The document discusses JBS International and its commitment to advancing global gender equality through evidence-based research and programs. It provides details on JBS's approach, which includes starting with a commitment to gender equality, applying research to design programs, focusing on root causes of inequality, developing theories of change, and using culturally relevant techniques for implementation. The document also provides examples of JBS's work in over 110 countries and sectors, as well as accomplishments from evaluations and supporting clients. It introduces the Gender Practice Team and their expertise in gender issues.

1. JBS International:
At the forefront of gender
thought and practice

2. Advancing global gender equality

3. GENDER PRACTICE | JBS INTERNATIONAL 1
Start with a
commitment to
gender equality
and women’s rights.
JBS believes that gender equality is a transformational force
that increases the well-being of societies around the world and
enables them to flourish. Our commitment to advancing
women’s rights and gender equality is embedded in our mission
and vision for the future. It lies not on the fringes of our policies
and practices; it is central to the way we work.
Apply evidence-based research to
gender programs.
A hallmark of JBS’s approach to promoting gender equality
is its grounding in evidence-based research. JBS possesses
expertise in empirical, applied, and action research—quantitative,
qualitative, and mixed methods—as well as predictive analytics,
a type of data mining that enables the prediction of future
probabilities and trends.
Where data are unavailable, JBS works with local partners to
conduct gender and situational analyses that provide nuanced,
contextualized information on which to base approaches and
activities. Findings from these analyses also contribute to the
overall gender knowledge base to inform future work.
Gender programs supported by sound research increase the
likelihood of success and sustainability.
empowered women
enrich the world

4. 2 JBS INTERNATIONAL | GENDER PRACTICE
Focus on the root causes of inequality.
Globally accepted equality indicators show great disparities
between the sexes. JBS identifies the root causes and chief
drivers of these inequalities and addresses them to help close
gender gaps.
Tackling the underlying sources and major forces that produce
and perpetuate inequalities accelerates progress toward gender
equality. This approach includes addressing specific symptoms
but is more systemic and enduring.
Form development hypotheses fueled
by theories of change.
JBS draws on data to formulate development hypotheses—
informed ideas about a problem and its causes. We fortify
the hypotheses with relevant theories of change—
assumptions about likely solutions to the problem.
Devising a causal pathway from the status quo to the desired
result is the basis of our programming approach.
Use creative, culturally relevant techniques
in program implementation.
8 Customized, culturally effective, stimulating activities
8 Participatory activities aligned with cultural realities
8 Interactive materials tailored to resonate with target groups
8 Modern and traditional media to effectively
communicate ideas
8 Engagement with minority and marginalized groups
EFFECTIVE APPROACHES

5. hOW JBS GETS THE JOB DONE
1. Gather research relevant to the program. Where research is
unavailable, conduct a gender analysis to collect key data.
2. Analyze data to identify root causes of targeted inequality.
3. Produce development hypotheses targeting root causes.
4. Design sequenced activities, materials, and monitoring plans.
5. Devise gender-sensitive indicators.
6. Implement and monitor to assess progress and revise
approaches/materials as needed.
7. Evaluate to assess achievement of objectives, outcomes,
and prospects for sustainability.
GENDER PRACTICE | JBS INTERNATIONAL 3

6. 4 JBS INTERNATIONAL | GENDER PRACTICE
WHAT JBS OFFERS:
DIVERSE SCOPE.
CLEAR RESULTS.
BROAD SCALE.
JBS has many years of gender experience,
including conducting research; developing tools;
delivering technical assistance and training; and
managing, monitoring, and evaluating projects.
Diverse Scope
• Agriculture
• Capacity building
• Civil society strengthening
• Counter-trafficking in persons
• Education
• Effects of gender roles on males and females
• Gender based violence (GBV)
• Gender, conflict, peace, and security
• Health
• Information and communication technologies (ICTs)
• Life skills
• Organizational/institutional development
• Technical/vocational education and training (TVET)
• Women’s leadership development
• Workforce development
• Youth

7. GENDER PRACTICE | JBS INTERNATIONAL 5
Clear Results
• Applied research
- Data analysis, synthesis, and dissemination
- In-person and virtual data collection
- Instrument design
- Literature reviews
- Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods
research design
• Community mobilization and advocacy
• Gender analysis toolkit development
• Gender assessments
• Gender-sensitive indicator development
• Instructional design
• IT tool development
• Knowledge management
• Monitoring and evaluation
• Policy analysis
• Technical assistance (in-person and online)
• Training (in-person and online)
• Video production

8. 6 JBS INTERNATIONAL | GENDER PRACTICE
Afghanistan
Albania
Antigua and
Barbuda
Armenia
Bangladesh
Barbados
Belarus
Belize
Bolivia
Bosnia and
Herzegovina
Cambodia
Cuba
Djibouti
Dominican
Republic
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Ethiopia
Georgia
Ghana
Guatemala
Honduras
India
Indonesia
Jamaica
Kazakhstan
Kosovo
Lebanon
Liberia
Macedonia
Mauritania
Moldova
Montenegro
Morocco
Namibia
Nicaragua
Oman
Pakistan
Peru
Russia
Senegal
Serbia
South Africa
St. Lucia
St. Vincent and
the Grendines
Tanzania
Trinidad and
Tobago
Ukraine
Uzbekistan
West Bank/
Gaza Strip
Zambia
JBS has worked in 110 countries on almost every
continent, including conflict/post-conflict/crisis
countries such as Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Most recently, our international work has
taken place in:
WHAT JBS OFFERS:
Broad Scale

9. GENDER PRACTICE | JBS INTERNATIONAL 7

10. 8 JBS INTERNATIONAL | GENDER PRACTICE
JBS DELIVERS:
SPOTLIGHT ON SELECTED
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Diverse sector program evaluations
• Women’s leadership and media training
• U.S. internship program for young businesswomen
in the Middle East
• Primary school basic health education for girls
• Outcomes and impacts of USAID’s Ambassador Girls’
Scholarship Program
• Sustained improvements in learning outcomes at
300 girl-friendly schools
• Women’s leadership in disaster risk reduction, disaster
risk management, and complex emergencies
Client support
• Applied research, knowledge management, instructional
design, and IT tool development to build client capacity to
use a gender-sensitive approach to programming, gather
sound evidence, and create a knowledge base for program
conceptualization, design, and implementation.
• Produced research reports, technical documents, and
toolkits containing practical information and concrete
recommendations for integrating gender into project design
and evaluation and building gender capacity within local
research firms, NGOs, and among subject matter experts.

11. GENDER PRACTICE | JBS INTERNATIONAL 9
• Completed more than 100 formative, mid-term, and end-of-
project evaluations plus scale and sustainability studies.
• Supported development, delivery, and reporting on Gender
Integration Training in Eastern Europe and Eurasia.The
multidisciplinary, interactive learning sessions covered
advanced gender analysis issues in new USAID policies and
strategies with a regional focus.
• Assisted in every component—from thematic development to
on-the-ground logistics—of a results-oriented and participatory
adult learner-centered workshop on best practices and
lessons learned in countering human trafficking, workforce
development, gender integration, and youth programming, all
in the context of developing and maintaining public–private
partnerships.

12. 10 JBS INTERNATIONAL | GENDER PRACTICE
MEET the JBS GENDER
PRACTICE TEAM
The JBS Gender Practice Team is drawn from
our multicultural, multilingual staff, who have
worked around the world and can conduct
business in 21 languages. Together, the team
possesses state-of-the-art gender knowledge
and a full complement of technical and functional
skills to address challenging gender issues.
MARY FONTAINE, MA, International Women’s Studies
Gender Practice Lead
More than 30 years of experience, including 20 years in South
Asia and the Near and Middle East plus shorter term technical
assistance in East and West Africa, the Caribbean, and the
Balkans; extensive experience in gender analysis and integration;
policy analysis and development; strategic planning; and
program design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation;
served over 4 tours as the Senior Gender Advisor at USAID/
Afghanistan; designed, launched, and oversaw the Mission’s
gender analysis process; trained staff on gender integration;
established gender mainstreaming framework; assessed gender
budgeting of programs; authored a large NGO strengthening
and small grant program and a women’s leadership development
program, the largest women’s program in USAID’s history; other
director-level experience with international NGOs, governments,
and companies in education, institutional/organizational
strengthening, economic growth, water and sanitation, ICTs,

13. GENDER PRACTICE | JBS INTERNATIONAL 11
internally displaced persons, natural disasters, scholarship and
small grants programs, post-conflict programming, and women’s
leadership development and empowerment in the public,
private, and civil society sectors; possesses strong partnership
development, research analysis and synthesis, communications,
and strategic planning skills.
CHRISTINE ALLISON, MA, Policy Studies
Senior Research Associate, Senior Principal
Extensive knowledge and expertise in quantitative and qualitative
evaluation and methods, including survey design, focus
group and site visit protocol design, focus group moderating,
instrument testing, and data analysis, including gender impact
analysis; experience in 33 countries in monitoring and evaluation,
education, economic growth, conflict and crisis, natural disasters,
and social issues such as gender, trafficking, and disability;
possesses strong organizational and management skills; currently
focusing on post-conflict education, human trafficking, gender
analyses, inclusive education, and women’s employment and labor
market conditions.
Maria Brindlmayer, Graduate Degree (European), Marketing
Senior Knowledge Management Specialist
A knowledge management (KM), training, and marketing/
communications leader with more than 20 years of experience
at large global and small organizations, including Fortune 500
clients, the European Commission, and USAID; gathered,
synthesized, and disseminated knowledge by topic (e.g., gender,
workforce development) for USAID users; created and managed

14. 12 JBS INTERNATIONAL | GENDER PRACTICE
active communities of practice at a large, global professional
services firm and with a global education donor network;
generated millions of dollars in cost savings by efficiently
managing IT solutions (e.g., KM, content management,
collaboration, Web sites, and Intranets for more than 150,000
users); led projects from concept development through business
case, requirements gathering, and design to implementation;
spearheaded innovation through mobile applications and social/
organizational network analysis; successfully managed remote
and international teams.
Abigail Ladd, MPA, MA, Development Studies
Research Associate
Expertise in conducting social research (qualitative/quantitative/
mixed methods research, instrument design, data collection
and management, and data analysis and reporting), supporting
gender analysis and gender integration activities, developing
and facilitating in-person and online trainings, contributing to
program and project design, building monitoring systems, and
leading evaluation activities for government clients such as
USAID and U.S. Departments of State and Homeland Security,
academic institutions, and nonprofit organizations; extensive
research in education and gender issues, women’s leadership
and female empowerment, inclusive basic and higher education,
workforce development, public-private partnerships,
anti-trafficking in persons, and social welfare of vulnerable
groups; strong interest in application of feminist, gender, and
equity-based evaluation approaches; experience conducting
research and managing international evaluations in South and
Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin
America, and Europe.
JBS GENDER PRACTICE TEAM

15. GENDER PRACTICE | JBS INTERNATIONAL 13
Rebekah Levi, MA, Education and International Development
Research Associate
Expertise in ICT, monitoring and evaluation, partnership building,
training, gender issues, and social research; worked with USAID
to conceptualize and build the first international consortium
on the use of mobile technology for education in developing
countries and ran its secretariat, which included significant
research on how technology empowers women and girls and
provides access to education, workforce skills, and employment;
extensive experience evaluating international projects for
USAID, foundations, universities, the U.S. Departments of State
and Homeland Security, and Junior Achievement Worldwide;
experienced in running multi-year evaluations in complex
environments such as Cuba, including instrument design, data
collection, data analysis, report writing, and presentation of
sensitive data; experience working with more than 20 leading
international organizations working in the ICT for Education
field; teaching experience in adult education, literacy, workforce
development, and basic education; fluent in Spanish.
Leith Lombas, PhD, Sociology, Certification in Gender
Studies
Research Associate
Expertise in evaluation design, qualitative and mixed methods
research, participatory evaluation design and approaches,
gender and international development issues, perspectives on
violence and violence prevention, homelessness, and HIV/AIDS
prevention; experience in conducting focus groups, interviews,
participant observation, ethnography and qualitative analysis,
survey and structured interview development, program design
and implementation for international, regional, and local
organizations, and research trainings for qualitative researchers;
extensive knowledge of social theory, feminist theory, gender
studies, and international and cross-cultural evaluation.

16. 14 JBS INTERNATIONAL | GENDER PRACTICE
Craig Packer
senior writer
Gender advocate with 23 years of writing, editing, and
communications experience with special expertise in social
media; experience in managing social media sites on micro-
lending to women around the world and violence against women
in the United States; conducted formative research for a National
Institute on Drug Abuse campaign targeting teenage girls and
young women; developed communications and marketing
products for the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention’s Girl
Power! campaign and crafted educational materials and fact
sheets on women’s health; founder of the Stop the Worldwide
War on Girls, a Facebook-based campaign with more than
25,000 members in more than 50 countries; a graduate of the
Institute on Political Journalism at Georgetown University.
Jill Rhodes, MA, International Studies; Graduate Diploma,
Islamic Studies
Research Associate
Research analyst with expertise in the roles of Muslim women
in northern Africa, international regimes in the promotion of
women’s rights, and gender mainstreaming in the security
sector; conducted homeland security studies and sector
assessments in conflict and post-conflict countries; designed and
led a study on countering violent extremism in the United States;
conducted research on terrorism and counter-terrorism policies,
including international cooperation and the impact of European
policies on local Muslim communities; ongoing focus on the role
of women in security; work experience in Egypt and Niger, with
data collection in Indonesia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Thailand, and
the United States.
JBS GENDER PRACTICE TEAM

17. GENDER PRACTICE | JBS INTERNATIONAL 15
Nicole Zdrojewski, MA, International Development Studies
Research Associate
Expertise in gender integration training, gender analysis,
research, and knowledge management on gender issues,
anti-human trafficking, human security, and vulnerable groups;
analyzed issues affecting LGBT populations and women with
disabilities in Europe and Eurasia; spearheaded research on
poverty, instability, youth, and gender issues in South Asia;
analyzed the impact of gender discrimination against women
and its relationship to trafficking; in Ukraine designed workforce
development programming for women and gender-sensitive,
healthy lifestyles training for students; assisted in design and
research activities on the first iteration of USAID’s Anti-
trafficking Task Order; carried out a field ethnography on
indigenous women’s empowerment through microfinance in
India; designed a gender analysis framework for microfinance
practitioners; country experience includes Hungary, India,
Lebanon, Pakistan, Romania, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Ukraine,
and the United Arab Emirates.

18. 16 JBS INTERNATIONAL | GENDER PRACTICE
JBS: PRACTICING
Gender EQUALITY AND
Women’s EMPOWERMENT
JBS is a women-owned
company that has grown
from a small startup in 1985
to an award-winning firm with
contracts in the international,
Federal, State, non-profit, and
commercial sectors. Through
first-hand experience, networks,
and partnerships with other
women-owned businesses
and organizations, JBS
understands the challenges and obstacles to growth that
businesswomen encounter. We possess keen insights into
female entrepreneurship and women’s economic
empowerment issues.
JBS is also aware of the importance of developing women’s
leadership skills and building capacities in technical, functional,
and managerial competencies. Led by two female Co-CEOs,
JBS operates with a staff of more than 350, 60 percent of
whom are women.
JBS lives its gender commitment, ensuring equality in the
workplace and providing equitable opportunities for staff
to develop their potential and, in the process, gain the
confidence that is a prerequisite for empowerment.
Co-CEOs
Jerri Shaw and Gail Bassin

19. We started JBS because we wanted
to build a firm that reflected our
personal commitment to doing work
that supports systemic change and
helps improve people’s lives. JBS tries
to find breakthrough strategies to
help our clients solve their most
challenging problems. We do this by
blending and balancing analytical,
hard-edged thinking with intuition
and passion.”
“
GENDER PRACTICE | JBS INTERNATIONAL 17

20. JBS International, Inc. | 5515 Security Lane, Suite 800
North Bethesda, MD 20852-5007 | 301.495.1080
www.jbsinternational.com
JBS has a long history of partnering with
other companies and organizations with
similar missions and values. We have served
as both prime contractor and subcontractor
and welcome opportunities to join forces
with others to promote gender equality
and women’s rights and empowerment.
To explore ways we might work together,
contact Mary Fontaine, Gender Practice Lead,
at mfontaine@jbsinternational.com
or call 301.495.1080.