Integrating LGBTQI+ Considerations into Education Programming

Inclusion is one of USAID’s core values. USAID promotes a nondiscriminatory and inclusive approach to development that ensures that all people – including those who face discrimination and thus may have limited access to a country’s benefits, legal protections, or social participation – are fully included and can participate in and benefit from development processes and activities. In support of the Presidential Memorandum on Advancing the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex (LGBTQI+) Persons Around the World, USAID’s vision is a world in which the human rights of LGBTQI+ persons are respected, and they are able to live with dignity, free from discrimination, persecution, and violence.

The purpose of this document is to support USAID’s staff and partners working in the education sector to integrate lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI+) considerations into programming and across the Program Cycle. It is based on desktop research on international standards and the efforts of other development organizations, and interviews with development professionals working in the sector. The document identifies some of the challenges and obstacles that LGBTQI+ individuals can face in the education sector, provides approaches that can be used to integrate LGBTQI+ considerations into the education sector, and highlights best practices and several programmatic examples from USAID Missions.