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Addressing Gender-based Violence and Empowering Women and Girls through Gender Equality

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On June 14, 2016, Vice President Joe Biden announced the 2016 Update to United States Strategy To Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence Globally [Get Acrobat Reader PDF version].  This strategy guides the U.S. Governments efforts to advance gender equality and raise the status of women and girls around the world.

Originally released in 2012, the Strategy affirms the United States Government’s commitment to preventing and responding to gender-based violence, which affects women, men, boys, and girls, undermining not only the safety, dignity, and human rights of the millions of individuals who experience it, but also threatening public health, economic stability, and security.

The 2016 Update to the Strategy has been informed by:

  1. The State Department’s and USAID’s “Evaluation of Implementation of the U.S. Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence Globally” reports, released in December 2015;
  2. Lessons learned since 2012 from gender-based violence-related policy and program implementation throughout the U.S. Government;
  3. Multiple consultations with civil society, including public international organizations and United Nations bodies.

These collective lessons learned are applied to a renewed definition of gender-based violence, in addition to new key terms. The Strategy continues to outline the four core objectives:

  1. Institutionalize coordination of gender-based violence prevention and response efforts among U.S. Government departments and agencies and with other stakeholders;
  2. Integrate gender-based violence prevention and response efforts into existing U.S. Government work;
  3. Collect, analyze, and use data and research to enhance U.S. Government’s gender-based violence prevention and response efforts; and
  4. Expand U.S. Government programming that addresses gender-based violence.

At Congress’ request, the Strategy was drafted by the Department of State, USAID, and other relevant U.S. agencies. President Obama signed an accompanying Executive Order directing all relevant agencies to implement the Strategy, with an accompanying fact sheet from the White House.

06/14/16  2016 Update to United States Strategy To Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence Globally [Get Acrobat Reader PDF version   ]
12/22/15  2015 Evaluation of the Implementation of the U.S. Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Gender-Based Violence Globally [Get Acrobat Reader PDF version   ]