GenderLinks.org site launch (USAID)

Description

Gender equality became a legal requirement for U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) programming after the publication of the 2023 Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment (GEWE) policy. 

As such, USAID's GEWE Hub requested a website specific to its practitioner needs. GenderLinks.org was created with USWDS and custom-built components to join the Learning, Information, and Knowledge Sharing (LINKS) suite of affiliate sites.

Strategy

Given the publication specifics, my team aimed to launch a site with easy access to resources, program requirements, community events, and affiliated sites.

My role

• Facilitated client interactions ensuring buy-in and approval for all copy, design, and final sign-off for launch

• Guided internal content workflows 

• Developed the process for content management to enable quick updates and ease of access to development progress

Highlights

As can be true for many government and government-affiliated websites, the initial copy for GenderLinks came from policy documentation riddled with jargon or "legalese," which does not bode well for plain language scoring. 

As practitioners and mission staff operate in countries worldwide, maintaining an accessible lexicon is necessary to ensure user understanding at all levels of fluency and education in the English language.

We conducted a thorough, iterative audit of all copy to be posted on the website. We relied heavily on our experience in the technical writing and copyediting fields and used the Hemingway.com plain language tool to confirm our proposed edits.

Cover photo by KOBU Agency on Unsplash.
Screenshots below taken July 2024.

First screenshot is the Home page on GenderLinks.org (cropped for size; currently unavailable online, but hyperlinked via the Wayback Machine).