Executive Summary
The Sectoral Guidance on Integrating LGBTQI+ Communities into Economic Growth Programming provides actionable recommendations for USAID, implementing partners (IPs), and civil society organizations (CSOs) to advance inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex people and those with other, diverse sexual orientations and gender identities (LGBTQI+) in economic growth programming. This guidance, developed through comprehensive desk research and 94 key informant interviews across 16 countries, identifies barriers to inclusion, highlights successful interventions, and proposes strategies for implementation.
Findings
Barriers to Economic Inclusion of LGBTQI+ Persons
The guidance identifies several interconnected barriers that hinder LGBTQI+ individuals from achieving economic inclusion:
- Societal Stigma and Discrimination: LGBTQI+ individuals have limited education and employment opportunities due to biased processes, familial rejection that leads to economic distress, a lack of social support networks, and restricted access to critical mental health services.
- Legal Environment: Discriminatory legislation and insufficient legal protections restrict access to resources and opportunities and create legal loopholes that enable workplace discrimination.
- Violence and Safety: LGBTQI+ individuals often work in precarious and dangerous informal-sector jobs, which exposes them to exploitation and a lack of legal and social protections.
- Barriers to Financial Services: LGBTQI+ individuals face challenges accessing financial services and capital for business start-up costs and personal expenses due to perceived or declared sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC).
- Specific Barriers Transgender Persons Face: Transgender individuals often face high costs of medical transition, compounded discrimination based on gender expression, and significant challenges in accessing education, employment, and legal identity documents due to a lack of legal gender recognition.
- Organizational and Programmatic Challenges: Insufficient funding, often limited to specific sectors, fails to address root causes, while limited capacity within LGBTQI+ organizations make it difficult to reach marginalized subgroups.
- Limited SOGIESC Data: The lack of high-quality data hinders understanding of the LGBTQI+ individuals’ needs, monitoring of intervention effectiveness, and addressing of the root causes of economic exclusion.
These overlapping challenges emphasize the need for holistic approaches that address cross-cutting issues to enable full economic participation.
Programs and Activities that Promote LGBTQI+ Economic Inclusion
The research revealed that programs aimed at promoting LGBTQI+ economic inclusion commonly involve the following activities: (1) training and capacity strengthening, (2) mentorship and coaching for LGBTQI+ entrepreneurs, (3) financial support and access to financial tools, (4) advocacy and legal support for economic inclusion, (5) recruitment and retention including employer support, (6) tax and economic incentives, (7) community-based initiatives, and (8) research and data collection.
Several high-level factors also emerged as critical for programmatic success:
- Sustained Investment: Long-term programs provided comprehensive support across employment stages and enhanced the capacity of community organizations, leading to more effective outcomes.
- Holistic Approaches: Addressing interconnected barriers such as housing, health care, and transportation helped stabilize participants’ lives, enabling them to engage more fully in economic inclusion efforts.
- LGBTQI+-Specific Programming: Initiatives tailored to LGBTQI+ needs or implemented in partnership with LGBTQI+-led organizations effectively leveraged existing expertise and resources.
- Local Partnerships: Collaborations with municipal or regional governments, supported by USAID focal points, often achieved better outcomes than national-level partnerships. Proximity fostered trust and reduced logistical challenges, increasing participants’ satisfaction and program effectiveness.
Recommendations
The following recommendations are designed for USAID/Washington and Missions to implement directly or support through their IPs and CSOs.
USAID/Washington
- Increase and expand funding for LGBTQI+ empowerment initiatives: Broaden financial support to cross-sectoral programs that address the multifaceted needs of LGBTQI+ communities.
- Invest in research and data collection: Invest in gathering evidence to better understand barriers to inclusion and identify effective interventions.
USAID Missions
- Forge partnerships with key stakeholders: Collaborate with private-sector allies and local LGBTQI+-led organizations to advance inclusive economic development.
- Incorporate inclusive development analyses: Integrate assessments of LGBTQI+ barriers and opportunities into program design for tailored, effective interventions.
- Implement integrated programming: Address intersecting barriers through the design of holistic approaches that consider multiple dimensions of exclusion.
- Identify diverse IPs: Encourage IPs to engage partners beyond openly LGBTQI+-serving organizations to adopt good practices identified in this study.
- Address systemic barriers: Support IPs and CSOs to reduce political, social, and cultural barriers, such as discrimination, stigma, and exclusion from social safety nets, which hinder LGBTQI+ persons’ economic participation.
- Target marginalized subgroups: Design programs to address the unique barriers intersex individuals, transgender persons, and LGBTQI+ people with intersecting vulnerabilities face, ensuring equity and safety.
IPs AND CBOs
- Support local organizations: Strengthen LGBTQI+ organizations and advocacy networks by providing tools, resources, and funding to address structural barriers and promote economic inclusion.
- Enhance data collection: Facilitate the safe and ethical collection of disaggregated SOGIESC data to inform program design and evaluate inclusion efforts.
- Incorporate LGBTQI+ inclusion into learning: Develop learning agendas that identify and analyze good practices for advancing LGBTQI+ persons’ economic inclusion.
- Foster communities of practice: Establish or strengthen platforms for sharing knowledge and best practices on LGBTQI+ inclusion among partners and stakeholders.