An estimated $28 trillion could be added to the global annual GDP by 2025 by advancing women’s equality. Women’s economic empowerment (WEE) refers to a process by which women expand their ability to succeed and advance economically, and where they have the power to make and act on strategic life decisions in a context where this power was previously denied. There is a growing body of evidence demonstrating the importance of women’s participation in market as smallholder farmers, employees and owners of enterprises, and clients of financial institutions. Increasingly, diverse stakeholders from public, private and civil society are focusing on women’s empowerment as a true driver of development.
SEEP is dedicated to addressing systemic barriers that limit women’s empowerment through knowledge mobilization, cross organizational learning, and strengthening partnerships and alliances among diverse market actors. Our learning initiatives are designed to address common challenges amongst practitioners and create tangible opportunities to share promising practices, co-create technical resources, and to promote a collective voice for improving policy and practice.
The SEEP Network, in collaboration with Forum Partners, hosted an international convening on women’s economic empowerment- “Creating Systems Change for Scale and Sustainability”. Over 350 participants from 60+ countries convened to share promising practices for enterprise growth and job creation, financial inclusion, and women in agricultural systems.
The goal of the Women’s Economic Empowerment Working Group (WEEWG) is to improve the ability practitioners to integrate and empower women in market systems.
In collaboration with Oxfam, The SEEP Network facilitates a Peer Learning Group focused on shifting social norms in the economy at scale.
This learning series is part of the AWEF project and will engage diverse stakeholders to examine practical lessons and solutions in women’s economic empowerment.
2018 | Emily Mugisha and Courtney O’Connell
Research within the savings sector to date has produced mixed results on the impact of VSLA on women’s empowerment. This study examines if the more holistic approach to poverty alleviati…
2018 | MEDA
The Gender Equality Mainstreaming (GEM) Framework is an approach that is presented here as a how-to manual – a practical guide and toolkit – for assessing gender equality, and iden…
2017 |
This case study is the third in ELAN RDC's Women's Economic Empowerment Learning Series. ELAN RDC is a DFID-funded market systems programme working across ten highly differentiated and geograp…
2017 | Dan Norell
CARE, Save the Children, and World Vision are combining value chain development (VCD) with gender and nutrition programming to alleviate poverty and food insecurity among the extremely poor.…
2017 | Dan Norell
CARE, Save the Children, and World Vision are combining value chain development (VCD) with gender and nutrition programming to alleviate poverty and food insecurity among the extremely poor.…
2017 |
“Young girls get misguided [with cellphones]. It can break families and ruin relationships…Why do girls need [a] cellphone? The Internet is a waste of time and money for a middle-…
2017 | Adam Smith International
In short, yes it can. But it is just one piece of a complex and multi-faceted jigsaw. This snapshot provides an overview of the research, its context and key recommendations. The aim is to pro…
2017 | Sonia Jordan, ÉLAN DRC
This case study is the first in ÉLAN RDC’s Women’s Economic Empowerment Learning Series. ÉLAN RDC is a DFID-funded market systems programme working across ten highly…
2017 | Sonia Jordan, ÉLAN DRC
This case study is the first in ÉLAN RDC’s Women’s Economic Empowerment Learning Series. It aims to test the theory of change that by engaging poor women on the same terms a…
2017 | Boston University, WEI/BANTWANA
Together to End Violence Against Women (TEVAW) is an intimate partner violence prevention research and learning initiative designed using a socio-ecological lens to prevent intimate partner vi…
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