In approaching all phases of the project cycle, CHF International seeks to remove gender-related barriers to social and economic development through active community level engagement with men, women, and youth. CHF’s approach to gender and development has five major components:

•  Identifying and addressing particular needs, including disparities between men and women;
• Ensuring that gender considerations are a key element of dialogue with stakeholders;
• Ensuring appropriate representation of women and men in programming;
• Evaluating programs and creating feedback loops to assess gender dynamics that affect successful program implementation; and
• Increasing staff capacity to design and implement gender programming strategies.

Our programming seeks to empower women and men through reducing inequalities and addressing the particular needs of men and women equitably. This is facilitated through understanding and recognizing gender-based roles, responsibilities, relations and the interaction of these factors with the development process.

Equal participation of women in the political, economic and social spheres of society is a key ingredient to their empowerment. Our approach to gender programming takes into account the particular circumstances of each community or household that we work with, recognizing differences in culture, economic circumstances, age, and resources. As a result, CHF’s programs have made it possible for women to contribute substantively to program design and implementation, and for men and women to collaborate more effectively towards building prosperous and peaceful societies locally, regionally, and ultimately, worldwide.

For more information about CHF projects with a gender focus please see the Gender Factsheet.