A Life for Development Cooperation, Gender Equality and Food Security—Gretchen Brandow Bloom

Gretchen Brandow Bloom, gender and development advisor and educator, died at her home in Dupont Circle Washington DC at the age of 76. In an epic personal record of a woman engaged in the last five decades of international development and humanitarian response, she meticulously chronicled her travels to more than 100 countries that involved long-term projects in Afghanistan, India and Sri Lanka alongside technical assignments including Mali, Morocco and Nigeria. Women from around the world, young professionals, and a generation of students better understood the transformational power of gender sensitivity in policy and policy implementation through Gretchen’s generous sharing of her experience and her passion for international cooperation. Networks became more inclusive and diverse wherever she went. As a talented writer and editor Gretchen humbly and diligently recorded the history and accomplishments of projects, organizations and associations that formed, not only her perspective, but the practice of international development beginning with her decision to join the Peace Corps volunteer service in Togo after completing a BSc from Stanford University in 1965.

Gretchen Bloom dedicated her career to women’s empowerment, focusing on development cooperation and food security in developing economies with appointments at the United Nations’ World Food Program, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, The United Nations’ International Fund for Agriculture Development, the World Bank, USAID, Peace Corps and many more. She also worked for the US government, a large number of US-based and international NGOs as well as private development agencies. In these organizations, her role was mostly as a consultant, usually in the field, or as a trainer but could also be in the agencies’ headquarters. Gretchen has edited and collaborated with the publication of a large number of policy briefs, books, scientific papers and reports, both from the aforementioned organisations and also her peers/scholars. Her publications include a fieldwork study in Kyrgyzstan where she focused on striking gender equality results and the potential of the empowerment of women and vulnerable people via microfinance and rural markets development.

Perhaps, Gretchen’s greatest professional legacy and the motivation for this obituary is the lasting impression she made on her graduate students in Italy and the United States. Building on field-based gender training first offered in Mali, Niger and Ghana, her lectures were always engaging. Implementing varied teaching methods to ensure all students were actively involved, she would push students into memorable learning such as inviting students try on a burka regardless of gender. She was a lecturer on the Gender & Development course in the postgraduate masters in Development Economics & International Co-operation (MESCI) at the University of Rome Tor Vergata. Gretchen was part of several associations boards, including Associazione Punti di Vista and CED—Center for Economic Development & Social Change. She also lectured for Tulane University’s Food Security summer institute in Italy and a variety of professional development forums.

Gretchen was known by students for her extremely detailed exam evaluations and also her masters thesis supervision, that included receiving densely written pages at literally any hour of the day and night from the other corner of the world, coupled with exciting fieldwork minutes, outdoor activity and trip notes. She was widely appreciated for her human touch when writing reference letters and typically ended courses with an invitation to join her for an aperitif with her beloved spouse, Peter, on their beautiful terrace in Monti, Rome, surrounded by books and plants.

It is the one-on-one relationship that Gretchen maintained for years that students remember as they took their dedicated steps into the difficult but rewarding world of international cooperation. A former student remembers Gretchen as a “mentor and friend to me, introducing me to her huge network, sending me events and ways to get involved, and supporting my grad school group with our final project on gender studies”. She made long-lasting relationships. One student remarked: “She was a natural connector, and her influence in bringing people together without regard to borders/barriers/demographics is unique in my experience. Every conversation and every email we shared she would connect the dots to another connection, another piece of information, or another person to talk to. She was a subtle influence on my career and she provided valuable guidance and encouragement for GambiaRising when we were in our infancy as an organization”.

Hard-working, unassuming and dedicated, Gretchen Bloom’s career was none-the-less a series pioneering firsts for gender equity and women’s empowerment. In the early days of Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, she was first awarded a Master of Arts in Sociology and then a Master of Philosophy in Social Medicine and Community Development while raising her children, Seth and Claire. She was one of the first coordinators of the Association for Women in Development Forum, first regional Gender advisors for USAID in Asia and Near East, and first female Senior Gender Advisor to the United Nations’ World Food Programme. One colleague described her as “my ‘go-to’ expert for the growing number of young people (mostly women) who I met wanting to enter that field of work”. Another junior colleague appreciated how she “started an internship in the WFP Gender Unit, headed by Gretchen, and from that moment onward she was my mentor, encouraging me to study for a master’s degree and to pursue field experiences, but most of all she instilled in me her passion for gender issues and humanitarian work”. The first female executive director of the World Food Programme said of Gretchen: “She was a role model of dedication and a principled and ethical leader. At WFP, she led us in the effort to be inclusive of women in all aspects of our work. More recently, she was still striving to insure that the voices of women and girls were heard and respected, and that the history of WFP’s work in this area was recorded”.

Gretchen retired from the United Nations after putting her gender advocacy into practice as head of programming in the early 2000’s emergency response in Afghanistan. With a seemingly inexhaustible energy, the decade and a half post-retirement only saw increasing demand for her expertise on more than twenty important gender initiatives including work in West Africa, Indonesia and Haiti. Topping off a career defined by an extensive network of diplomats, academics, professionals and community members around the world, Gretchen was a driving force in the WFP Alumni Association, Democratic Women’s Conference, Democrats Abroad, and groups for returned Peace Corps Volunteers. At the time of her death, she was engaged among other projects in novel gender quality and women’s’ empowerment assessments and monitoring system working with the matrilineal communities of Bougainville Papua New Guinea. She was also drafting a number of studies on food security, gender equality and sustainable development. In the words of a former colleague: “she was a positive paradigm-shifter who could freshen outmoded world-views with humour and pizzazz”. An erstwhile colleague and neighbor in Washington states: “Gretchen had boundless energy and was an inspiration to us all. She was so enthusiastic about everything she undertook (...) and that was many, many things. I remember her mentoring Peace Corps volunteers in Sri Lanka, running with hash house harriers, rowing on the Potomac, sailing in Rhode Island, jetting off to Rome for consulting work…”. Many people around the world share that affectionate appreciation of this dearly missed colleague and friend.

Everybody will remember Gretchen for her passion and charm in inspiring dreamers. Her joy for life, nature, justice, diversity and activities was impressive. Many of us learned a lot from her and feel in debt for what she taught us, striving for ensuring development, cooperation and food security to empower the vulnerable all over the world—above all women.

In memoriam of Gretchen Brandow Bloom

6 September 1943–24 February 2020