Introducing our new program name: Gender Equity and Governance

Today we are launching a new program name, “Gender Equity and Governance,” to replace “Global Development and Population.” The new name does not signal any dramatic shifts in what fields we support. However, it is more than just an aesthetic change.

For several years, we have increasingly focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion in our culture, operations, and grantmaking. The importance of this work became more apparent over the past year marked by overdue reckonings about racial, gender, and global inequities. In partnership with our partners and peer funders, our program has been discussing ways systemic racism affects our work—from the historical origins of the development sector to the ways that philanthropies and other donors operate in the world.

We are interrogating how to mitigate the power imbalances embedded in our relationships by striving to build more equitable partnerships. We know that how we fund is just as important as who we fund. The Hewlett Foundation’s guiding principles embrace a long-term and flexible approach to grantmaking that promotes humility, mutual accountability, and transparency. We remain committed to doing so, and to accelerating efforts to shift power, decision-making, and resources closer to the communities we seek to serve.

In this context, changing our program name is important both substantively and symbolically. We believe that combating systemic inequities requires us to adjust not just the way we fund, but also the way we communicate.

Leaving “Global Development” and “Population” behind

The “Global Development and Population Program” name resulted from the merger of two older programs: the Population Program, one of the foundation’s original programs from the 1970’s and the Global Development Program from the early 2000s. But those words are out of sync with our foundation’s values and grantmaking.

“Global development” smacks of colonialism and implies that some countries are developed and “better,” others are under-developed and “worse,” and there is a linear and universal path to “developing.” In fact, some “rich” countries can be dangerous places to live for women, people of color or LGBTQ communities, while some countries with less wealth may guarantee universal basic freedoms, be safe, or provide high quality universal health care. Meanwhile, “population” cannot escape association with its mid-20^th century roots in discriminatory demographic control, coercive family planning practices, racist eugenics and (mostly male) leaders trying to tell women what to do with their bodies and families.

Among the Hewlett Foundation’s oldest, strongest, and most enduring priorities has been to ensure the health and well-being of women and children. Our attention has been focused on expanding access to family planning and safe abortion services, so women in the U.S., Africa, Asia, and Latin America could decide and have greater control over the number of children they bore—benefitting not only the women themselves, but their families, their communities, and their countries. That commitment remains as strong as ever, but our vision and grantmaking have evolved. The foundation has been shifting to center our reproductive health grantmaking on sexual and reproductive rights over the past few decades, and more recently on gender equity and social justice.

Enter “Gender Equity and Governance”

Finding a name that both captures the program’s work and is reasonably concise proved challenging, as our grantmaking is broad: expanding women’s reproductive and economic choices in the U.S. and parts of Africa; supporting global, regional, and national efforts to foster transparency, accountability, and public participation; and improving policymaking through the effective use of evidence. We solicited and considered a wide range of views, internally and externally, in looking for a name that reflects our programmatic work along with the foundation’s long-term commitments and values.

Our discussions finally landed on “Gender Equity and Governance” which puts front and center our goals and the heart of our grantmaking. Nearly all of our program’s strategies aim to advance gender equity—addressing the historical and intersectional discrimination that women and girls face—and strengthen practices that promote responsive and accountable governance as the path to fostering inclusive societies where all people thrive.