ABSTRACT
Gender equality itself has been made ‘a business case,’ whereas feminists have long argued that economic growth as a goal and as a reality has turned around gender and other forms of inequalities. In the particular case of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Roberts' study highlights the financial aid transactions and the rise of contracting US firms as the most significant relationship constituting US development aid today, thus giving impetus to a growing 'industrial-development complex'. Gender equality remains a policy within USAID, but current resources channelled to achieve this live up to the long history of its policy ambitions. Kai Spratt and Will Lewis, gender advisors, reflect on their day to day work in the Asia regional office and with the country missions of USAID. All the trends in development aid have implications on contemporary efforts to advance gender equality within USAID.
