United States of America
Systems-Level Impact through the 2018 U.S. Farm Bill
In a global context of rising numbers of people affected by increasingly frequent and severe food security crises, CARE advocated for essential amendments in the 2018 Farm Bill to strengthen critical international food aid programs. CARE's advocacy for the 2018 Farm Bill was rooted in its focus on gender equality and systems change, which in this case meant advocating for a shift away from monetization in support of CARE’s long-term goals for transforming food aid from a commodity-centric model to one that enhances effectiveness, efficiency, and focus on systems change.
Central to CARE’s asks in the 2018 Farm Bill were efforts to end the mandate of monetization and provide greater certainty in the use of the Community Development Funds. Both of these asks would strengthen Food for Peace, a program authorized in the Farm Bill that provides in-kind food aid directly to communities and supports community self-sufficiency. CARE recognized the 2018 Farm Bill reforms, including ending mandatory monetization and expanding Community Development Funds, could strengthen local food systems, empower farmers, and build community resilience by prioritizing sustainable and effective food aid delivery. Read More...
Central to CARE’s asks in the 2018 Farm Bill were efforts to end the mandate of monetization and provide greater certainty in the use of the Community Development Funds. Both of these asks would strengthen Food for Peace, a program authorized in the Farm Bill that provides in-kind food aid directly to communities and supports community self-sufficiency. CARE recognized the 2018 Farm Bill reforms, including ending mandatory monetization and expanding Community Development Funds, could strengthen local food systems, empower farmers, and build community resilience by prioritizing sustainable and effective food aid delivery. Read More...
Renewing a Long-Term Strategic Partnership: Lessons learned from 20 years of collaboration in global health and development between CARE and Emory University
Over more than 20 years, CARE USA (CARE) and Emory University (EU) – principally within the Rollins School of Public Health (RSPH) – have collaborated across global health and development sectors, including water and sanitation (WASH), maternal and child nutrition, food security, HIV/AIDS, and women’s empowerment. This collaboration has included joint research projects, training for CARE field staff, student employment and training, guest lectures by CARE staff at Emory, and employment opportunities at CARE for former Emory students following graduation.
Several high-profile joint research projects have included SWASH+ (Kenya: 2006-2019) and the Tipping Point Project (Nepal: 2019-pres). School Water, Sanitation and Hygiene plus Community Impact (SWASH+) was a 13- year project that is an exemplar of the impact of CARE and Emory collaborations. It has resulted in over 20 publications from both institutions, including policy papers that have contributed significantly to increasing the scale, impact, and sustainability of school WASH interventions in Kenya. The Tipping Point project aims to empower adolescent girls and their communities to delay marriage and to promote girls’ rights in Nepal and
Bangladesh.
RSPH researchers commenced a four-year partnership with CARE to strengthen the rigor and visibility of the impacts of this program. These projects have resulted in co-funded grants, peer-reviewed manuscripts, and conference presentations (see Appendix A for a complete list). [21 pages] Read More...
Several high-profile joint research projects have included SWASH+ (Kenya: 2006-2019) and the Tipping Point Project (Nepal: 2019-pres). School Water, Sanitation and Hygiene plus Community Impact (SWASH+) was a 13- year project that is an exemplar of the impact of CARE and Emory collaborations. It has resulted in over 20 publications from both institutions, including policy papers that have contributed significantly to increasing the scale, impact, and sustainability of school WASH interventions in Kenya. The Tipping Point project aims to empower adolescent girls and their communities to delay marriage and to promote girls’ rights in Nepal and
Bangladesh.
RSPH researchers commenced a four-year partnership with CARE to strengthen the rigor and visibility of the impacts of this program. These projects have resulted in co-funded grants, peer-reviewed manuscripts, and conference presentations (see Appendix A for a complete list). [21 pages] Read More...
Latin America & the Caribbean Rapid Gender Analysis April 2020
Asylum seekers and migrants traveling through Central America and Mexico to the U.S. border face a range of risks, but women, girls, and other vulnerable groups—such as members of the LGBTQIA community—are confronted with additional threats to their health, safety, and well-being in their countries of origin, countries of transit, and in the U.S. As a result, asylum seekers and migrants who arrive at the U.S.–Mexico border often carry a heavy burden of trauma from experiences with violence. The lack of a system to appropriately support people on the move deepens pre-existing inequalities and exposes already vulnerable groups to additional, unnecessary, risks.
The U.S. Government’s Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), also known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy, returns asylum seekers and migrants from U.S. custody to Mexican territory, compelling them to face months of risk and uncertainty as they wait to complete their asylum processes. The asylum process itself is challenging and unclear, liable to change without warning, and largely opaque to affected populations. The asylum seekers and migrants waiting in Mexico’s Ciudad Juárez city, along the Mexico–U.S. border, face ever-present threats of extortion, gender-based violence (GBV), and kidnappings, which compound their trauma and restrict their freedom of movement and access to critical resources and services. Trauma and fear were the norm of the population that CARE surveyed, not the exception.
Lack of access to complete and reliable information made it difficult for asylum seekers and migrants— including pregnant women and GBV survivors—to make knowledgeable decisions about navigating the asylum process or finding basic services, including health care. Moreover, CARE did not find any mechanisms that allowed asylum seekers and migrants to report concerns or complaints of exploitation and abuse operating at the time of research.
At no point has there been a deliberate effort—by government authorities, policy makers, or those providing the scant services that exist—to systematically assess vulnerabilities and mitigate the risk of harm to at-risk groups. On the contrary, the lack of risk mitigation efforts has allowed several actors to emplace policies that put migrants and asylum seekers at increased risk of harm. For example, asylum seekers and migrants returned from U.S. detention to Mexico are often easily identified by visible markers of their detention, including a lack of shoelaces and the bags that they are issued to carry personal items. This visibility renders asylum seekers and migrants more vulnerable to detention or forced recruitment by armed groups, as well as kidnappings, which at times have taken place on the street directly outside the release area in plain sight of authorities. Read More...
The U.S. Government’s Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), also known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy, returns asylum seekers and migrants from U.S. custody to Mexican territory, compelling them to face months of risk and uncertainty as they wait to complete their asylum processes. The asylum process itself is challenging and unclear, liable to change without warning, and largely opaque to affected populations. The asylum seekers and migrants waiting in Mexico’s Ciudad Juárez city, along the Mexico–U.S. border, face ever-present threats of extortion, gender-based violence (GBV), and kidnappings, which compound their trauma and restrict their freedom of movement and access to critical resources and services. Trauma and fear were the norm of the population that CARE surveyed, not the exception.
Lack of access to complete and reliable information made it difficult for asylum seekers and migrants— including pregnant women and GBV survivors—to make knowledgeable decisions about navigating the asylum process or finding basic services, including health care. Moreover, CARE did not find any mechanisms that allowed asylum seekers and migrants to report concerns or complaints of exploitation and abuse operating at the time of research.
At no point has there been a deliberate effort—by government authorities, policy makers, or those providing the scant services that exist—to systematically assess vulnerabilities and mitigate the risk of harm to at-risk groups. On the contrary, the lack of risk mitigation efforts has allowed several actors to emplace policies that put migrants and asylum seekers at increased risk of harm. For example, asylum seekers and migrants returned from U.S. detention to Mexico are often easily identified by visible markers of their detention, including a lack of shoelaces and the bags that they are issued to carry personal items. This visibility renders asylum seekers and migrants more vulnerable to detention or forced recruitment by armed groups, as well as kidnappings, which at times have taken place on the street directly outside the release area in plain sight of authorities. Read More...
Rapid Gender Analysis: COVID-19 in the United States
The United States, one of the wealthiest countries in the world, also has the highest number of cases of COVID-19 in the world, far surpassing global hotspots like Italy and China, with cases continuing to rise at concerning rates. In this humanitarian crisis, CARE is bringing its global expertise—from more than 75 years of implementing humanitarian responses in more than 100 countries—to the context of COVID-19 in the United States. In addition to its expertise in humanitarian and crisis response, CARE developed the industry-standard Rapid Gender Analysis (RGA) that builds upon several efforts by humanitarian actors to bring gender to the forefront of programming. The standardized tool to enable humanitarian actors to quickly build crisis responses that take into account the different needs of people of all genders, as well as disenfranchised groups, the extreme poor, and other groups often overlooked by policy, crisis planning, and data.
Since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, CARE has responded in 67 countries—including the United States—and has published 27 of an anticipated 54 RGAs in contexts around the world. We hope that applying this tool to the specific American context will enable CARE and others to create better responses to the pandemic that meet the needs of all people.
This RGA relies on secondary data collected between May 25 and June 10, 2020. It specifically focuses on highlighting the historic and institutional systems of oppression, gender bias, and racism targeting Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). These structural realities and cultural biases put BIPOC communities, especially the women in these communities, at higher exposure to infection and higher risk of death. Simultaneously, these realities and biases exacerbate the already dire lack of access to basic services (such as health, food, housing, etc) experienced by these communities on a regular basis. This RGA offers policy and institutional recommendations for COVID-19 responses to meet the needs of the most vulnerable and affected communities in the face of systemic race, gender and class-based oppression. Without acknowledging these historic legacies around race, gender, and class in the U.S., the entire nation is at risk of perpetuating longstanding injustices and facing even more severe impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Read More...
Since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, CARE has responded in 67 countries—including the United States—and has published 27 of an anticipated 54 RGAs in contexts around the world. We hope that applying this tool to the specific American context will enable CARE and others to create better responses to the pandemic that meet the needs of all people.
This RGA relies on secondary data collected between May 25 and June 10, 2020. It specifically focuses on highlighting the historic and institutional systems of oppression, gender bias, and racism targeting Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). These structural realities and cultural biases put BIPOC communities, especially the women in these communities, at higher exposure to infection and higher risk of death. Simultaneously, these realities and biases exacerbate the already dire lack of access to basic services (such as health, food, housing, etc) experienced by these communities on a regular basis. This RGA offers policy and institutional recommendations for COVID-19 responses to meet the needs of the most vulnerable and affected communities in the face of systemic race, gender and class-based oppression. Without acknowledging these historic legacies around race, gender, and class in the U.S., the entire nation is at risk of perpetuating longstanding injustices and facing even more severe impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Read More...