
security, depending on the level of
woman’s control of resources—
worth tracking? Will the access to
seeds and technical assistance be
equitable for male and female
headed households? What if the
increase comes only in male￾headed households?
Disaggregated data
regarding type of
household, to track which
households see/enjoy the
increase
5.2.1 Percent increase in the
total amount of selected high￾value crops that producer
association members sell or
transport under contract
We do not know who is a
“producer association member”;
we do not know whether sale and
transport by male members will
benefit household’s food security
Carefully research and
know producer association
members, and other
comparable groups, to
ensure inclusion of women
and their contributions.
Track how that increased
commerce relates to food
security in the households
5.2.2 Increase in the number
of producer associations that
process agricultural
commodities
Possible that male producer
associations benefit while
women’s farm groups do not. How
ensure that information,
opportunity, TA reaches women
farmers? Further, who will do that
increased processing—whose
time/labor, and taken from what
other activities? What if women
are working on processing coffee
or tobacco; not putting time into
their kitchen gardens for food for
the family; and not getting the
revenue from processing with
which to buy food to replace the
kitchen gardens?
Define “effectively”
differently in the IR. Not
just the number of
associations processing
but who does it and how
revenues are used. Maybe
need to track male￾dominated associations
separately from women’s
farm groups? This
depends on what is
learned in the six-month
design phase

Chapter Four—Gender Issues and SO 6: Democratic Governance Strengthened
19
CHAPTER FOUR
GENDER ISSUES AND SO 6: 
DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE STRENGTHENED
WOMEN WITHIN THE SO LANGUAGE AND STRUCTURE
As originally designed, this SO included IR 6.4:
Women’s Participation in Political Processes
Strengthened. The reasons for that IR were two￾fold: (1) in recognition that women are not
simply one subset of civil society or
constituencies7
 but have the possibilities to lead
others into civic action and advocacy; and (2) out
of concern that without an explicit IR the
Mission (and its partners) might fail to work with
and monitor the success of women. Thus, the
strategic plan stated: “[W]omen represent a
critical constituency that not only is the most
affected by war and poor governance, but also have the least voice in Angola. In addition,
some of the strongest civil society organizations, including one of the few existing coalitions
in Angola, are women-oriented. The mission intends to build on this existing capital to
strengthen constituencies for democratic reform.” It also explained the need for a special IR:
“[I]t is important that this result be articulated as its own intermediate result (IR), rather than
folded into the other IRs. This will help the mission to maintain the appropriate level of
attention to this issue.”
Although several late drafts of the 2001-2005 strategic plan included that IR, the SO 6 team
ultimately decided to eliminate the IR for two reasons. First, the SO team was apparently
concerned about the capacity of its partners to achieve the result and the team’s ability to
measure results. More important, however, it was determined that women’s participation
should be an integral part of each of the other IRs. Having a separate IR risked the failure to
address women in the other IRs; integrating women across the SO would put pressure on all
SO 6 partners to pay attention to gender in all activities. In fact, the SO 6 programming does
include work on women’s literacy and women’s rights.
There is, however, still limited funding for improving the availability of information to
women and improved civic advocacy of women’s groups. Integrating attention to women in
the remaining intermediate results is ideal as long as the reason for an explicit IR is not
forgotten. That is, without an explicit IR, the team may lose sight of the importance of
ensuring women’s participation. This depends on how SO 6 partners target their resources
and on how SO 6 structures gender in its performance monitoring.
 
7 Of course, one could not have an SO with IRs for each sub-group of the population.
SO 6: Constituencies 
Promoting Democratic 
Governance Strengthened
IR 1: Greater Availability of Information
on Key Issues
IR 2: Improved Civic Advocacy on Key
Issues
IR 3: Improved Government￾Constituency Relations
Gender Assessment and Gender Plan of Action
20
Whether or not there is an IR dedicated to women, they remain a key factor in “strengthening
constituencies promoting democratic governance.” That language in the SO, along with the
individual IRs, continues to suggest the importance of working with women. Women,
whether in women’s groups, the women’s network, government, or mixed groups, are key
constituencies and resources for civic advocacy.
Again, it is helpful to think of women in relation to all three touchstones:
1. Women as Key to Results. Women are needed as role models and as leaders. For
example, World Learning has reported the importance of women within the coalitions it
supports. A housing coalition is led by a man, but two of six active leaders are women.
The AIDS coalition has two leaders, one of whom is a woman. A woman heads the land
rights coalition in Huila, while two of the most powerful leaders in the coalition are also
women.
2. Women’s Needs and Gender Inequality. When assessing the effectiveness of
governance, it is important to recognize the extent to which women’s interests are not
represented, government does not address their needs or priorities, and women’s rights
are violated. Given critical factors such as illiteracy, women’s low status, and extreme
poverty, some of the activities within the SO should focus on remedying those inequities.
3. Strategic Opportunities. Yes, there are women with whom to work in Angola. With the
support of the Swedes and the UNDP, and with the exposure and experience women have
gained through the “Fourth World Conference on Women” and through “Beijing +5,”
women are mobilized and organized although they still need technical and financial
support.
QUESTIONS REGARDING IMPLEMENTATION AND WOMEN WITHIN THIS SO’S PROGRAM
IR 6.1: Greater Availability of Information on Key Issues
Availability of Information 
IR 6.1 suggests that to strengthen constituencies to promote democratic governance, it is
necessary for them to have greater access to information than they now have. The first
question, therefore, is who are the constituencies promoting democratic governance? Having
established who they may be, the next questions are what is limiting their access to
information and how can more information be made available to them.
If “women” in general, or “women in the provinces” are one such constituency, IR 6.1 must
focus on ensuring women get more of the information they need. This means determining
why women do not have sufficient information and how to make such information available
to them.
Chapter Four—Gender Issues and SO 6: Democratic Governance Strengthened
21
Hence, the SO 6 team and its partners need clarity about whether women, as a constituency
promoting democratic governance, need more information. If so, what are SO 6 partners
doing to identify the obstacles to women’s receipt of information and what approaches can be
used to overcome them? This relates back to a critical issue discussed earlier—that the
average Angolan woman is not getting her information from traditional information sources.
This means that USAID programs using newspapers or television may not be achieving
“greater availability of information” for the people, including women, who need it. It may be
necessary to include information within literacy programs (as MCID is doing) or to
disseminate it through church groups or through theatre.
With regard to the means of reaching women or making information available to them, it is
important to recognize the heterogeneity of “Angolan women.” Perhaps information is
available to educated, middle-class women in Luanda. Or perhaps information is available
but not on key issues (see below). Perhaps the availability of information varies according to
age, location, urban/rural distinctions, and literacy. Perhaps very little information is
available to internally displaced women, who could be a very strong constituency for
democratic governance, and reaching them requires calculated, targeted efforts.
Information on Key Issues
This IR also suggests that strengthening constituencies for democratic governance depends
on their access to information on particular topic—that is, “key issues.” The SO 6 team has
defined key issues to encompass human rights and government accountability. If certain
women’s constituencies need this information, it is important to focus on the sub-topics or
specific sorts of information they lack.
For women, human rights issues include women’s rights, such as the right to be free from
violence (in the home and in the streets); to access education (for girls and for illiterate
women), credit, and affordable healthcare; and to organize and protest. Focusing on key
issues depends on how women themselves are defining such rights.
Similarly, if key issues encompass government accountability, women may be critical
constituencies pressing for it. In that case, it is important that SO 6 partners think about
which units or representatives of government women are pressing to be more accountable. In
fact, women are concerned about Ministries of Health and Education and MINFAMU.
Women are interested in gender budgets as mechanisms for holding government accountable.
Were they to succeed with a gender budget analysis of one ministry or one department, they
would be role models and leaders for both citizens and members of government. At the same
time, government accountability can encompass the women in Parliament and provincial
governors. The content that is needed to achieve the IR 6.1 results depends on understanding
women’s roles and issues and how women can be instrumental in achieving the SO.
In light of these issues, it is important for SO 6 partners to determine whether they have
designed and implemented their activities to include women as key partners in achieving IR
6.1 and the SO itself.
Gender Assessment and Gender Plan of Action
22
IR 6.2: Improved Civic Advocacy on Key Issues
IR 6.2 suggests that strengthening constituencies promoting democratic governance requires
an improvement in their civic advocacy. Again, the SO team and its partners need to begin by
identifying the constituencies that are trying to promote democratic governance—and women
are among them. The next step is to determine what weaknesses there are in civic advocacy
and how to mitigate them.
In fact, women are advocates on issues ranging from housing and land rights to violence
against women, HIV/AIDS, and peace. The SO 6 partners already are supporting some of
these women with technical assistance and resources to improve their civic advocacy. The
efforts and results need to be captured and articulated.
At the same time, there are opportunities to support some additional civic advocacy efforts,
particularly those relating to peace and to violence against women. For example, MPD held a
conference on peace in June 2000 that included 48 women’s organizations. They were
planning to establish a network of peace movements including 14 organizations
(COJEPA/churches, FONGA/NGOs, GAP, Raiz de Paz, ADRA, Mosaico, etc.). This
initiative is a difficult one and could benefit from technical support—to improve their civic
advocacy. Similarly, on October 16, 2000, Rede Mulher organized a nationwide work￾stoppage and March against Poverty and Violence against Women. Following the March,
Rede Mulher met with President Dos Santos, who agreed to support legislation addressing
violence against women. This certainly is extraordinary civic advocacy in Angola. Yet GMP
and Rede Mulher know that the legislation must be based on research, and they have yet to
obtain the necessary funding.
Table 4: Examples of Women’s Civic Advocacy During Last Year and Need for Follow-Up
Women’s Group Involved Action Started Next Steps/Follow-up
GMP, MINFAMU, Rede
Mulher
HIV/AIDS legislation drafted,
2000
Support for advocacy to
debate issue and support for
constituency building
Rede Mulher March against Poverty and
Violence against Women,
nationwide, October 2000
Research on violence against
women, drafting and passing
legislation
Mulher, Paz and
Desenvolmiento
Conference for Peace, 700
participants, June 2001
Technical assistance for
coalition with other groups,
such as churches
MCID, USAID partner Literacy classes for women
became nucleos meeting on
Saturdays
Assistance to identify and
work on particular issues of
concern, such as education,
health, and water
Chapter Four—Gender Issues and SO 6: Democratic Governance Strengthened
23
IR 6.3: Improved Government-Constituency Relations
Improving government-constituency relations in Angola depends on identifying either some
cases in where existing relations could be improved or areas where there is a possibility of
creating relations. It is unlikely that the Government of Angola will work with groups that
either have objectives that conflict with those of the government or that challenge the
government’s legitimacy. But the government will work with groups, both nationally and at
the provincial level, on issues of mutual interest. Women offer a strategic opportunity in this
regard for two reasons: (1) women are not viewed as a real threat; and (2) many of the issues
they press are not controversial (for example, even their movements for “peace” do not seem
to have triggered harsh responses). 
In Angola, there has been some gradual progress on relations in three dimensions:

 On particular issues, such as combating HIV/AIDS or improving the business climate;

 On general listening to define issues, such as meetings by government representatives
with citizens; and

 On general collaboration, such as MINFAMU and Rede Mulher.
In determining opportunities for partnerships with women and for focusing on gender, it is
important to identify the issues on which women demonstrate leadership or leadership
potential (either for women alone or on behalf of society more broadly). One example is
action related to violence against women—as referenced above in the discussion of civic
advocacy. There already is collaboration among MINFAMU, women parliamentarians, and
Rede Mulher—as well as apparent support from President Dos Santos. This case could be
used as an example of strong government-constituency relations for other sectors of civil
society, as was the case with HIV/AIDS, but will not happen without the necessary technical
and financial backing.
General listening is another area where women can be an asset. The women parliamentarians
are eager to go to the provinces to talk with and listen to women but lack the funds with
which to travel. Meanwhile, all government representatives should be listening to women,
but where and how? USAID’s SO 6 partners (and subgrantees) acknowledge that women are
not participating in television and radio call-in programs. This means that one mechanism for
alerting government to constituencies’ concerns is not incorporating women as constituents.
Another example is local town meetings. It is important that the SO 6 partners track women’s
attendance, as well as the quantity and subject of their oral contributions.
Lastly, Angolan women are engaged in some collaboration with government entities,
including Ministries of Education, Health, Justice, and MINFAMU. On the civil society side,
women may be lawyers, healthcare workers, housing advocates, or citizens concerned about
social issues. These are opportunities for USAID to strengthen results related to this IR,
thereby contributing to the achievement of the SO.
Gender Assessment and Gender Plan of Action
24
PERFORMANCE MONITORING
This performance monitoring plan has a surprising number of indicators that simply count
the number of people and then promise sex-disaggregated data. In some cases, those numbers
may be meaningful. But in many cases they do not provide sufficient information to assess
project impacts. If the data are meaningful, disparities in participation that are detected by
disaggregating by sex may give USAID and its partners some information by which to gauge
the contributions of and impacts on women. But if demographic breakdowns are useful, some
additional breakdowns might give the implementing partners more information about the
impact of their assistance, such as literate versus illiterate, recent IDPs in Luanda versus
long-term residents, young people versus older. Most fundamentally, the information
gathered and tracked should be useful for determining whether USAID’s partners are
achieving USAID’s IRs and SO.
Definitions
Some of the performance-monitoring issues are revealed within definitions. For example, it is
important to define terms used in the IRs. “Key issues,” for example, means human rights
and especially women’s rights, and “government accountability” refers to accountability on
issues important to all citizens, men and women. “Availability of information” signifies
availability to women as well as to men, and to urban and provincial or rural women as well.
Here, it is important to note that “availability” measured in terms of urban media—radio
print, television, and other publications—may have a focus primarily on those forms most
popular among urban, middle and upper income, literate populations. These definitions must
be explicit, and the indicators and data collected must correlate with them.
Similarly, it is important to define the content of a particular index. Gender issues often are
embedded within measuring tools:

 Advocacy Index. The content must be more transparent and reviewed for gender issues
within. If possible, it could be revealing to track improvements in the quantity and quality
of advocacy for women’s groups versus mixed but women-led groups versus groups with
no women’s leadership and little involvement.

 Constituency Relations Survey. Again, the content should be readily available.
“Constituencies” are variegated—male/female, urban/rural, Luanda/provincial,
literate/illiterate. It would be helpful, if possible, to gather sex-disaggregated in terms of
the civil society respondents. It would also be helpful to know which government entities
relate to which constituencies—do they have better or more frequent relations with
women’s groups? If so, does this reflect less sense of threat, and does it reinforce an
hypothesis that women’s groups could be more effective or active in early years of
democratic openings? The SO team and partners’ consideration of specific questions for
or about women would result in meaningful information for project design and
implementation.
Chapter Four—Gender Issues and SO 6: Democratic Governance Strengthened
25

 Democracy and Governance Index. This mechanism depends on a panel of 30 experts.
WIDTECH originally underscored the importance of including adequate expertise about
women’s activities. On the one hand, political scientists or members of the media may or
many not necessarily know about women’s advocacy activities or how to assess them
effectively. On the other hand, it is important to find people who have the information
and expertise but are not biased. In discussions with the SO 6 team, it was determined
that it would be more effective to shift the substantive focus on women in civil society
and government to a separate panel. But it remains important that women be included
within this panel—ensuring that there is not simply one panel of men and another of
women. Diversity of perspectives and disciplines is critical to understand and measure
changes in Angola’s democratic processes and governance.

 Index of Women’s Civic and Political Participation. The SO 6 team needs to develop
an alternative measure of “women’s civic and political status”—beyond the proposed
inclusion of gender in the democracy and governance index and reference to the DOS
Human Rights report. We recommend that the SO team convene a separate panel for this.
That panel should have diverse representation—for
example, one or two members from donors that
focus on women, several from private voluntary
organizations or local NGOs and who work with or
pay attention to women, and someone
knowledgeable about women IDPs. Although the
panel should not include those heading the
organizations being judged—for example, the
executive director or president of Rede Mulher or
the Minister or Vice-Minister of MINFAMU—it
must include people who know what these
organizations are doing. The panel must include
some expertise regarding activities of women in the
provinces—maybe through Rede Mulher’s
member/partner in Huila or through someone from
ADRA or from Development Aid from People to
People (ADPP). See Annex B.

 Implementing Partners’ Surveys. Apparently the
SO 6 partners engaged KPMG to collect
information with regard to the media. This situation
reflects a common problem: If terms of reference
do not clearly require investigation of women’s
participation and gender issues (beyond the
“boilerplate” or catch-phrase asking for sex￾disaggregated data), evaluators are unlikely to
collect meaningful information. The KPMG
exercise, now already completed, was a missed opportunity to assess media coverage of
women’s activities and concerns or inclusion of women’s voices and perspectives.
Examples of Performance
Monitoring and Evidence of
Positive/Negative Impacts

 NDI/MIACOOP. The radio call-in show
gets about 30 calls per month of which
only 1-2 are from women. What does
this tell the implementing partners
about whether they are reaching
women with program content? Or are
women listening but not calling in?
What is the impact on the program’s
contribution to citizen debate if women
or other demographic groups do not
express their perspectives? Might
women have different perspectives on
the issues than men, and if so, how
are they shared through the project?

 NDI/NCC. To what extent are
members of Parliament meeting with
their constituencies or listening to
citizens? Members of the Liberal Party
have met with women, with 300
women attending a meeting in
Benguela. What other such meetings
have occurred? Are there
opportunities with GMP to be leaders
among parliamentarians on meeting
with constituents?
Gender Assessment and Gender Plan of Action
26
Data Collection
The SO team is to be commended for proposing to disaggregate by “gender issues covered.”
It would be helpful to know what this means. If it means coverage of women’s rights, try to
break those down as well: right to healthcare, to education, to be registered for school, to be
free from violence, to participate in government and peace-making decision-making.
The SO 6 team’s plan for data collection is that it will be “collected from partner reports.”
The team should give its partners written guidance that states parameters or questions. The
example of the KPMG evaluation, and failure to use it to gather gender-related information,
should establish the need for the SO 6 team to be explicit.
The plan includes panel discussions “with media experts.” Will this purposefully include
women journalists, such as several members of the Association of Women Journalists? It is
important to ensure that there will be perspectives and knowledge regarding (1) the media
that women use; (2) women in the media; and (3) media coverage of issues of importance to
women. 
Data Sources. World Learning and NDI “conduct surveys of their media partners.” The
content of the survey is, of course, critical and should reflect the particular information that
will be meaningful for program monitoring (what works and what does not) and reporting to
Washington. Does the survey ask about coverage of women’s issues? Does it track women
calling in to radio programs? Does it examine whether and/or how women receive and
contribute information to the media outside of Luanda? If not, how can USAID see whether
there is any improvement as a result of USAID technical assistance?
Number of People Reached by Education Efforts of Target Civil Society Organizations.
This indicator provides for disaggregated data by gender, geographic area, and “focus.” But
how does one define “reached”? Is it people who attend workshops, debates, meetings, and
seminars? This does not give USAID and implementing partners any information about
impact—about what is done with that information. There should be ways to see who uses the
information—for example, who takes it and disseminates it to others by running their own
workshops, or who uses it within an advocacy campaign. This may be a place where women
“shine”—that is, if they use the information in their own organizations’ legal literacy efforts.
Thus far, however, such information is anecdotal and spotty.
Number of People Reached by Media Efforts. The performance monitoring plan again
indicates disaggregation by gender as well as geographic and age. But this is again very
print-focussed—that is, urban and middle/upper class oriented. It would be good to know the
partners’ information dissemination strategy—how they intend to reach women and to reach
women in the provinces and illiterate women who are among those most difficult to reach.
Evidently, they disseminate the newspaper supplements to private voluntary organizations,
Rede Mulher, and the like. They also note that “there may be double/triple counting because
one publication, flyer, or book may be read by more than 3 people”—but that is not a
problem; in fact, that is good. It would be helpful to (1) identify the intermediaries who are
Chapter Four—Gender Issues and SO 6: Democratic Governance Strengthened
27
further disseminating the information (for example, MINFAMU and its provincial offices);
and (2) follow up and see what, if anything, those organizations do with the publications
(such as use them in literacy training, translate them into local languages, or give to local
priests and ministers and village leaders (sobas).
Table 5: Gender Issues in the SO 6 Strategic Framework
Indicator Weakness/Risks
Regarding Gender
Potential Improvements in
Information Tracked
SO 6 Constituencies
Promoting Democratic
Governance Strengthened
No indication of whether those
constituencies are women, in
a country where women have
been a key force
Disaggregate by different
constituencies—women,
HIV/AIDS or health, education,
peace, land
SO 6.1 Democracy and
Governance Index
This index could fail to track
women’s involvement and
contributions, thereby failing to
capture potentially helpful
information
Include items on the index that
relate to women as
constituents, as advocates;
work of women’s NGOs;
issues of importance to
women
SO 6.2 Assessment of Status
of Women
This title is very general and
does not focus just on SO 6
issues; might be distracted
from key information
Re-title this to be an
“Assessment of Civic and
Political Participation of
Women”
IR1 Greater Availability of
Information on Key Issues
Needs clear definitions or
guidelines regarding
availability and “key issues,”
reflecting both known
weaknesses and concerns for
women
Develop text with SO 6
partners that articulates the
impediments to information
being available to women and
what will be done to overcome
them—with regard to “key
issues” as judged key by
women
6.1.1 More media coverage of
key democratic and
governance issues (output, not
impact)
Could have increased media
coverage, e.g., on television in
Luanda, yet fail to increase the
availability of information to
the many women who lack it
and who would be
strengthened as
constituencies if they had it.
More coverage may reflect
more hours or pages, with little
or no impact on those needing
information
Work with SO 6 partners to (1)
define “media coverage” and
(2) diversify the sorts of media
that are being used. Measure
this with an index that counts
nontraditional media (e.g.,
theater and church-targeted
communications)
6.1.2 Number of people
reached by education efforts
of target civil society
organizations
This is an output, not an
impact. Could see an increase
in the number of people but
still not expand the diversity of
people or not reach the people
who are most likely to use that
education
It is helpful to have sex￾disaggregated data, if satisfied
with the output sort of
measurement. Would be
preferable to measure impact
and to look at who uses the
educational efforts, e.g.,
women in MCID literacy
classes
Gender Assessment and Gender Plan of Action
28
Indicator Weakness/Risks
Regarding Gender
Potential Improvements in
Information Tracked
6.1.3 Number of people
reached by media efforts
(output, not impact)
Might increase the number of
people reached in Luanda but
fail to have any national
impact. Might increase the
number of MPLA or rich or
middle-class people but not
reach the opposition. Might
reach people who will or will
not use the information
Track how media efforts are
used, e.g., World Learning
newspaper supplements used
in women’s literacy classes or
by MPD in work with women
IDPs—and ideally get
reporting on how those
recipients use information
IR2 Improved Civic
Advocacy on Key Issues
There is no definition of
“improvement” or sense of
what the weaknesses are.
What if women’s advocacy on
violence against women
improves markedly—will it be
captured by these indicators?
It would be helpful to have an
honest accounting of where
and when women are trying to
engage in advocacy, but do so
ineffectively and then target
technical assistance to
strengthen them
6.2.1 Formal coalitions active
on key issues
Not clear criteria for selecting
the “formal coalitions” with
which USAID partners work.
Could end up working with
coalitions that are happy to
receive U.S. funding but not
committed to issues or not
addressing issues of greatest
concern to Angolan people,
including women. Is it a count
of the number of formal
coalitions established, a
“yes/no” on whether coalitions
are active, or whether they are
addressing “key issues”?
Require some reporting on (1)
leadership of coalitions, (2)
membership, (3) target
populations or government
units (for advocacy), and (4)
issues that they address. This
information should be sex
disaggregated. Then see the
extent to which women are
forming more, active in more,
etc.
6.2.2 Advocacy Index Need to know more about the
content of the index and use it
to address some of the issues
in column 3 (right) on this
chart
Offers a good opportunity to
integrate gender issues into
the index, to assess women’s
participation, effectiveness
and impact on issues of
importance to them
IR3 Improved Government￾Constituency Relations
Two basic gender aspects:
whether the government
units/responsibilities are those
of importance to women and
to women as constituents
This is a case where women
may be key assets for
achieving the IR/SO. There is
a hypothesis that government
may relate more easily with
women—not feeling as
threatened as with other
groups. Does this work?
Absent some monitoring of
women as constituents, and
increases in different relations,
it is not possible to evaluate
the hypothesis
Chapter Four—Gender Issues and SO 6: Democratic Governance Strengthened
29
Indicator Weakness/Risks
Regarding Gender
Potential Improvements in
Information Tracked
6.3.1 Constituency relations
survey
The content of this survey is
not known. It could miss a vital
opportunity if it fails to look at
women as a constituency, as
compared with other
constituencies
Make sure that the survey
captures information related to
women as constituents,
women in government, which
ministries, etc.
6.3.2 Increased government￾constituency contacts
Could have increased contacts
but of government with loyal
MPLA followers. Could have
more contacts (meetings)
between/among those who
already cooperate and are co￾opted. It is important to identify
where the increase is sought.
Maybe, in fact, there are many
more contacts with women,
and it is important to engage
young men 
Define the contacts and define
the increase sought. In both
cases, consider whether some
sort of sex-disaggregated
information on the people
would be helpful; also whether
it would be useful to track
contacts about what,
particularly if it might relate to
issues of importance to
women (e.g., violence and
peace)

Chapter Five—Gender Issues and SO 7: Healthcare and HIV/AIDS
31
CHAPTER FIVE
GENDER ISSUES AND SO 7: HEALTHCARE AND HIV/AIDS
MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTHCARE
Maternal and child healthcare (MCH) programs
are unique with regard to women’s participation
and gender issues. On the one hand, because the
primary beneficiaries and partners of MCH
programs are women, programs rarely ignore them
as beneficiaries.8
 On the other hand, there are
fundamental issues of how a program engages
women and involves them in needs assessment and
in project design and implementation. Paying
attention to women’s participation and to gender￾based roles and responsibilities is particularly
important within a transition and development
context, requiring different approaches than those
employed in humanitarian and emergency aid
contexts. Once USAID (and others) shift to a
development perspective, activities must be
designed to address such issues as capacity
building and sustainability. Thus, the capacity of
women must be considered regarding women as mothers, as people responsible for their own
health, as key caretakers within families and communities, as health professionals, and the
like. Sustainability is critical insofar as women may play an integral role in building
institutions and processes, as well as serving as key constituents with government to ensure
resources and quality care.
USAID’s MCH programs address access to, demand for, and quality of healthcare—all with
the objective of increasing use of services and products, as well as their quality. Program
design must therefore begin with a basic inquiry: What factors constrain use? To determine
this, it is imperative that the organizations responding to USAID’s RFA and the organization
that eventually becomes implementing partner for the MCH work consider how women—as
direct beneficiaries, mothers, and those responsible for getting children to the healthcare
facilities—would answer that question. And the best way to know is to ask them.
 
8 It should be noted that for maternal health, women are direct beneficiaries. For child health, women are
beneficiaries in terms of their concern for the health and well-being of their children and in terms of their
care-taking role. In fact, however, the direct beneficiaries are the children, and sometimes problems arise in
not recognizing that the needs or the burdens for women as mothers may need to be considered
independently of what is needed for the child.
SO 7: Increased Use of
Maternal/Child Health and HIV/AIDS
Services and /or Products and
Improved Health Practices
IR 7.1 Increased Access to MCH
Services
IR 7.2 Increased Demand for MCH
Services
IR 7.3 Increased Quality of MCH
Services
IR 7.4 Increased Access to Condoms
IR 7.5 Increased Demand for Condoms
IR 7.6 Improved Enabling Environment
Gender Assessment and Gender Plan of Action
32
ACCESS, DEMAND, AND QUALITY: ISSUES RELATED TO PROJECT DESIGN
It is critical that project design be based on women’s input addressing four factors: access;
demand; quality; and participation in civil society, especially health committees.
Access. To the extent that USAID’s programs seek to increase access, USAID partners must
understand from women themselves what impedes access. The potential impediments include
access to transportation, affordability/cost (unofficial even more than official), frequency,
and knowledge.
Demand. The demand for children’s and maternal healthcare depends on the demand of and
by women. It is important to know or test the factors on which demand depends. Of course,
women have to know that services are available, that they are useful, and that they are better
than local alternatives. But from an economic standpoint, demand is also influenced by price.
If women know that services are not really free—that is, they must make informal payments
all along the system—then that cost factor can be affecting demand.
Quality. In terms of achieving the objective of “increased use,” it is critical that USAID
partners understand what quality is important to the woman consumers. What is meant by
quality—the results of the medical treatment or how women are treated as patients or
mothers of children needing care? Does the average rural woman judge quality by results if it
is a matter of preventative care, such as inoculations?
Maybe comfort and courtesy are more important and will determine whether she uses
services or not. Maybe the long waits are a problem, in light of the opportunity costs of a
woman’s time—the option of using her time to harvest food for her children or to sell in the
market to generate the income with which to purchase the day’s food. The INE/UNICEF
report on “Willingness and Capacity to Pay for Social Services” provides some relevant
information on how users perceive quality and on factors that affect demand for healthcare
services. It is also crucial that USAID partners talk to women to determine what quality
constraints may limit demand for healthcare services.
There also are information issues—that is, how women get information about quality.
Women may get most of their information from others, through word-of-mouth. But if there
is widespread experience with rude, unpleasant healthcare service providers and facilities, it
may be very difficult to change impressions. There may then be a need to build new channels
of information, and to get the “good news” back to the consumers.
Beyond questions of quality as an impediment to demand and access, USAID partners have
to determine what can or should be done to improve quality. Sometimes, the problem is the
low salaries and terrible work conditions of the healthcare staff. In other cases, nurses may
need more training or education. But even those nurses with decent pay and training may use
dirty needles if they do not have the necessary supplies, much of which ought to be provided
by the Angolan Ministry of Health. As a long-term and sustainable approach, it may be
useful to use SO 6 resources to work with nurses and other health care interests, such as the
not very active Association of Angolan Nurses or the new Ordem dos Medicos.
Chapter Five—Gender Issues and SO 7: Healthcare and HIV/AIDS
33
Health Committees. This SO anticipates the importance of health committees. But the
relevance and impact of those committees may depend on factors such as what do they do
and who is on them. If women may be real assets, it is important to determine whether
women have time to participate and whether they are in fact the leaders. 
HIV/AIDS, WOMEN’S NEEDS, AND GENDER-BASED BARRIERS AND OPPORTUNITIES
USAID/Angola is focusing its HIV/AIDS work on two groups: commercial sex workers and
youth. In the former case, there is not an issue of women’s participation because the targeted
sex workers are women. Yet there are issues of gender-based roles and power. For example,
to what extent do women in such situations have the power to insist on use of a condom?
Will knowledge about the spread of AIDS suffice to change their behavior? Or might it be
necessary to work with the men who are customers? Might it be more effective to make sure
that men realize if they have unprotected sex with sex workers they may not only become
infected themselves but they also can bring the disease back to their wives—and leave
themselves without that which they may value from their wives and unborn children and
without mothers for their children? Might this even be an opportunity to enlist the support of
churches insofar as they want to protect families?
With regard to youth, there may be issues of women’s participation—the female youth—and
of gender-based roles. On the one hand, young women need to know about the dangers of
AIDS and may decide as a result to forgo sexual relations. Yet will a poor young women
living in an IDP camp, who has the chance to be treated well by a rich, powerful man, insist
that he use a condom? On the other hand, if they find themselves with men who have more
power than they, the information may not suffice to protect them. Can a woman with a
condom in her purse ensure that her partner will use it? Will a woman who is culturally under
pressure to have children and who knows her husband has another wife or has sex with other
women refuse to have sex with her husband unless he uses a condom? Again, maybe
effectiveness may require particular attention on the men who have power in the
relationships? 
But AIDS threatens groups of women, including: 

 Young women wooed by older, rich men;

 Married women, from husbands who have other wives and/or mistresses;

 Women contracting AIDS from avoidable sources caused by poverty—such as needles
re-used in clinics, blood transfusions, healthcare workers with People Living with AIDS
(PLWA) working without proper gloves; and

 Women victims of violence, including men drunk at home and rape.
Gender Assessment and Gender Plan of Action
34
In terms of preventing the spread of AIDS, women must be regarded not only as potential
victims but also as part of the solution. Further, the power differentials in sexual relations are
crucial factors in determining who gets information and can use it and who gets the
protective device and can and will use it. 
Thus, program design should anticipate four areas:
1) Information. Social marketing strategies must anticipate not only which population
segments get the information—for example, young men versus young women, middle
class versus poor IDP women, citizens of Luanda or provincial cities—but also whether
those people can use the information. USAID partners should be able to identify the
group that a particular billboards or television commercial reaches. They also should be
able to identify which communications media are effective for reaching different
populations, such as illiterate women, or people who do not use television or radio.9
 Since
traditional theatre has been so very successful for landmine awareness, it should be used
for AIDS awareness as well. But there is also a need to determine what information can
affect behavior. A young woman or young wife who knows all about HIV/AIDS may
have no ability to use that knowledge to change her date’s or husband’s behavior. In such
cases, either it is more important to target the men with persuasive information or the
women need to be empowered or strengthened with negotiation skills.
2) Partnerships. With regard to education and social action, it is important to identify
appropriate partners. Churches could be effective partners with and on behalf of women.
Although some churches see condoms as encouraging sex, many very poor young women
have sex for money; they are desperate and vulnerable to older men. There are many rich
men with multiple wives or with mistresses. In other cases, peer advocates (such as those
used by ADRA) may be effective partners.
3) Choice of Protection. Women complain they cannot control whether male condoms are
used. Women would like their own condoms so they can control use. The cost of female
condoms is apparently significantly higher than that of male condoms. But if the usage
would be greater, the cost of achieving improved health practices per person (that is, the
number of persons actually protected) would be lower and the final result of limiting the
spread of AIDS greater.
4) Women as Allies. There are a number of opportunities to work with women to address
HIV/AIDS:

 Mothers to teach children/sons/daughters;

 Including AIDS within adult literacy and schools;

 Find sobas with whom to work, such as within the new Association of Angolan
Traditional Authorities (AATA) with which Search for Common Ground was to meet
on September 15, 2001.
 
9 Social marketing must be tested with all populations that may see it. A current campaign compares the skin
of a banana with condoms. One healthcare professional reported that the response of some young Angolan
men has been that since one obviously does not eat a banana with the skin on it the same may be concluded
regarding condoms.
Chapter Five—Gender Issues and SO 7: Healthcare and HIV/AIDS
35

 Some women’s church groups, such as Methodist women; and

 Women’s groups that want to raise awareness but that need technical assistance and
resources, such as MCID’s nucleos or MPD.
Last, HIV/AIDS raises issues in other programming sectors, calling for real commitments to
cross-sectoral programming:

 Agriculture. Women with AIDS may be the only food producers in a family, but they
may become too sick to work on land. If men are expected to do heavier agricultural
work but fall ill with AIDS, women may not be able to fill in. If women’s kitchen
gardens and supplemental gardening contribute to household food security, time spent on
care taking may decrease the time for those activities. Plans for women to do labor￾intensive planting and harvesting also may be impeded by women’s care taking for the
ill.

 Health. Capacity building for women healthcare workers may be lost if those women are
infected with AIDS. Health care systems that assume women as caretakers for ill family
members with AIDS may have devastating economic impacts on families. When women
go to clinics with children or for maternal care, there are opportunities to educate about
HIV/AIDS or to test them for AIDS. But failure to protect women’s privacy may cause
them to be stigmatized in their communities, preventing them from engaging in other
activities for themselves and their families. 

 Education. As with the healthcare workers, women teachers may be ill and dying. Male
teachers will also contract the disease, and if they engage girl students in sexual relations,
male teachers will infect those students. Most important, efforts to increase girls’
attendance may fail because girls miss school to help their mothers who are ill or with
tending the ill.

 Democracy. Women’s responsibilities as caretakers may further decrease their time for
participating in civil society, local decision making, and politics. Women have already
established themselves as key constituents pressuring government for action.

 Economic Growth. There are costs of investing in people who die, including women.
AIDS causes businesses to lose skilled people and increases the cost of doing business.
To the extent that women are in the workforce or obtaining training, AIDS awareness
must reach and protect them.
PERFORMANCE MONITORING
At this point, prior to issuance of the new RFA and establishment of a new, transition￾oriented program, the SO and its performance monitoring plan are structured to count
heads—such as for children’s vaccinations and women’s maternal healthcare. How new
indicators capture information related to women and gender depends on the new activity. But
Gender Assessment and Gender Plan of Action
36
to the extent that increases in usage are expected to relate to issues of access, demand, and
quality, the implementing partner will need to monitor women’s perspectives on each. 
In the context of healthcare, the gender aspects of performance monitoring include three
areas: (1) girls and women as beneficiaries of healthcare, recipients of information, and
participants in training and capacity-building; (2) monitoring of implementation to identify
any gender-related barriers or opportunities; and (3) success stories related to women’s
participation or addressing gender issues.
At a national level, USAID will soon have access to the new Multiple Indicator Cluster
Survey (MICS), to serve as baseline for some coverage. It should be noted, however, the
MICS does not provide any in-depth information regarding women’s perspectives or
impediments to use of healthcare. It is more like a snapshot than a video. To determine what
women’s priorities and motivations are, another sort of research is needed—focus groups or
qualitative interviews. Table 6 provides suggestions to improve the information tracked for
the SO 7 indicators.
Buildings may not measure access to health clinics. This indicator may be intended as a
proxy. Yet it may not reflect whether women can get to clinics—that is, transport problems.
Sometimes access to MCH services may involve the service making a community or house￾call, such as traditional birth attendants. Tracking reconstruction of buildings will not capture
this mechanism for increased access to services. If this reported number is the proxy, it is
important that the USAID implementing partners have internal indicators that will reveal
actual impediments to access.
Knowledge may not necessarily increase demand or to use. There seems to be an
assumption here—that increasing women’s knowledge will increase the demand for USAID￾funded health services. Given this assumption, the monitoring and evaluation should test it. If
resources are spent to increase women’s knowledge but there is not an increase in use or the
increase expected, USAID partners need to talk with women about the impediments to their
demand for services. For example, do women not use services because they do not know the
signs and symptoms of a childhood disease? Or do they know, but sometimes have to make
judgments about when to use money and time for one child’s care to the detriment of others?
Establishment of committees may not increase demand. There are ways in which the
establishment of a health committee lacks sustainability or lacks the results intended. What if
a health committee is formed by one person and that person leaves to study public health; is
the committee sustainable? What if there is a broad and strong committee that includes some
charismatic, traditional health advisor, and thanks to the committee, people are using the
traditional methods more and going to the clinic less? This proxy may not reflect or lead to
increases in demand for health care.
The quality issues measured may not correlate with the quality issues that impede
women’s use of services. What is meant by quality—the results of the medical treatment or
how women are treated as patients or mothers of children needing care? Who judges the
quality? How do women get information about quality? This also does not necessarily
Chapter Five—Gender Issues and SO 7: Healthcare and HIV/AIDS
37
address some of the needs to improve quality, such as salaries too low for healthcare workers
to live on and terrible work conditions.
Below are questions to consider for the revised performance monitoring plan and as part of
any baseline survey or data-collection in targeted communities:

 How many women have used health facilities—clinics, hospitals, traditional birth
attendants?

 With what frequency do women use them?

 In what circumstances or for what sort of assistance?

 If they do not use them, why not? Are any of the following an issue:
− Transport,
− Cost,
− Time,
− Treatment (courtesy),
− Effectiveness of treatment?

 Do women want more information about any healthcare? If so, related to what?
Table 6: Gender Issues in the SO 7 Strategic Framework
Existing Indicator Weakness/Risks
Regarding Gender
Potential Improvements in
Information Tracked
SO7 Increased Use of
Maternal/Child Health and
HIV/AIDS Services and /or
Products and Improved
Health Practices 
Although MCH will involve
women, the increased use of
HIV/AIDS services could be
only among men; the
improved health practices only
by women or only with respect
to male children. The results
may not be sustainable—if the
increased use is because of
bringing services to people
and if improved practices last
only so long as USAID-funded
assistance encourages it.
There is little way to know the
impact
Some of this should be sex￾disaggregated to see whether
there are disparities in who
gets the assistance, where the
progress is made, and any
unintended negative impacts.
To monitor activity
implementation and identify
ways to improve design,
implementation and
sustainability, this SO team
and its partners must gather
qualitative information from
other sources, e.g., women
Number of Children . . .
receiving OPV3, DPT3,
measles vaccination
An increased number of
children shows improvement
for the time period covered.
However, this indicator does
not cover or measure
impediments to women’s care
for their children and
improvements therein, e.g.,
lack of empowerment to do so
and/or commitment to do so
for both boy and girl children
Sex-disaggregated data
regarding the children
themselves is one way to
ensure that, in case of cost or
effort needed for each child,
there is not a failure to protect
the girl-child. It also would be
helpful to have other ways to
measure improved health
practices, focusing on the
mothers who will be
responsible
Gender Assessment and Gender Plan of Action
38
Existing Indicator Weakness/Risks
Regarding Gender
Potential Improvements in
Information Tracked
Percent using condoms during
most recent sexual act with
non-regular partners
There is a fundamental
reliability issue here—a
tendency for people to give the
“right” answer, saying they
used them when they did not.
An increase in the percentage
using them may not uncover
disparities of use, e.g., as to
whether women have any
control—and fail to provide
important information for the
modification and targeting of
activities
It will be important to track
women’s use of HIV/AIDS
services and practices.
Information should be
disaggregated to know who is
getting information, able to use
it, acting on the basis of it, and
then where there are
disparities, to modify the
program approaches
accordingly
IR 7.1 Increased Access to
MCH Services
Access may depend on a
number of impediments, all of
which must be evaluated in
the design of the program.
Women’s knowledge is not
necessarily the key
impediment
Number of health facilities and
other infrastructure
rehabilitated or reconstructed
The infrastructure may be
fixed but not cause increased
access—which is in fact being
reported. It may be a better
use of resources to take care
of such issues as transport
and cost of services and let
communities be responsible
for construction and
rehabilitation. An increase in
the number may still not put
them close enough to women
to warrant the opportunity cost
of travel time (when they can
be earning the subsistence
income with which to feed
children)
This indicator is presumably
oriented toward Washington,
D.C. reporting. Think about the
information that will be useful
for activity monitoring, and
make sure that partners are
collecting, analyzing, and
acting upon what they learn
and then sharing it with
USAID/Angola as best
practices or lessons learned
IR 7.2 Increased Demand
for MCH Services
The implicit assumption is that
increased demand will come
from women/mothers, but this
it is not stated explicitly
Re-state the IR so the sub-IRs
and indicators reflect it:
Increased demand by mothers
for MCH services
Percent of mothers who know
signs and symptoms of
malaria/diarrhea
Many mothers know these
signs but do not use the
services for other reasons. If
knowledge is not the only
impediment, then increased
knowledge alone will not
necessarily increase demand
Base the indicator on the
problem that needs to be
solved. Ensure that the
problem has been identified by
talking with women and those
who work with them
Chapter Five—Gender Issues and SO 7: Healthcare and HIV/AIDS
39
Existing Indicator Weakness/Risks
Regarding Gender
Potential Improvements in
Information Tracked
Number of communities with
health committees established
The number of health
committees will not
necessarily reflect or result in
increased demand. Women
may not be on the committees;
committees may be founded
by one charismatic person
who leaves for schooling and
then fall apart; committees
could be used to disseminate
information about low-cost,
easily available traditional
alternatives to USAID-funded
healthcare practices
It would be interesting to see
how many communities have
women’s groups working on
issues of healthcare and then
get some technical assistance
(e.g., SO 6) on advocacy to
get clinics located near them,
vaccinations brought to them,
improved stocking and staffing
of facilities, etc.
IR 7.3 Increased Quality of
MCH Services
The purpose of increasing
quality is to increase use of
services and health practices
Must know the quality issues
for women, i.e., which
improvements will increase
their use
Percent of children with
diagnosis of malaria who are
prescribed correct treatment
according to national
guidelines
This is certainly important, but
this factor alone will not
necessarily accomplish the SO
Percent of healthposts that
encountered a stock-out of the
Ministry of Health essential
kits during past 2 months
This may reflect usage if they
run out of kits. But it also may
not affect women’s decisions
to use or not use MCH
services
Number of health centers with
emergency preparedness
plans
The existence of plans does
not mean health personnel will
use them; and may not
improve the quality of services
for the consumers: mothers
Number of health workers in
catchment areas trained in
emergency management
Training may not be the
problem if there are shortages
or equipment or understaffing
Talk to the health workers
(many are women) about what
impedes their ability to deliver
quality care
IR 7.4 Increased Access to
Condoms
This does not reflect who has
access, and access does not
necessarily reflect usage
Disaggregate data, and seek
particular information about
access by young women and
actual ability to ensure usage
Number of condoms sold in
traditional and nontraditional
outlets
Nontraditional outlets, like
hotdog stands, could be useful
only for young men. If focused
on women’s access, may have
to sell in hair salons. Counting
the number sold in male￾particular outlets will not give
information about whether
women have increased access
Request information about
which outlets, identify the
target population for each, and
note increased numbers for
each. This information will help
with activity modification,
targeting, etc.
Gender Assessment and Gender Plan of Action
40
Existing Indicator Weakness/Risks
Regarding Gender
Potential Improvements in
Information Tracked
IR 7.5 Increased Demand
for Condoms
Increased demand may be by
men or women. The demand
should reflect use (if they have
to pay for them)
It would be helpful to know
whose demand for condoms is
increasing—an indication of
who is reached by social
marketing, etc.
Percent of 14-25 year olds in
Luanda province who know
condoms are an effective
means to prevent HIV/AIDS
transmission
Knowledge may not correlate
with demand/use—particularly
for young women
Collect sex-disaggregated
data regarding knowledge,
demand, and use; ask open￾ended questions to identify
unanticipated impediments
IR 7.6 Improved Enabling
Environment
We do not know whether the
enabling environment takes
account of gender issues
Discuss this with PSI and with
UNICEF. What would be an
improved enabling
environment for women—
would it involve the flow of
information and power of
negotiation?
AIDS policy environment score To what extent does this policy
environment score take
account of women’s ability to
have impacts on government
policies and expenditures?
Does the environment include
attention to privacy? Testing
and detection without privacy
may be terribly destructive.
“Unintended harm” must be
scrupulously avoided
Women in Angola were among
the first to raise issues of
HIV/AIDS. This indicator
should connect with SO 6
Gather information not only
about levels of detection, but
also about methods, and
reporting regarding how clinics
ensure that families and
communities do not learn of a
woman/mother’s infection
Chapter Six—Cross-Cutting Perspective on Performance Monitoring
41
CHAPTER SIX
CROSS-CUTTING PERSPECTIVE ON PERFORMANCE MONITORING
GENDER AND PERFORMANCE-MONITORING IN GENERAL: TO WHAT END?
This gender assessment raised two issues regarding gender and performance monitoring. 

 To what extent can and should USAID monitor gender-based impacts program-wide at
the national level and report such changes as manageable results to Washington?

 How might USAID/Angola’s SO teams and their implementing partners use performance
monitoring at the activity level to improve project design, implementation, and therefore
results?
The first issue arises in the context of partners’ reporting to the Mission and the Mission to
D.C. The problems here are three-fold. First, despite some national data on women (see the
discussion below), there is insufficient regularity and reliability of national data either
focused on women or sex-disaggregated, by which to measure some of the changes that
USAID programs aim to bring about. Second, with shrinking U.S. resources in Angola, the
Mission cannot be expected to achieve national-level impacts—and will not. Third, the IRs
themselves do not have sufficient gender focus to show national impacts at that level.
USAID’s programs should, however, have impacts in targeted areas (sub-sectoral and
geographic), some of which may be measured if baselines can be undertaken. Even in the
absence of such indicators of impact, the Mission can certainly collect positive information
regarding gender impacts and lessons learned relating to women’s participation and gender
because some good experience is reported by partners. Such collection is a good and
meaningful way to send gender-based reporting to Washington. If partners were to report
their successes and lessons learned on a regular basis, and if the Mission were to designate a
WID officer to collect this information from all of the quarterly reports, USAID/Angola
could have a rich collection for reporting.
Regarding the activity-level monitoring, little attention has been given to monitoring of
gender issues on a systematic basis. Although most assistance has been humanitarian in
nature, paying attention to gender is important there as well. To ensure that their work is
effective, USAID’s implementing partners must monitor impacts throughout, tracking
information that will inform them of ways they could or should modify their implementation
approach.
DIFFERENT KINDS OF PERFORMANCE MONITORING: INPUTS, OUTPUTS, AND IMPACTS
Paying attention to gender in monitoring and evaluation suffers from a basic failure to focus
on impacts. As long as partners focus on inputs and outputs, some of the sex-disaggregated
Gender Assessment and Gender Plan of Action
42
information is not useful and hence people think it is a requirement that is burdensome but
not meaningful. When the focus is on inputs, we may know whether women were in the
room for training. But just counting people in a training course is not good monitoring and
reporting. If a baseline is done before the training and then once again after training, the
change in participants’ understanding and knowledge increases can be reported as an output.
In this case, sex-disaggregated data could be useful if women are not learning as well as men
(perhaps because their level of literacy is lower and some of the materials were too difficult).
Or the monitoring may even note that women seem to learn more.
But knowledge is still not impact. Ideally, such programs also look at who uses the new
knowledge. If women in an MCID literacy program start nucleos that begin to engage in civil
society action and if men in similar programs do not incorporate the knowledge into their
lives, perhaps there are lessons for how to target or prioritize that technical assistance.
Similarly, if a USAID partner trains extension agents for a seeds and tools project but they
are all men and are not reaching the women farmers, perhaps the attendance in the training
and the knowledge of those agents do not result in the food security objectives of the activity.
These are issues of gender monitoring but also of thinking about and monitoring the impacts
of USAID-funded assistance.
The fundamental principle is that any implementing partner should be concerned about
monitoring its own performance, to maximize positive results and to limit or avoid doing
harm.
Intended Impacts Unintended Impacts
Positive
Track to report, at both
activity and national levels
Establish mechanisms to
detect in order to enhance
and replicate
Negative
At activity level, try to
anticipate and to set up
mechanisms to note and
mitigate
The “easy” cases are the success stories. If a partner is doing something good with women or
has successfully identified gender-based impediments and dealt with them, it is important to
report and share that experience. We want to capture positive information, accomplishments,
and good results from investment of U.S. dollars for two reasons: (1) political, for its
importance; and 2) to share this information among implementing partners, to enhance one
another’s results through lessons learned (where applicable). 
At the same time, is very important to monitor for unintended negative impacts on women
(and others). If U.S.-funded assistance is having negative impacts on women—such as
negatively affecting their economic well-being, causing them physical injury, or decreasing
their role or status within the home and community, putting time into new activities at the
expense of household labor that maintains family well-being—such impacts should be
detected as soon as possible to minimize or stop them entirely. But if USAID’s partners on
the ground are not watching or asking questions about what is happening, they may fail to
recognize such impacts. 
Chapter Six—Cross-Cutting Perspective on Performance Monitoring
43
For example:

 Plan to monitor impacts on agriculture work for female-headed households, households
that are male-headed but polygamous so that the woman in fact is responsible for
growing food and feeding the family, and male-headed households where the man takes
responsibility for production. Do some categories of households achieve better results
than others? Why?

 With HIV/AIDS, it may not be possible in the short term to monitor for results—that is,
in terms of decreasing the incidence of infection. Thus, the focus may have to be on
outputs—on information disseminated, condoms purchased, or changes in behavior. In
that case, activity design must begin with some thought and information about gendered
roles and power. Implementation must follow a logic—who needs to be reached with
information and whose behavior will lead to an increase in protection and a reduction in
spreading the disease. But it is still important to gauge results—for example, holding
focus groups to establish how young men are perceiving a social marketing campaign.
(For example, that some Angolan men have reacted to a campaign comparing use of a
condom with the peel on a banana by noting that one does not enjoy eating a banana with
the peel on it, so why would one use a condom.) Similarly, it is important to hear from
young Angolan women whether (1) their male partners know about AIDS; (2) men are
willing to use condoms; and (3) whether the women have the opportunity to encourage or
insist on their use. This is just good practice but should be utilized also to test hypotheses
and impacts regarding gender-based obstacles to AIDS prevention.

 In a MCH program, the focus may be on women and on increasing their knowledge
regarding the signs and symptoms of malaria. But if the implementing partner reports the
number of women reached, sex-disaggregated data would be meaningless. If the USAID
partner plans to use a simple baseline of questions and some follow-up questions to
determine increase in knowledge, what does one do if there is no increase in the number
of women bringing their children to the new health clinic? In such cases, it is important to
talk to the women and to determine the impediments to their use of the clinics. Although
USAID partners may have limited experience with monitoring and evaluation and with
surveys and focus groups, they do need to pay attention to whether they are achieving
what they set out to accomplish and to explore explanations if they are not.

 Suppose that the international community wants to support the exercise of full and free
voting in the 2002 elections in Angola. Presumably, one-half of the voters may be
women. It is important that they be well-informed about the value of their vote and the
differences among parties. If USAID’s partners are involved in civic education and in
disseminating information, can they monitor whether the information reaches women
voters? Would there be some way to know whether the information is meaningful? In the
end, is not our purpose to have an impact on informed voting and on voting behavior? If
in the end, women vote according to the instructions of husbands or sobas, what has been
the value of U.S. assistance?
Gender Assessment and Gender Plan of Action
44
USEFUL SECONDARY DATA SOURCES
There is not a lot of statistical information on some of the issues that are most significant for
USAID’s transition and development work. Although the MICS gathers information from
women and will be up-to-date, its focus is limited. Fortunately, the INE household baseline
study of 2000-2001 does address such issues as agriculture production, amount of crops sold,
amount consumed within the household, who among the members is responsible for the
crops’ growing activities, who helps—and USAID’s new SO 5.2 should use that information.
But MICS information does not address such issues as women’s participation in civil society
or in community-based initiatives. 
While the “Analises Estatisticas Sobre O Genero” was published in January 1999 and is
based on data of 1998 at the latest, it is a useful document.11 The discussion of gender in
general, the history and culture of women’s status in Angola, and the interest and initiatives
of women and government in Angola toward gender issues would be useful for USAID staff.
Most of what this report describes has not changed.
For qualitative information, particularly regarding women IDPs, see:
 
10 AIP is a private institute whose work concentrates on applied social and economic research. AIP was
launched several years ago and has integrated some national researchers as well as foreigners with experience
conducting and analyzing survey data. 11 Camilo Ceita has indicated his interest in updating the report with information from the INE’s 2000-2001
household baseline study, but USAID should determine whether he has the position, funding, and
authorization to do so.
Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey Update and Gender

 The MICS is being done by the INE.

 14 provinces have been covered with 4 to go. Data processing is ongoing, with the hope of
disseminating preliminary results in December 2001. As there have been difficulties with
collection and sampling because of logistics and security, the MICS will be most representative of
and reliable regarding the coastal area. Whereas the last MICS was 40 percent urban and 60
percent rural, this will be the reverse because of difficulties reaching rural people and so many
are now in peri-urban areas.

 The MICS does not cover IDPs in camps but does cover those resident in communities. It should
be noted that UNICEF has engaged the AIP10 to do a qualitative survey (funded by USAID/SIDA)
of 1,500 households. The questions will be the same as the MICS, but with five quantitative
modules: camp structure, income and assets, causes of displacement, disabilities, and violence
in camps. There will also be a qualitative survey of 200 households (a representative sampling
but apparently with only a minimum of at least one female-headed household per camp). They
expect to start mid-October and hope to be done by the end of December. (UNICEF wants to try
to get both the regular MICS and the IDP MICS out by March 2002).

 The MICS will include 17 questions, the same as last time except it will leave out the module on
disabilities (which is unfortunate in terms of knowing the needs and conditions of disabled
women), but it will add a section on HIV/AIDS—regarding knowledge of men, women, and all
children over age 15. All data will be disaggregated for urban/rural, male/female, and age group.
Chapter Six—Cross-Cutting Perspective on Performance Monitoring
45

 The AHA/Save-UK “Conversa no Jango—A Voz das Mulheres Deslocadas” with IDP
women (in process, book due in March 2002; see copy of proposal left behind and
schedule a meeting with Connie Brathwaite).

 UNHCR/CCG interviews of women IDPs
(May/June 2001).
In addition, four reports provide useful information
in relation to gender issues:
1. Swedish Embassy Report: “Towards Gender
Equality in Angola”;
2. 1997 USAID/WIDTECH Report (and others
cited here). Note that most of what was
addressed in that report is still very important to
USAID. We strongly urge that the SO 5 team
look at the discussion of its partners and of seeds
and tools and that the SO 6 team review the
recommendations;
3. “Alternative Report on Implementation of the
Beijing Platform of Action in Angola” (from
Rede Mulher); and
4. Angola CEDAW Report of 1998 (report to the
Commission on the Status of Women under the
Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women).12
KEY ENTRY POINTS
In terms of influencing the status or situation of women in Angola, USAID is not dedicating
or targeting sufficient resources in its overall program to be able to take credit for change on
a national scale. Hence, there is limited reason for USAID/Angola to report national-level
changes. Yet USAID/Angola does have the opportunity to report on impacts and lessons
from its individual SOs and then to report that to Washington. Given the importance of
women and of paying attention to gender-related roles and responsibilities in Angola, the
Mission should report its experiences within its R4 or other annual reporting documents. At
the local level, where USAID is focusing on targeted communities, there are opportunities to
 
12 The following studies are forthcoming but may provide useful information for USAID:

 AHA/Save-UK “Conversations” with women IDPs;

 ADRA study of NGOs, directory of 40 that meet NGO criteria;

 Information on violence against women if Rede Mulher and/or GMP obtains funding; and

 World Bank monitoring and data collection for FAS.
What Women Are Doing—
Or Want to Do

 Research Regarding Domestic
Violence: Rede Mulher and GMP if
they get funding

 Women Parliamentarians’ Training
(Friedrich Ebert Stiftung assistance)

 MPD June 2001 Peace Conference
Follow-up

 Women in Huila, with Provincial
Governor since October 2000, decree
to created a Commission to resolve
problems in their platform/resolutions
(also strong in Benguela)

 World Learning Study Tour of 16
women sent to Mozambique

 Rede Mulher training for women as
spokespersons with the media,
October 2001

 Rede Mulher training women in
negotiations, conflict resolution

 LARDEF, Rights of Disabled, focusing
on women with more than 2 children
and no husband

 MCID women from literacy classes
forming nucleos
Gender Assessment and Gender Plan of Action
46
determine baselines on women’s needs and participation and to measure and report
improvements.
At this juncture, with a shift to transition/development assistance, there are several key entry
points for guaranteeing attention to gender issues.
Key Entry Points for Attention to Gender in Monitoring and Evaluation

 Baseline Surveys. This is a critical opportunity to learn women’s roles, current practices, and
interests. From that base, it will be possible to show changes attributable to USAID.

 Activity Design. USAID’s partners need to design the delivery of technical assistance and
select the people to deliver assistance with women and gender roles in mind. Women are not
only beneficiaries. They are important partners in achieving results. This phase may include
customer surveys and should include different groups of women as customers. The design
phase also is an opportunity to set up pilots to test approaches to gender obstacles or efforts to
capitalize on gender-based opportunities—setting the basis for important lessons learned.

 Activity Monitoring. Failure to observe and monitor the involvement of and impacts on women,
both throughout implementation and in midterm evaluations, may lead to lost opportunities to
learn from experience and to improve the delivery of assistance. Implementing partners need to
pay attention to women’s roles and experience in quarterly reporting. They need to stop
occasionally and talk with women. All midterm evaluations—without exception—should require
gathering of useful and relevant information (not simply sex-disaggregated data to keep the
donor happy), along with meaningful analysis.
Chapter Seven—Gender Action Plan
47
CHAPTER SEVEN
GENDER ACTION PLAN
This chapter has two sections: the substantive steps to include in the gender action plan, and
a suggested process to monitor its implementation. 
GENDER ACTION PLAN
Recommended Actions for Each Strategic Objective
As USAID/Angola re-orients its programming to shift from humanitarian assistance to
development assistance, each SO team is at a different phase in developing its performance
monitoring plan. In some cases, the IRs are well established and only indicators are subject to
modification; in others, the IRs or sub-IRs are subject to some re-thinking. This report
includes a section for each SO, along with questions and suggestions that should help the SO
team re-think IRs, sub-IRs, indicators, and methods of data collection to address gender
issues more effectively. The Mission’s gender action plan should include a section for each
SO team—that is, developed (and owned) by that team based on the WIDTECH input.
Cross-cutting Processes
There are steps USAID/Angola can take to build institutional capacity; to launch new
professional learning processes; and to express USAID’s expectations clearly to its partners,
colleagues, and customers. It is not at all realistic to expect USAID/Angola to do all of the
steps suggested here. Rather, as is detailed in the following section, the Mission should
engage staff and partners in identifying those steps that make the most sense to them and
that, with a sense of ownership, they would work to accomplish.
Requests for Applications or Proposals

 Post-Selection for the SO 5 RFA. Since it is too late to get gender into the SO 5 RFA, it
is critical that the selected organization addresses gender issues during the six-month
design phase—identifying questions that need to be asked, using participatory methods to
get input from women, and using that information as a rationale for the focus of the
activity. There must be basic research or needs assessment regarding what women do in
planting, harvesting, processing, and marketing. Also an effort must be made to match
food deficiencies with crop growth and/or markets.

 The New Health RFA. This is a critical opportunity, and the SO 7 team must get gender
language into the new Health RFA. The SO 7 team does not have to require a full
Gender Assessment and Gender Plan of Action
48
explanation of what the issues are and what the partner would do (which requires depth
of knowledge about Angola and time for research). However, the team should ask
partners to identify issues that would require attention in the design and implementation
phase of the activity and should ask about the partner organization’s experience or
comparative advantage looking at gender issues (that is, not only about working with
women because women are the target population anyway).
Training

 Training Regarding Participatory Research Methods. Within the scope of work for a
consultant to USAID/Angola’s monitoring and evaluation advisor, it should be specified
that she or he teach USAID staff and partners about participatory research methods as a
way to get information regarding gender-based roles and responsibilities and to track
changes. She or he should include (1) daily calendars to examine past (pre-IDP), present,
and future activity effects; (2) setting priorities (different colored chips, stones, or
markers for men and women, placed alongside community needs); and (3) resource
mapping.13 When in the field, she or he should use that opportunity to train individuals
who will have responsibility for monitoring and evaluation by giving them opportunities
to use the procedures on the ground. USAID also should note the upcoming World
Vision baseline survey and make sure that the monitoring and evaluation staff attend or
get guidance from USAID’s monitoring and evaluation advisor or the assisting
consultant. 

 Training Regarding Gender Questions in Household Surveys. USAID/Angola should
train USAID partner staff responsible for monitoring and evaluation about how to do
household-level baseline surveys in their communities, including discussion of how one
defines a household and how one asks questions of women.

 Training Regarding Signs of Trauma and Ways to Approach It. Key issues for
women are illiteracy and fatigue. It will improve the design and implementation of many
of USAID programs if USAID partners share approaches and lessons, sensitizing one
another and their staff located in communities so they can be aware of potential negative
impacts. If some USAID partners do learn from experience, USAID should encourage
them to share such lessons with other partners, both negative and positive. For example,
the Mission could host a CCF training for USAID partners on how to detect and respond
to signs of trauma and how to take advantage of traditional healing and local
mechanisms. (CCF is already developing a curriculum.)
 
13 One potential resource for this work would be Melanie Luick at UNICEF/AIDS in Angola because she has
materials in Portuguese (from her Ph.D. work in Brazil) on participatory research methods.
Chapter Seven—Gender Action Plan
49
Evaluations, Midterm and Final

 Include serious, explicit gender language in all terms of reference. Get explicit, clear,
and focused language into the terms of reference for all mid-term and final evaluations
regarding collection of information on women’s participation, outputs, and impacts (both
positive and negative). There have been missed opportunities: KPMG’s Democratic
Governance evaluation and the CEIP agriculture evaluation. Make sure that all USAID
partner organizations include meaningful language about expected gender analysis in
evaluation terms of reference.

 Provide training for local evaluators. USAID could take leadership in Luanda and
sponsor training for evaluators, from INE to CEIP, people in both universities, and
private voluntary organizations. Other donors, such as UNICEF and UNDP, might co￾sponsor and provide some of the expertise. Only when evaluators ask the questions and
get the data will they identify and understand important gender issues to address in
activity design and implementation.

 Rectify the lost opportunity of the SO 6 KPMG annual evaluation. Regarding the
KPMG terms of reference for evaluation—the first baseline for SO 6—USAID must
review the terms of reference (provided by MCID to the mission) to see whether the
document references gender and gives explicit directions. If needed, the SO 6 team
should draft and send a memorandum to the Democratic Governance implementing
partners that they should in turn send to KPMG, reminding KPMG it should be collecting
sex-disaggregated data, information about women, and success stories. It might also be
necessary provide them with some of the questions—for example, number of women
calling into talk shows, where and to whom newspaper supplements are distributed, and
who uses them. This should be a lesson learned for future evaluations. USAID should
also warn KPMG and other evaluators that USAID will not approve their services for
USAID partners until or unless they can show an institutional capacity to address gender
issues.
Obtaining Successes and Lessons Learned from USAID Implementing Partners 
There are several ways to obtain this information, depending on the Mission’s judgment:

 A Mission Director’s Memorandum. The Mission Director could send a memorandum
to all partners that invites and encourages implementing partners to report on gender in
all quarterly, midterm, and final reports when they (1) have particular successes or
lessons learned or (2) discover unexpected impediments related to gender and devise a
new approach.14
 
14 To ensure that such information is used, have a signal/symbol on quarterly reports that shows there is such
content and then refer it to the WID Officer or program office. It also is important to give some feedback to
partners, acknowledging that USAID has read and appreciates such reporting.
Gender Assessment and Gender Plan of Action
50

 Revised SO Performance Monitoring Plans. Each SO team could revise its
performance-monitoring plan to explicitly include collection of data re: successes and
lessons learned about women and about gender-based barriers and opportunities.

 Partners’ Meetings. This is a time to elicit discussion about successes and lessons
learned in working with women and recognizing gender-based obstacles. 
Measuring Progress

 Gender-Related Baseline Data. When gathering baseline information from which to
gauge change, include questions relating to women’s roles and perspectives:
− Baseline data in the new SO 5 household-level survey,
− Baseline information in target communities for new agriculture activities, and
− Baseline information (very simple survey—oral with hands raised) of knowledge in
MCID literacy classes.

 Expert Panels. The SO 6 team will convene a diverse but expert panel to assess changes
in women’s civic and political participation. This panel or focus group will address only
women’s civic and political participation (not a broad assessment of the status of
women). This panel should be held annually in Luanda and in two provinces.15

 Research that Helps People Understand Women’s Needs and Perspectives. If funds
are available, USAID could support research that is proposed, planned, or in process that
can then serve as a baseline for future USAID work. Examples include “Conversations
with Women IDPs” by AHA and Save-UK; Rede Mulher research on violence against
women (if structured well, the research could be a good baseline regarding women’s legal
literacy—knowing about the laws, using courts and police, fears, and current alternatives.
Sharing Experience, Encouraging Exchange

 Use quarterly “cross-sectoral linkages” partner meetings. Include some time in each
partners meeting to collect gender-related information that relates to each cross-sectoral
linkages topic—for example, HIV/AIDS, land privatization and ownership (raising issues
of women’s ownership of land, inheritance rights, and advocacy by women), and use of
the media.

 Launch a professional association of men and women who look at women in
development and gender and development in their work. Currently, many
professionals with an interest in WID work in private voluntary organizations and NGOs
 
15 As is noted for SO 6, it is important that the panel be diverse (some officials, some women’s NGO
representatives, some USAID partners’ staff who are particularly aware of women, and some other private
voluntary organizations). But the panel should rely on people who know something, do something, and are
on the ground. There should be five or six focused questions, the same each year. Additional issues, such as
women in media or political parties, should be covered in the democracy and governance index group.
Chapter Seven—Gender Action Plan
51
that do not have a concerted focus on gender, but many of these professional have
valuable ideas and experiences to share. USAID could provide some leadership and
sponsorship for an association if it were picked up by MINFAMU, Rede Mulher, or
UNDP. If USAID began to convene such a group, it could also be used to identify new
people to take part in the WID Expert Panel.

 Encourage U.N. convening of a donors gender working group. Donors need to
compare foci on women in development and gender practices and resources. It would
also be an opportunity to share reports and studies, experience at the local level, and
trainers. The United Nations—as UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF, or OCHA—could convene
such a meeting on a quarterly basis.

 Launch a USAID gender and development study group. Have USAID staff read the
1997 WIDTECH report (that covers agriculture and democracy and governance); the
“Progress Report on The Contribution of Angolan ONGs to the Implementation of
Beijing and Dakar Platforms for Action, May 2000; SIDA’s “Towards Gender Equality
in Angola;” and “O Papel da Mulher na Sociedade Angolana,” by INE. The focus should
not be on the quality of the report but on the substance—namely, identifying those issues
raised in the reports that may affect the results of USAID’s programs.
MONITORING PERFORMANCE AND IMPLEMENTATION OF GENDER ACTION PLAN
We have learned from experience that when Missions receive an outsider’s detailed recipe
for action, implementation may prove difficult if (1) the number of steps is overwhelming
and unrealistic; and (2) of the plan lacks as sense of ownership by the Mission. Thus, the
previous section proposed a menu from which USAID/Angola will need to identify its
priorities and its interests. The procedure for arriving at a final gender action plan, ensuring
its implementation and monitoring its impact would be as follows.
Step One: Identify a WID Officer and Form a WID or Gender Committee
The WID officer should not only be someone who has extra time but also someone who also
has the capability and the authority to ensure that those steps to which the Mission commits
are done. It is not appropriate or effective for the WID officer to do everything; rather, each
SO team should take own responsibility for its own actions. The WID officer should then
head a WID or Gender Committee that includes all team leaders, representation from the
program office, and the front office when key decisions are to be taken.
Gender Assessment and Gender Plan of Action
52
Step Two: Engage Mission Staff in Finalizing a Gender Performance Monitoring
Plan
Just as this report suggests ways to monitor and evaluate gender impacts within
USAID/Angola’s strategic framework as a way of
ensuring that resources are used effectively and that
impacts are achieved, the Mission needs to put in
place a plan for monitoring the integration of and
attention to gender into its program. Arriving at this
plan will include (1) each SO team reviewing this
report and deciding how to integrate gender into
sector-specific actions; (2) a meeting of the Program
Office and WID/Gender Committee to select those
cross-cutting actions that the Mission will undertake; and (3) agreeing to a performance
monitoring plan for gender—that is, refining and finalizing the draft below based on the
decisions in levels 1 and 2. 
For gender indicators related to the strategic framework, inputs and outputs should be tracked
but do not suffice. It is even more important to identify impacts, both positive and negative.
LEVEL 1: Track the number and type of inputs related to gender and women’s
participation: This is the lowest level of monitoring. It is not the most meaningful but is a
first step to determine what actions the Mission takes.
Examples:

 Gender assessment and training by WIDTECH

 Training on participatory methods

 Language put into health RFA
LEVEL 2: Track the number and type of outputs related to gender and women’s
participation. There is some evidence that USAID staff and partners use the inputs and pass
along the expertise and guidance to the field.
Examples:

 Use by USAID or partners of participatory methods in design or evaluation

 Activity applications that incorporate gender issues in response to RFA
LEVEL 3: Track and evaluate impacts; this is the overall objective. Impacts are harder to
measure but ultimately this level is the most important. Ideally, the Mission wants to see that
its staff is managing projects with attention to gender impacts and, most important, that
USAID partners are approaching WID and gender issues more effectively in their activity
design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation.
Examples:

 Recognizing the limited power of female youth to ensure the use of condoms, the USAID
implementing partner begins (1) disseminating female condoms; (2) training young
The Program Office and monitoring and
evaluation specialist should convene a
meeting to discuss and revise the draft
gender performance monitoring plan
suggested here in order to achieve
participation and ownership of the final
plan. 
Chapter Seven—Gender Action Plan
53
women in negotiation skills; or (3) intensively targeting young men to ensure that they,
with the power, will use condoms.

 Determining that women’s farmer groups are increasing sales of profitable new produce
more effectively than the larger associations, a USAID partner decides to focus technical
assistance on turning the women’s groups into associations, and also links them with SO
6 for some advocacy training.

 Finding that women are not bringing their children with malaria to new clinics because
the day spent at the clinic precludes earning money to feed their other children, USAID’s
partner offers food baskets to women who bring their children to the clinic.
Table 7: Draft Plan for Program Office to Develop with Gender/WID Committee
Approaches Inputs Outputs Impacts Person(s)
Responsible
SO 5 1. Require research
and women’s inputs
for new activity
design (through
meetings and
written instructions)
2. Add gender
questions to
community baseline
survey.
3. Develop new
gender-related
indicators
1. 5.2 activity
design with explicit
attention to
women’s roles
2. Baseline data
regarding women’s
roles
3. Information
regarding women’s
roles, contributions,
gender
impediments
1. Greater
women’s
participation and
contributions
2-3. Lesson
learned,
modifications to
activity
implementation,
results
SO 5 team
leader
SO 6 1. Revise
democracy and
governance index
to include gender
2. Put together
panel on women’s
civic and political
participation
3. Meet with
partners to identify
information
impediments for
women and key
issues
4. Develop criteria
for formal coalitions
5. Review
constituency survey
for gender issues
6. Require KPMG
gender evaluation
1. New democracy
and governance
index
2. Diverse review
panel
3. Monitoring plan
and new
approaches to
increase availability
of information to
women
4. More women-led
or women active
coalitions
5. Revised, gender￾inclusive survey
6. New terms of
reference for
KPMG (perhaps for
that completed,
definitely for next
year)
SO 6 team
leader
Gender Assessment and Gender Plan of Action
54
Approaches Inputs Outputs Impacts Person(s)
Responsible
SO 7 1. Insert gender
language in RFA
and ensure it as
important criterion
in selecting partner.
2. Talk with women
about what
impedes access
and demand.
3. Identify points of
sale for women to
get condoms.
4. Provide
assistance
specifically
addressing
impediments to
access, e.g.,
transport or
vouchers.
5. Offer young
women courses on
negotiation
regarding use of
condoms.
6. Increase focus
on men likely to
have mistresses
and young women.
7. Hold meetings
with church leaders
to explore
collaboration.
8. Engage in
analysis of
opportunities to
strengthen AIDS
policy environment
score regarding
gender.
9. Offer female as
well as male
condoms.
1. Count percent of
health committee
members who are
women.
2. Track increases
in numbers of
women using
clinics.
3. Measure number
of condoms sold in
women-targeting
outlets.
4. Count number of
women trained in
negotiation.
5. Count number of
information
campaigns
targeting men
known to be
particular threats to
young women and
wives.
6. Show changes in
AIDS policy
environment score.
7. Count numbers
of female condoms
sold, and increase
over time.
1. Obtain
anecdotal
evidence of
impacts of
negotiation
training on young
women’s
protection.
2. Show increase
in church activity
re preventing
HIV/AIDS.
3. Show increase
in number of
women reporting
use of condoms.
4. Show increase
in sale and use of
female condoms.
SO 7 team
leader
Cross-Cutting
RFAs and RFPs Number of
documents to which
gender language is
added 
Number of
responses with
“solid” response
regarding gender
issues and
applicant’s
expertise
Number of new
contracts, grants,
and performance
monitoring plans
spelling out
gender-related
commitments
All SO team
leaders
Chapter Seven—Gender Action Plan
55
Approaches Inputs Outputs Impacts Person(s)
Responsible
Training Number of training
opportunities
offered by USAID
to its staff and
partners
Number of staff
and partners
participating; also
some baseline to
show what is
learned
Changes in
USAID practices
linked to training
Evaluations Number of
evaluation terms of
reference with
strong, explicit
language regarding
evaluating gender
impacts
Number of
evaluations with
useful, meaningful
analysis of gender
impacts
Number of
modifications to
activity
implementation
resulting from
gender in
evaluations
Sharing
Information and
Experiences
Number of sessions
gatherings
sponsored (e.g.,
donors or gender
and development
specialists)
Number of
attendees; increase
in number and
diversity of
participation
Useful information
obtained by
USAID in
discussions
Obtaining
Successes and
Lessons￾Learned from
USAID
Implementing
Partners
Number of
communications by
USAID staff
requiring,
requesting, or
encouraging
gender-related data
and information
Increase in
success stories
and lessons
learned reported
Transmission from
one partner to
another (or to
other USAID
entity) that
changes a
partners’ approach
Measuring
Progress
Number of partners
instructed to
include gender
questions in
baselines; number
of women-focused
studies supported
Number of studies
that collected data
relating to women’s
priorities,
preferences,
practices or needs
Changes in
activity design or
implementation
resulting from data
collected.
Successes
reported as a
result of
improvements
from baseline

57
BIBLIOGRAPHY
“Advisory board sets conditions for Angolan elections,” Agence France-Presse, August 1,
2001.
“Angola Pardox: Awash in Oil, Mired in Poverty,” Washington Post, September 18, 2000.
“Angolan Officials say about 450,000 citizens affected with HIV AIDS,” Lisbon Lusa News
Agency, June 18, 2001.
Avaliacao Final (Final Evaluation), CEIP, for Africare, 2001.
“Alternative Report on Implementation of the Beijing Platform of Action in Angola,” Rede
Mulher (Women’s Network—Angola), 2000.
“Coke Goes Back to Coca Cola,” New York Times, April 22, 2001.
“Digging Up Angola’s Deadly Litter,” Christian Science Monitor, July 27, 2001.
EUI Country Reports, Angola, Economist Intelligence Unit, April 1, 2001.
“Free Breakfasts Lure Kids back to School in Angola,” Agence France-Presse, August 3,
2001.
“Government Tries to Identify Five Million Children,” IRIN, August 7, 2001.
“In Angola, Church is Surrogate State: Missionaries Fill Void in Vital Services,” Washington
Post, March 22, 2001.
Inquerito de Base sobre “Iniciativa de Reintegracao e Desenvolvimento Agricola do
Planalto,” CEIP, for Africare, report completed in 2000.
Inquerito sobre “Cohecimentos, Praticas e Coberturas em Sobrevivencia da crianca menor de
24 meses,” Kuito, Bie, elaborado por Maria Antonia Castelo, Kodi Samba, Centro de Ensino
e Investigacao Empopulaca, Universidade Agostinho Neto, Juhno, 2000.
“No Place for the Poor,” Economist, August 4, 2001.
“Oil and Blood,” Jon Lee Anderson, The New Yorker, August 14, 2000.
Okuseiakala O’ndalu Yokolye, “Let Us Light a New Fire: Local Knowledge in the Post-War
Healing and Reintegration of War-Affected Children in Angola,” Alcinda Honwana, CCF,
Luanda, 1998.
Gender Assessment and Gender Plan of Action
58
O Papel da Mulher na Sociedade Angolana, “Analyses Estataiticas sobre o Genero, Camilo
Ceita,” INE, January 1999.
“Poverty Reduction Policies—Pursuing Equity and Efficiency,” INE/UNDP.
“Preventing and Coping with HIV/AIDS in Post Conflict Situations: Gender-Based
Lessons,” Background Briefing Note, Tulane University/ACCORD/USAID Symposium,
Pretoria, South Africa, March 27-29, 2001.
“Report on the National Consultation on the Protection of Internally Displaced, Returnee and
Refugee Women,” held in Luanda by CCG and UNHCR, May 17, 2001.
“Report and Resolutions of the First Women’s Conference on Peace, June 16, 2001,” The
Role of the State in Poverty Alleviation, the Angolan Case, Gilberto Ribeiro, INE, August
1988.
“The Eduardo Dos Santos Foundation: Or, How Angola’s Regime is Taking Over Civil
Society,” Christine Messiant, African Affairs (2001), 100, 287-309, Royal African Society
2001 (originally published in Politique Africaine, March 1999).
“Towards Gender Equality in Angola, A Profile on Gender Relations,” SIDA, April 2000.
Reports of Oxfam, Red Cross, FAO, WFP/PAM, IMF (Angola: Position in the Fund, as of
June 30, 2001; Government of Angola: Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies,
February 2001), Worldwide Refugees.
“Willingness to Pay Study,” INE/UNICEF.
A-1
ANNEX A
RECOMMENDED AREAS OF INQUIRY FOR SO 5 
HOUSEHOLD BASELINE SURVEY
A-2
A-3
RECOMMENDED AREAS OF INQUIRY FOR SO 5 
HOUSEHOLD BASELINE SURVEY
Women and Information
How and where do they receive it?
Church
Radio
Women’s groups or gatherings
Theater
Activistas
Children (bringing back from school)
Literacy programs
Health Clinics
Others
Do women listen to radio?
Once/month
2-10 times/month
Daily
If they listen, what do they listen to?
Music
News
Information on special topics
Economic Activities
What crops do women grow, harvest, process, sell, feed to families?
How do women get money for the family:
Grow/sell crops
Process and sell something
Buy/trade
Tasks/work for wages
Other?
Health
Women’s use of health clinics:
Do they go? Why/why not?
What are obstacles to use: transport, cost, quality/service, lack of knowledge?
What sort of health support do they need/want for themselves and children?
A-4
Clinic to go to
Information, education
Traditional birth attendants
Community health workers, coming to them
Re HIV/AIDS (see UNICEF/MICS questions)
Do women know about it? Know who gets is and how?
How do they think it spreads?
How do children get information? Do women discuss it with them?
Violence
Is violence a problem?
Against her individually
In the home, including children
In the street/community
What means of recourse—to whom turn for help?
Church?
Family?
NGO?
Friends?
International private voluntary organizations?
Courts or lawyers?
Women in Civil Society—Associations, Groups, Committees
Are women members of community-based organizations, such as health committees,
farmers’ associations, and community development initiatives? If so, do they

 Participate as a minority or in equal numbers?

 Participate actively?

 Constitute leadership?
B-1
ANNEX B
GUIDELINES FOR SO 6 PANEL TO ASSESS STRENGTHENING OF
WOMEN AS A CONSTITUENCY
B-2
B-3
GUIDELINES FOR SO 6 PANEL TO ASSESS STRENGTHENING OF
WOMEN AS A CONSTITUENCY
PANEL COMPOSITION

 Can be men and women, as long as mostly women (otherwise men can monopolize
discussion)

 Must be people who are knowledgeable about women, work with them (thus not general
political scientists or journalists who lack focus)

 Diversity is critical. Include (1) some individuals working on women and women’s rights
(Rede Mulher/Emilia Fernandes, Branca Neto, Julia Ornelas, Henda Ducados, and
Clarisse Kaputo); (2) donors knowing about women (Cila Coelha/Sweden, UNFPA, and
UNDP); (3) Angolans representatives of USAID partners if knowledgeable about women
and working with them (MCID/literacy, NCC, and CCF); (4) representatives from other
private voluntary organizations and U.N. affiliates that work with women (Connie
Brathwaite/AHA, Helena Farinha/ADRA, Ana /Save-UK, and OADEC); (5) from
Women’s NGOs (from OMA, LIMA, AMUJA, and MPD); (6) women’s representatives
from government (Gender Director from MINFAM and one or two from GMP); and (7)
Camilo Ceita or MOSAICO/Dominicans.
PANEL LOCATION: LUANDA AND TWO OTHER PROVINCES
Ideas from ADRA: Huila (ADPC, MAFICO, ESTRELA, ALSAA), Benguela (Horizonte,
ODLAC, AADC.
PANEL ISSUES/QUESTIONS
1. At local, grassroots level, see any increase in activities/civic and political participation by
women? If so, where see it:

 Church

 Literacy programs

 Community-based development

 Within community committees or associations

 New NGOs or women’s groups

 Media (calling in, writing, interviewed more)
2. What issues are women pursuing?
Peace Water Corruption
Literacy Shelter
Education Land
Violence against women HIV/AIDS
Elections Basic Health
B-4
3. Changes in women’s NGOs:
Change in the number
Change in effectiveness
Change in resources/funding
4. Women in civil society with women in government (national or provincial)
Is there collaboration?
Any joint meetings?
Demonstrations?
C-1
ANNEX C
WORKSHOP MATERIALS: 
TOUCHSTONES AND LANGUAGE FOR RFAs
C-2
C-3
WORKSHOP MATERIALS
Three Key Touchstones for Gender and Results
Is Women’s participation or paying attention to gender issues

 Critical for achieving your results?

 Necessary for redressing gender inequities or exclusion of women?

 Practicable or strategic in the given context (host country, mission, SO team)?
Language that Could Be Included in RFAs/RFPs to Address Gender Issues

 Indicate those instances where you may anticipate the need for input or participation from
particular population groups, such as women, youth, and rural residents. If such
consultations are recommended, discuss the purpose.

 USAID and others have been increasingly aware of the importance of such issues as
tenure issues, inheritance rights, and the impacts of HIV/AIDS in all sectors. Please
indicate if any of your proposed approaches may serve as pilots or would provide specific
monitoring to capture lessons learned. If such experience or lessons would relate to
women or gender issues, please explain.

 Please identify potential partners, both within the government and among
local/indigenous NGOs. If such alliances would be necessary for addressing women’s
participation or gender issues in achieving the project objectives, please indicate and
explain.

 If your organization has experience working with women or addressing gender issues in
Angola or in countries facing similar challenges and issues, please describe that
experience and its importance. 

 With regard to your organization’s comparative advantage, indicate whether your staff
has particular strengths or experience related to gender mainstreaming, gender equality,
and women’s participation. Explain if and how that expertise will enrich your project
design and implementation. 

 Within your problem analysis, please discuss any gender-based roles, responsibilities, or
other factors that must be addressed to ensure achievement of program objectives and/or
sustainability. Indicate how you would address those issues in relation to project design,
implementation, and monitoring and evaluation.

 Within your discussion of community work, community organization, and empowerment,
please indicate any gender issues you anticipate and how you would address them.

 USAID is encouraging partner organizations to establish mechanisms to assess and learn
from implementation experience. Please indicate how your project design and
management would capture success stories and opportunities related to women and
would detect and redress negative gender impacts. 
D-1
ANNEX D
SAMPLE QUESTIONS FOR EVALUATIONS
D-2
D-3
SAMPLE QUESTIONS FOR EVALUATIONS
Note: All evaluations should clearly state USAID’s expectation that the
evaluator will look at women’s participation, impacts on women, and other
gender-based constraints and opportunities. This should not be standard,
boilerplate language but should be placed and articulated in the Evaluation
Terms of Reference so it is clearly something central to the evaluation. Some
sample topics and questions follow.
Health
Depending on the actual activity focus and relevance, but maybe some introductory language
such as:
Women play many different roles within a community in relation to healthcare. They may be
patients, parents and spouses, newly trained healthcare workers, traditional healthcare
providers, caretakers for the ill, or members of health committees. Please consider the
participation of women in the subject activity or program in all of those roles (and any
others), and note any positive or negative impacts on them, any particular lessons regarding
participation, new information gleaned from women’s input, and any success stories
involving women or attention to gender-based roles and responsibilities. In cases of data
collection and production of tables, please provide sex-disaggregated data if relevant and if
available.

 Have women used USAID-provided health resources as expected? If not, what are the
obstacles to access or use?
− Obstacles to access: transportation, knowledge
− Cost, expectations regarding cost
− Time needed to get there, wait, be treated (see, for example, prostheses)
− Poor, rude, or insulting treatment
− Access to alternatives requiring less travel, time or cost?

 Have women played roles as providers as well as customers, such as nurses, extension
agents, and traditional birth attendants? If so, have they been able to participate fully and
effectively. Has women benefited from technical assistance or capacity building? If so,
how? If not, were there particular problems recruiting women or keeping them in the
program?

 Have there been any ways in which engaging men—such as by providing them with
information about health issues of women and children or gaining their support for new
health facilities—has strengthened program results?
D-4

 What did the USAID implementing partner learn about women’s expectations and
perspectives during the project? Were there any useful lessons learned about how things
might be done differently?

 Are there any success stories regarding roles of women in improving healthcare for
themselves, their children, or their families?

 What roles, if any, have women played in organizations, associations, or health
committees? If they contributed significantly, please note. If they were not involved,
why not? Were any efforts made to improve their involvement?

 Did the activity result in any unintended negative impacts on girls or women? If so, how
did the USAID partner change the activity to end or mitigate such impacts?
Agriculture
When determining the numbers of households and analyzing data, please indicate whether
the household was (1) female headed only; (2) male headed only; (3) male headed with
active adult female; or (4) female headed but adult male(s) in household.
Note the following from a CEIP evaluation: “A alfabetizacao em geral, e a da mulher em
particular, e um problema serio para o qual uma solucao deve ser encontrada a fim de
melhorara o nivel cultural da populacao, sobretudo para permitir a aplicabilidade da politica
de animacao rural.”
Reference to “reconversao da mentalidade do campones e pela sua sensibilizacao e formacao,
e dentro de um quadro organizativo eficaz” must take account of men and women’s different
needs and baselines.
In analyses of population residency by residency status (permanent, demobilized, displaced,
and returned), please disaggregate by head of household or sex of adults.
When analyzing households by food sufficiency, please disaggregate by head of household
or sex of adult members. The same with regard to ownership of land and for families
affected by food insecurity.
When analyzing sources of food consumed, please analyze which foods are grown,
harvested, processed, marketed, cooked, requested from family or friends, and distributed by
women. Language such as the following fails to provide potentially critical information
regarding the roles of women and female-headed households:

 “Observamos que 28.4% dos agregados tem duas pessoas que contribuem para a
producao alimentar e 19.0% come tres persoas”
D-5

 “Podemos cocluir que a sobrevivencia da maioria das familias (94.3%) dependia de
produtos provenientes da sua propria lavra....” (Which families, and whose labor?)

 “Os resultados mostram que 63.5% dos agregados apresentam problemas de auto￾sustento basico” (Which ones? Can one predict? What factors make the difference?)
When analyzing households’ access to land, to water, and to inputs, are there differences
depending on who is head of household or who primarily responsible for planting?
When looking at how many households would like more land to cultivate, are there
differences depending on women’s roles—heads and/or cultivators?
When looking at the intention to plant, and access to seeds, are there any differences?
When looking at extension agents, training and capacity building, please report the number
of men and women as trainers and as trainees. Please analyze and report any experiences
related to gender.
Conclusions such as “nao existe capacidade economica por parte dos chefes de agregado”
should be more precise regarding which heads of households—if differences exist or to know
whether they do not.
In analyses of methods of preparing the land, are there differences by sex of the farmer?
In assessing the practice of rotating crops, do women and men have same experience,
background, and practice? (Already look at whether there are differences according to
climate and culture, but what about the person responsible?)
If there is a statement such as “nota-se que existe uma grande diferenca entre as quantidades
de sementes distribuidas e as reembolsadas—cerca 70$ no Kuanza Sul e 12 percent no
Kuito/Bie-, apesar das estrategias de implementacao do projecto serem as mismas,” it would
be nice to know whether there were any differences in women’s participation. It may not
have anything to do with the differences, but it is an example of how monitoring and
observing could possibly account for results or impacts.
E-1
ANNEX E
INTERVIEW-BY-INTERVIEW SUMMARIES
E-2
E-3
INTERVIEW-BY-INTERVIEW SUMMARIES
African Humanitarian Action (AHA): Connie Brathwaite

 Work with UNHCR and others; much of staff used to work for MINARS and are social
workers; focus on empowerment and partnership.

 Connie B. has dealt with women’s issues for a long while in Africa. Get her onto SO 6
panel. In 1995, 40 women of all parties (MPLA/ OMA, UNITA, FNLA, etc.) met in
Rostenburg; sponsored by Ecumenical (Catholic evangelical) and Lutheran World
Church. Met with Maitre Beye, the Cardinal, etc. but Dos Santos would not seem them.
Savimbi invited them to Bailundo.

 Re Viana/IDP women: Have worked with them, but not talk to them and listen to them.
In March, had a “conversation” to see what they thought. Included MINFAMU . . .
Talked and talked: “women talk” and some crying. Women talk about losing their
culture, daughters getting pregnant under the cashew trees, wanting and needing their
own latrines, daughters getting STDs. Women without a roof over their heads are not
women—not tents, but houses. Want literacy. Numbers of women left as first wives,
husbands have new wives in the cities. This has become a project, “Conversa no
Jango—A Voz das Mulheres Deslocadas”, in 7 places (Luanda, Uige, Malange, Bie,
Moxico, K. Kubango, Benguela); recording the conversations; all will be in a book
about displacement, culture—to be a tool for working with/for women.
(Collaboration with UNHCR, Save/UK, maybe CCF and maybe UNICEF?)

 Note that women taken in by families (not in camps) have a worse time than those in
camps—truly disempowered.

 “Raising expectation”: Don’t think are doing that; at least they can now talk; can use the
“conversations” to establish solidarity groups. But note that women will not talk with
just anyone—need a woman with skills.

 Work in Mbanza Kongo: UNHCR money to AHA; do gender training for government,
UNITA, MPLA, FNLA. Note the course materials by ICI/ALEA (Instituto de
Cooperacao Internacional de Assoc. Alema para Educao Adultos). Marcia has copy. Do
work on HIV/AIDS, civic education and gender. Training was good, and got government
officials thinking.

 Examples of impacts on women: Mosquito nets: burn, or men use; local alternative is
Nila (?) trees. Mbanza Kongo: community bought bricks themselves—now want AHA
help before the rains come. Theatre group in MK gets information to the average person,
to women, to children in schools.

 There is a social work school, run by the Catholic Church; some are very good.
E-4
Action Against Hunger (AAH)
Regarding Women and Agricultural Production

 Who farms and produces? Per AAH, it is women. Men go to war. Men do more
“commercial”work—if at all.

 Gender-based roles different from cities to rural, from region to region, but note:
− Women in Luanda sell fish, bananas, tubers
− Men sell briefcases, electric fans, men’s cologne, videos, irons, whole sacks of apples
(imported from somewhere, not grown here), CDs, etc.

 KEY is women’s education and to work with women.

 AAH not have any idea how to solve the problem of working with women. It is a very,
very macho society. Women’s roles are great, but their status is very limited.
Humanitarian aid focuses on getting food to the most desperate—not time/opportunity to
focus on development.

 Most of the AAH staff around the country are men. Most of their beneficiaries are
women. If they ask women why they are not going to the clinics, they will get an answer
but not an explanation: too far, but not that the time necessary for the trip for one
critically ill or malnourished child means that they fail to make/find money to feed their
other 3-4 children.
Development Aid from People to People (ADPP): Angeta Dahne

 Do more development work than emergency—even if with IDPs, is development
focused.

 Five programs:
1) Education: training rural teachers; established 16 teacher training colleges (with
Ministry of Education) where get teaching certificate and rural activista training (to
be health promoter, women’s rights activist, human rights activist, business
development, or community development). Six of 16 are now functioning schools.
Tried to recruit women, but hard; better success since 1995. Still, rural teachers need
10th grade education and there are not many women with qualifications, and those
qualified are in Luanda and can get lots of jobs. Curriculum is “gendered”—attention
to gender issues within topics.
2) Schools for street children and orphans
3) Vocational training: 5 schools for people with some education: agriculture, business
administration, construction. Four schools are mixed and one is only women (teaches
particular skills for women and issues)—have not monitored the difference of
experience for women in mixed and alone (chance there for some interesting
focus groups).
E-5
4) Child education and community development programs: water and sanitation and
preschools. Look at how rural and semi-urban families can improve lives of children,
e.g. family economy and agriculture.
5) HIV/AIDS since 1997 (!): “Hope” program in Benguela and Cabinda. Training peer
educators, outreach skills—work with groups of women, church, youth, clubs.
Learned that need to reach people through their close ones, networks. Churches
are responsive. Now “Hope on All”—that AIDS will be integrated into all their
programs.

 Regarding monitoring and evaluation: There is monthly reporting of results to be counted
and impact/interpreting data. But difficult to compare, or to know what it means. WID
monitoring is easy when a women’s program—harder when mixed groups.
Adventist Development and Relief Agency International (ADRA): 
Helena Farinha

 From 1975, MPLA has socialist campaign to promote women. Not focus on rural
population, no know about market economy because of socialist/communist system.
Therefore, women’s change to a market economy was a “disaster”: no schooling or
experience, and women suffered. Now women as domestics, and women look for
provisions. All women work, most in the informal market. Some time in the last couple
of years, ADRA did a study on women—need to find it?!?!

 Benguela/Microcredit: women are doing well, women have money. Men are feeling
marginalized, losing status and confidence. Women need literacy (for women to play
their roles, economic, family and political.)

 Huila, manufacturing soap; sold used clothes for money, used savings to start business.
But soap was a bad formula and did not keep well; 26 people was too big a group.
Success turned sour—needed more technical assistance and guidance. 

 There is an ADRA study on forms of community organization and types of conflict
resolution—limited attention to gender.

 Recent study for Portuguese, which not yet published, about NGOs—criteria for what
qualifies, found 40, now a directory of them.
Concern

 In Huambo, Kuito, Malanje; working with teachers (mostly women) and nurses (mixed)

 Regarding vaccinations: Women not showing up is not for lack of understanding

 2 programs directly with women:
E-6
− Kuito: with 300 women amputees; cannot farm or collect firewood. Give them
grants, peer support. Also now working with male amputees (25-30) because they are
a disturbance in the community; not grants, but some social support. Male amputees:
say that women are better at business than they are; they can bargain and negotiate.
− Nutrition: Mixed staff (50-50 women), working with malnourished pregnant and
lactating women. Once/week are weighed, get health education, childcare while
there. Also have outreach workers—who do home visits if someone is not putting on
weight—can also use that to find out whether they are growing fruits or vegetables in
kitchen garden. The seeds/nutrition link is a way to know more about who is
doing what re producing and consuming food.
− Have Agriculture work in all three provinces—hugs seed distribution. Know the
number of families, but do not know how many are Female-headed households
because not even know how much is being planted and cultivated—without basic
information, can’t get to sex-disaggregated.

 In Kuito, Save the Children did a household assessment and found that single male￾headed households are worse off than female headed because women have a variety of
traditional income-generating activities. SO 5 should note this.

 Lesson learned: with 86 percent of population in Huambo now desperately poor, and with
the destruction of old social capital, peoples’ survival is now family based. Therefore
cannot do community-related savings.
Development Workshop

 Focused primarily on urban and peri-urban, especially in Luanda (but also Huambo).

 Note massive deterioration and social upheaval.

 At the national level, little information and statistics, and generally 2-3 years late; little, if
any, sharing of information. Do collect information as Development Workshop,
disaggregate questions for youth and sex. To get that information requires
resources—is expensive and must be budgeted; the components for monitoring and
evaluation are often insufficient.

 Looking at best practices, e.g. women enterprises; exchange of lessons learned re water
and sanitation, shelter, e.g. community-based and managed are best in absence of a strong
private sector—and for sustainability.

 Want to see the positive and negative gender impacts in post-conflict settings.
IDFC/DFID are concerned, but don’t know how to check it. Maybe see analogous issues
with regard to ethnic groups, political, etc?

 Need
1) Training regarding gender awareness
2) Capacity: cultural, personal and professional
E-7
3) Expectations by donors for reporting

 Development workshop uses participatory appraisals: for strategic purposes, periodic
focus groups, qualitative, and regular testing.

 IDPS
− Some women may go back—but not those now with economic skills; and their
families (school age children, women in the market) will not go back.
− In the city, women are in the marketing sector—could operate as a family business
unit and take those skills back: grow and produce in the provinces and market in
Luanda or provincial cities.
− KEY issues: access to land: during war, much of rural land has been
expropriated by influential people with government connections—per
Portuguese “cadastra”—this lays foundations for more/renewed conflict after
the war may end.
Grupo Mulheres Parlamentares (GMP)

 GMP working with MINFAMU, Rede Mulher, and other associations; with religious
leaders. With many different organizations.

 Critical issues for women: 
− IDPs/poverty/low self-esteem
− In most urban areas, problems of housing and no jobs
− Re returning, probably older people, and youth will want to stay
− KEY issue is illiteracy. Women are majority, mothers, workers—need human
capacity development re health, agriculture, etc.
− Women influenced the budget for education—not big, but some increase.
− Presidency of Parliamentary committee on Education and Culture.
− Need to solve problems of water, wood, petrol; women are tired—only when some
problems solved, will have time for politics and education.

 Parliamentary committees rarely get to provinces—and GMP only sometimes. Did reach
Bengo, Huila, Namibe and Benguela. Wanted to discuss Beijing +5 in 3 provinces, but
not have financial resources.

 GMP is limited by those who know English—are language barriers.

 Opportunities for collaboration or coalitions: women with women or women with others:
− SIDA/AIDS
− Law on Violence against Women (have a coalition of GMP, MINFAM, OMA,
LIMA, AMUJA, professors . . .)

 Need to increase number of women in political parties
E-8
Mississippi Consortium for International Development (MCID)

 Information already giving to USAID: # of beneficiaries exposed to or participating in
activities? In centers at 3 levels, record who is there. There is one activity that focuses
particularly on women’s literacy—working with Club UNESCO (Luanda NGO) that has
10 years of experience with women’s literacy in Luanda—1,059 beneficiaries in 3
centers and almost entirely women.

 Change for women: Literacy attendance (If you offer literacy, they will come!) Before
independence, women were 2nd class citizens, and not literacy; in 1978, a literacy
campaign (and churches joined so people would learn to read the bible)

 Literacy class substance includes civic education: themes/topics include democracy,
health, women’s rights, “People Power is Power for People”! Before, classes on “Morals
& Civics” was mainly the former; now emphasize the latter. Use World Learning
Supplements.

 There is a lot more than just numbers, i.e. a lot of good qualitative information.
Can report on changes in behavior and involvement. Women have started “nucleos
de educacao civica” that meet on Saturdays and Radio Bengo announces! 

 Work with the Ministry of Education, but note that all advocacy is done by MCID, not
by the women they work with—not constituencies relating to Ministry, not building
sustainable capacity. This SHOULD be a basis for building Angolan coalition that
involves women’s groups, teachers, etc.

 Also in provinces have local lawyers and judges do 15 minutes spots in local languages—
like MIACOOP experience in Luanda, little women’s participation at that level.
Type of
Result What Is Accomplished
Inputs Training
Outputs Produce documents
Increase knowledge
Impacts Change in behavior:
Register to vote
Join political party
Form an NGO
Start newsletter
Participate in discussion groups
Ministry for Family and Promotion of Women (MINFAMU)

 There is a director in charge of gender issues, Genoveva Policarpo (with whom we did
not meet). Gilberto probably should.
E-9

 Still working on Gender policy—giving to the cabinet next month. Will give to Yinka
(and Yinka to the whole USAID staff?)

 MINFAMU meetings twice a year with all Provincial Directors. Could USAID give
them information about gender and performance monitoring?

 Donors met with a Gender Committee twice before Beijing +5; not since.

 Centro de Documencao: Some information. Women can come consult, as with a library.
There are videos.

 Statistics Unit: under gender project. Training/seminar in June 2001 with Portuguese￾speaking countries, with INE. Note that within the upcoming “Gender Policy”, is focus
on statistics and data collection. There is also a gender focal point within each
Ministry—should be ongoing pressure on INE to continue sex-disaggregated data. (Each
ministry has representative on National Statistical Council; drew up general statistical
policy; MINFAMU can stress the importance of sex-disaggregated data in that forum.)

 Currently a project of MINFAMU, with lawyers, human rights, Rede Mulher,
Grupo Mulheres Parlamentares, Ministry of Justice, for 16 days against violence—
end November. Will translate international materials, such as CEDAW, into local
Angolan languages. NOTE: Get these materials to USAID partners in the provinces,
use for literacy classes?

 Re child registration: Should be girls as well. Ministry of Education with UNDP did a
seminar about education with teachers and administrators—about keeping girls in school.
Ministry of Education also has literacy campaign for women.
Population Services International (PSI)

 Re access to condoms: “Legal” has been marketed since June, selling approximately 1
million. Trying to open as many outlets as possible, for target groups. Move from
traditional spaces, e.g. pharmacies, to nontraditional (80% sales) e.g. Roulottes with
hotdogs, Roc Santeiro, discos/bars, motels. “Confident” that accountable, but will have
to do a survey. (What can ask that will be truthful and reliable regarding practices?
See UNICEF notes below.)

 Question from Marcia: What if there are young women, 16 years old: Can purchase
condoms in public spots? What if women are not buying? What if 95% of purchasers
are men? Also, any segmentation per literacy or economic levels? The rich women see
TV re “Legal”, but not women in the musseques.

 Agents are community based. 30 for 9 municipalities. More than ½ are young
women—great sellers and communicators.
E-10

 PSI has new resources to work in high schools. But aware that constraint is “girls self￾efficacy”—i.e. ability to protect self.

 Have been speaking with Catholic church, which was concerned about PSI promoting
condoms. Talk to church about vulnerability of wives at home when husbands are
promiscuous. How protect women if husband contracts AIDS and dies? What if mother
of children dies?

 Starting a quantitative survey re number of sex workers. Then will work on a
communications strategy. Within that, have to think about gender issues—only at
the beginning stage.

 EDDI money—focusing on women (with Rede Mulher), high schools (with
Ambassadors’ wives and women ambassadors), and enhancing communications—
through 3 theater groups, participating in developing communications strategy.

 Would like information (get into the SO5 household survey) re: whether people know
about AIDS; then next year, if they do, then how did they learn about it (radio, theater,
church?) Need disaggregate by sex, age and literacy. That way, see how may reach
women most effectively.

 PSI is looking for a women researcher with qualitative skills. Can’t find one! Can
USAID help? Can USAID facilitate that one person work for several USAID partners?
What about Camilo at INE?
Save the Children (UK) (Save-UK): Thomaso . . . . and Ana Lemba Francisco
Have 4 initiatives:

 USAID-funded, family tracing and reunification, with MINARS, to July 2002.

 Children in Difficult Circumstances (CIDC) in Lobito, Benguela. Action-research
experience; involves women, focused on children’s well-being: separation, within
vulnerable households, and within good households. What works and when? Note that
while boys are in trouble when separated from home, girls are often worse off within
their homes because are key assets for caring for siblings, doing work, etc. Separation
as a Definition of Social Exclusion is biased to boys! Per Thomaso, not Marcia. Have
someone from CUNY coming to look at data—not have focus on women or gender
issues.

 “Conversations” with IDP women. Women talk about needs, intimate situations; say
need privacy; girls mistreated; feel despised and prejudice against them. In Malanje, girls
need ID cards, girls with UNITA men, girls do work on land (and sometimes maltreated
as laborers). NOTE that in process are including NGOs and Representative of
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MINFAMU at the provincial level—in case they have resources to respond immediately
to issues raised. Some experience already with one such participant who was nasty to
IDP women. Also discover re IDP camps that issues of land allocation, housing,
relocation (women get worst land, least arable and on edge of area where not safe),
no women leaders and no attention to gender in camps.

 Urban child welfare, within urban poverty: in Luanda with DFID funds. See erosion of
social capital because of displacement—in poor, peri-urban environments of Luanda.
Losing networks makes it difficult to work with normal instruments, such as micro￾enterprise and savings groups. Similarly, childcare assumed to be okay in traditional
microcredit because of social capital, but in Angola, the children suffer.
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF): 
Jean Regarding MICS and Melanie Regarding AIDS

 MICS: Being done through INE, 14 provinces are done and 4 to go. Data processing is
ongoing. Expect preliminary results in December. Hope for USAID help with
dissemination (previous MICS was never disseminated). Difficulties with collection and
sampling because of logistics and security—will be most representative of and reliable
regarding the littoral area. The last MICS was 40 percent urban and 60 percent rural; this
one the reverse because of difficulties reaching rural people—and so many are now in
peri-urban areas.

 Note that is NOT about IDPs in camps (only if IDPs now resident in communities), but
will do a new survey. USAID/SIDA are funding it. Won’t be done by INE, but by
AIP/Mario—with total of 1500 households. Same as MICS but with five quantitative
modules: camp structure, income and assets, causes of displacement, disabilities,
violence in camps. Also qualitative survey of 200 households (representative
sampling; with at least one female-headed household per camp). Expect to start mid￾Oct and finalize end of December. (Trying to get both the regular MICS and IDP MICS
out by March, 2002).

 Same questions as last time except: left out module on disabilities (GOA insistence), and
added section on HIV/AIDS—re knowledge of men, women and all children over age
15. Seventeen questions. Will be sex-disaggregatable.

 Note that the UNICEF MICS is only with women, ages 15-49, because they are
“caretakers of child”—except for questions re HIV/AIDS.

 Note: all data will be disaggregated for urban/rural, male/female, age.

 FROM Melanie Luick, re UNICEF and AIDS:
− She knows participatory research methods—taught at Tulane, and has materials in
Portuguese from her work in Brazil.
− Education section—creating a nucleus of HIV education specialists in Luanda.
− Eager to meet with Gilberto and Alfreda; also Alexandre and Jeffrey.
F-1
ANNEX F
PERSONS INTERVIEWED
F-2
F-3
PERSONS INTERVIEWED
USAID
Alfreda Brewer
Ana Branco
Jerry Brown
Ana Graciana
Gilberto Ribeiro
Jeff Ashley
Gomes Cambuta
Alexandre Saul
Heather Evans
Elias Isaac
Sharon Pauling
Kellie Anderson
Sheldon Schwartz
Preparation, in Washington, D.C.
Danuta Lockett
Nancy Mock, Tulane University Medical Center
Julie Mertus, Creative Associates
In Luanda
Olga Albertina, NCC
Lynn Austin, VVAF
Robert Jan Bulten, CARE
Idalina Bamba, Africare
Connie Brathwaite, AHA
Alan Cain, Development Workshop
Stephane Calvin, CRS
Scott Campbell, CRS
Camilo Ceita, INE
Cila Coelho, Swedish Embassy
Agneta Dahne, ADPP
Filomena Delgado, Vice Minister, Ministry of Family and Promotion of Women
Manual Domingos, PSI
Henda Ducados, FAS
Jean Dupraz, UNICEF, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer
Mark Ellis, CRS
Isabel Emerson, NDI
Helena Farinha, ADRA
F-4
Emilia Fernandes, Rede Mulher
Ana Maria Ferraz de Campos, CRS
Fatima Fonseca, MPD Spokesperson
Yvonne Forsen, CONCERN
Ana Lemba Francisco, Save/UK
Alexandra Gamito, OXFAM
Tommaso Giovacchini, Save/UK
Catherine Gibbons, consultant
Antonica Hembe, UNFPA
Andeiro Joas, MIACOOP
Clarisse Kaputo, CCG
David Kiala, World Vision/Angola
Melania Luick, UNICEF, HIV/AIDS
Ray McArdle, SCF/US
Mike McDonagh, CONCERN
Herminia Sebastiao Mateus MacMahon, Parliamentarians Women's Group
Vicentina Mangueira, NCC
Dra Miraldina Manuel, Maternidade Lucrecia Paim, Banco de Urgencia
Enrique Maradiaga, MCID
Carlinda Monteiro, CCF
Candida Maria Guilherme Narciso, Parliamentarians Women's Group
Augusto Neto, NCC
Branca Neto, Board Member, Rede Mulher
Dra Isilda Neves, Delegacao Provincial de Saude de Luanda
Boniface Ngenga, World Vision
Julia Ornelas, President, Rede Mulher
Augusto Santana, NDI
Elisa Simba, MCID
Fern Tedoro, World Learning
Fatima Valente, Direcao Nacional de Saude Publica
Jose Sanchez Verguizas, AAH
Cesinanda de Kerlan Xavier, President, Mulher Paz Desenvolvimento
Dr. Salome Zola, VP, MPD