In Southeast Asia, we are building a knowledge base and business coalitions focused on enabling women's economic participation and empowerment. We've brought together 28 leading companies employing nearly 500,000 people in the region to form four coalitions which will help the companies promote gender equality and measure progress. In less than two years, we leveraged nearly $2.8 million in private-sector investment in women-owned small and medium enterprises.

In West Africa, we helped female entrepreneurs who work in the region's traditionally male-dominated sectors attract a total of $11.6 million in investment. Our work created 10,821 full time jobs for women and established 1,339 buyer-seller linkages for women-owned and operated businesses in sectors like apparel, shea butter, livestock and grains processing.

Across sub-Saharan Africa, we trained more than 54,000 women to support malaria eradication activities - jobs traditionally done by men - empowering tens of thousands to pursue supervisory roles and become leaders within their communities. We mentored high-performing women to move from entry-level to supervisory roles and ensured that the workplace was hospitable by providing items like sanitary pads to ensure that women weren't missing work due to menstruation.

In Timor-Leste, we helped launch a first-of-its-kind Short Film Competition for journalism students to feature women living in rural areas who are making a significant contribution in the areas of health, education, water and sanitation, nutrition and gender equality.

The films were debuted by the Australian Ambassador and the spouse of the President of Timor-Leste to a broad audience that included high-level government officials. The videos reached nearly 150,000 people on social media, getting over 40,000 views.

Our evaluation and research studies of family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH) services in low- and middle-income countries examined both the demand side (consumers) and the supply side (providers).

Our synthesis of multi-country analyses zeros in on key factors determining preferred FP method and source, and the interventions that enhance consumer knowledge, access and use of FP interventions. Our research also identifies evidence-based strategies that address challenges of providing adequate quality FP services.

We led a dialogue on sustainably financing family planning services in Accra, Ghana. Representatives from more than a dozen government health and finance departments across sub-Saharan Africa attended, as well as USAID and its partner organizations.

The five-day event drew 150 attendees, including public and private stakeholders, as participants shared country experiences and tools to inform financing options and reduce reliance on donor assistance.

In Timor Leste, we partnered with a prominent national not-for-profit organization to develop a film mini-series to reduce the incidence of violence against women and children. Episodes focus on negative consequences of sharing sexual images and decreasing acceptance of abusive relationships and sexual violence.

Episodes also spread information on how to get assistance in case of sexual assault and how to file a case with the National Police. In follow-up surveys, all those interviewed reported having changed their behaviors due to the films, including sharing information with their friends from the films (41 percent of males reported that they had reminded other males to not sexually harass others, and 59 percent reported that they reminded others to not use violence against their romantic partner).

In Jordan, girls can be married as young as 12 through a loophole in the child marriage law. We partnered with the government of Jordan and other stakeholders to close that loophole by reviewing the process for granting exceptions to the child marriage law. We also held public events titled "No to Child Marriage" to raise awareness of this issue.

In one activity, we collaborated with local young filmmakers. "My Oversized Dress" shows a 13-year old girl awkwardly wearing an over-sized wedding dress. The video's message is: "Early marriage deprives girls of their right to play, learn, and live."

Millions of adults and children—overwhelmingly women and girls—are trafficked worldwide for commercial sex each year. In the U.S., there are tens of thousands of victims of sexual exploitation and sex trafficking. While the issue is complicated, arising from numerous health, economic, and criminal justice challenges, reducing demand for commercial sex is a significant part of the solution.

To this end, we developed Demandforum.net, a comprehensive online resource for people interested in ending sex trafficking and prostitution. The interactive database houses initiatives in more than 1,365 cities and counties in the U.S. aimed at deterring men who buy sex. The site includes details on tactics and how to start, improve and sustain an initiative. Since the site’s launch in 2013 it has gotten 347,000 page views from people in 163 countries and generates more than 100 visits per day.

In Nigeria, we are training male community health volunteers to reach out to their communities, particularly in locations where men gather, to provide information on the importance of family planning and referrals to locations where family planning services can be accessed by trained private providers. By directly engaging men in this way, they can be informed and bring information home to their spouse to begin a conversation on their family planning needs.

In Papua New Guinea (PNG), we are training male advocates at the national and subnational level as part of the newly established Male Advocacy Network (MAN). MAN is a key implementation strategy of PNG's National Public Service Gender Equity and Social Inclusion Policy focused on promoting equitable and inclusive practices in the workplace, supporting and encouraging women in decision making roles, and to ensuring government services include all Papua New Guineans.

Since February 2018, we've conducted two trainings at the national level and three are planned for districts and provinces. To date, 39 public servants (35 males, 4 females), have participated in male advocate training.

We are also coordinating the Pacific Leadership and Governance Precinct in PNG, which focuses on building the leadership skills, values and ethics of the next generation of public servants across national and subnational levels. Since June 2016, over 1,000 public servants have completed these courses, with 55 percent of graduates being male.

Participant feedback suggests that the program is having a significant impact as participants reported taking a more inclusive approach to leadership, and a renewed emphasis on women's leadership, women's inclusion in decision-making and being aware of new considerations around the inclusion of people with disabilities.