Environmental & Social Governance

The Women + Water Alliance is a global development alliance (GDA) between USAID and Gap Inc. and its partners, CARE, Water.org, WaterAid, the Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC), International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) and the Institute for Development Impact. This infographic developed by I4DI outlines the key outcomes of the activities of the Women + Water alliance in relation to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) practices in Maharashtra and Mahdhya Pradesh. Overall, WASH-related practice did not change consistently across time and place and remains an area for continued improvement.

On behalf of USAID/Peru, the Institute for Development Impact (I4DI) undertook a mixed-methods study to examine the conditions under which private industries become voluntary adopters of best management practices (BMPs) in hydropower, oil and gas, large-scale industrial mining, beverages, and road projects. With a particular focus on private industries working in Amazonia, Latin America, and/or areas pertinent to tropical forests, this study examined BMPs applied across various aspects of project development and implementation, including environmental assessments, siting, design, operation, and closure. The findings from this study informed the development of a model that predicts the conditions under which private industries and investors become voluntary adopters. This study contributed to the design of USAID’s Amazon regional environmental strategy, which focused on reducing the negative impacts from large-scale infrastructure projects, extractive activities, and climate change on Amazonian forests, waters, and indigenous peoples.

USAID engaged the BalanceD-MERL consortium (I4DI was a consortium member), henceforth known as the ‘consortium,’ to provide longitudinal MERL support to the Women + Water (W+W) Alliance in India. Following an initial review of program and partner MERL documentation, and discussions with the W+W partners, the consortium determined that the program design and MERL planning were nascent. However, because the Alliance and its management structure were complex, and the program would be multifaceted, the consortium proposed and was commissioned to deliver a MERL strategy. The MERL strategy was to be developed through a structured, participatory process involving W+W program and MERL staff, commencing with co-development of the program’s theory of change. Because Gap, Inc., the prime implementer, had not worked with USAID previously and had limited D-MERL capacity, the consortium also was commissioned to provide MERL mentorship to Gap, Inc. throughout the engagement.

In 2018, I4DI was commissioned by Mars Foods Inc, in and Swisscontact to carry out a baseline study for the NextGen project to inform its design and implementation. The purpose of the study was to identify, collect, analyze, and document the existing developmental assets of youth in and around cocoa farming communities. The study was carefully designed to provide gender disaggregated, in-depth insight into the developmental assets of youth in cocoa farming communities. These assets include their hopes, aspirations, motivations, and resilience. The study also aimed to understand their perceptions on evidence-based science, STEM teaching and learning process in vocational schools, cocoa farming, and the drivers of youths’ future involvement in cocoa sectors.