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Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Fourth Cohort of Students Graduate from USAID-MSB Joint Program

Fourth+Cohort+of+Students+Graduate+from+USAID-MSB+Joint+Program

A program on gender equity and leadership between the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business (MSB) will graduate its fourth cohort of students later this year.

Georgetown University McDonough School of Business | The fourth cohort of students in a program on gender equity and leadership between the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business (MSB) will graduate this year.

The Gender Equity Executive Leadership Program (GEELP) — which works with partner organizations in the male-dominated energy and water sectors to administer a 12-month course about gender equality initiatives — launched as a partnership between USAID’s Engendering Industries Program and the MSB in 2017. The course teaches leaders at businesses such as Eko Electricity Distribution Company in Nigeria and Kosovo’s Transmission System and Market Operator how to identify and fix gender equality gaps within their companies. 

This program is an example of the MSB partnering with other organizations to help advance gender equity globally, according to Michael O’Leary, senior associate dean of Custom Executive Education at the MSB.

“The GEELP program has had clear, objective, well-measured outcomes for the individuals and organizations involved,” O’Leary wrote in an email to The Hoya. “There has been progress in terms of gender equity, but progress has been slower in some industries than others. That’s where GEELP has focused — the industries where progress has been slower.”

GEELP aids individuals working in developing countries by increasing economic opportunities for women and supporting gender equality practices in the workplace at various companies.

Each annual cohort consists of 10 to 12 companies that are recruited from a GEELP government subcontractor, Tetra Tech, to participate in the program, according to Imke Simpson (GRD ’15), GEELP program leader.

“The participants are really considered to be what the MSB calls change agents,” Simpson said in an interview with The Hoya. “We want them to be empowered to bring back the learning to their organizations and actually implement it, which is why the capstone project is so important.” 

Assa Felipe Fumo, a graduate of the GEELP program from a course she took at her company Electricity of Mozambique, said that her company joined the program because they had the goal of achieving 40% representation of women by 2030 and they had only 18% when they decided to participate.

“For me it was a life experience,” Fumo wrote in an email with The Hoya. “I have learned many things for my personal life and professional life too. The way that the program was designed I believe that it allowed it to be very assertive and pragmatic. Many initiatives including gender strategy were developing today at EDM because of the opportunity that we had to participate in the program.”

Currently, the program is administered in the energy and water sectors, but the team hopes to expand to other industries that also impact women in the future, according to Brooks Holtom, academic director of GEELP.

“While we started with the electric generation and distribution sector, we have since expanded to other utility providers,” Holtom wrote in an email to The Hoya. “Because women experience similar challenges in other male-dominated industries like mining or oil and gas, it is relatively easy to expand into and be relevant in those sectors.”

Among 41 participating companies since the program’s conception, 6,105 women employees have trained to develop skills that they can use to advance their careers. Out of these participants, nearly 1,000 have been promoted into technical and leadership roles. 

Since the start of the program, 57 policies related to gender equality, such as employee satisfaction surveys and salary gap analyses, were created at partner organizations.

GEELP was created to advance gender equality in organizations through a business-driven approach, according to Simpson. 

“Typically we don’t necessarily work directly with the government on these types of programs,” Simpson said. “I think that USAID saw the value of working with a business school and an education partner, because one thing that they really wanted to do was make the business case for gender equity generally.”

The foundation of the core curriculum is based within the energy sector, but the Engendering Industries Program connects shared experiences across sectors, according to Jessica Manon, Engendering Industries program manager at Tetra Tech, which is the implementing partner for USAID.

“When we expanded from energy utilities we first began working with water utilities and held design sessions with water experts,” Menon wrote in an email to The Hoya. “We realized in the curriculum review that the curriculum is quite relevant to any sector broadly, and what is helpful to tailor are case studies and examples so that people from a certain sector can connect and relate to the material.”

GEELP launched a program last year that expanded the reach of this curriculum through training for partner organizations to administer the courses to others, according to Holtom.

“We have already seen a very successful spin-off of the program,” Holtom wrote. “We launched a ‘Train the Trainer’ program last year with partner institutions on 3 continents. They are now leveraging the materials and training we provided to teach these principles of intentional inclusion in their regions impacting hundreds of organizations.”

The program provided strong networking and instructional elements, according to Fumo.

“We struggled to adjust the methodology because of COVID19,” Fumo wrote. “But in the end we did. The program is great. The blended methodology, the way it was designed…Definitely high level program.”

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