Measuring Women's Economic Empowerment in Market Systems

Aug 30, 2015 | by The SEEP Network

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The SEEP Network and UN Women have teamed up to offer you a chance to engage with key experts on both conceptual and practical issues around women's economic empowerment in inclusive market systems. Following an exceptionally well-attended first webinar in the "From Theory to Practice: Women's Economic Empowerment in Inclusive Market Systems Development" series, we now begin diving into the practical implications of the theoretical approach that was presented in January.

Gender inequality and the process of empowerment are dynamic and complex, as are the market systems in which women work. Monitoring and evaluation systems must be consistently updated and adapted along with the changing needs of women in order to effectively address the market constraints they face. This requires a carefully designed M&E system that captures data on women's economic empowerment from multiple perspectives. The session explored practices in measuring women's economic empowerment such as innovations in measuring agency, gender norms, and gendered behavior changes at the firm and household level, as well as insights from implementing these practices when working with the private sector.

Related Resources

• Women's Empowerment Principles (WEP)

Presenters

Helen Bradbury - Team Leader, ALCP Mercy Corps Georgia

Helen Bradbury is a development professional with a career spanning market system approaches to solving problems, ranging from the welfare of working horses in Ethiopia to early economic recovery in post-tsunami Indonesia. She now manages Mercy Corps' flagship Alliances program in Georgia, and advises on M4P and women's economic empowerment. Visit www.alcp.ge for more information and resources.

Elizabeth Dunn - Founder and CEO, Impact LLC

Dr. Elizabeth G. Dunn is a research economist specializing in market-based solutions to poverty. For 25 years, her work has focused on economic growth opportunities to benefit low-income households, with an emphasis on smallholder agriculture, micro- and small enterprises, value chains, and inclusive market systems. As the technical leader for quantitative and qualitative research and evaluation studies in more than 20 countries, Dr. Dunn has worked with bilateral and multilateral donors, NGOs, governments, and the private sector. Under USAID's Leveraging Economic Opportunities (LEO) project, she directs a research and collaborative learning agenda designed to improve monitoring, evaluation, and learning in interventions designed to facilitate inclusive market systems. She earned a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, served on the faculty in Agricultural Economics at the University of Missouri for 10 years, and founded Impact LLC in 2000.

Laraine Mills - Private Sector Partnerships Specialist / WEPs Manager, UN Women

Laraine Mills joined UN Women (UNIFEM) in 2007. As a member of the private sector team "Strategic Partnerships Division," Laraine contributes to advancing the organization's engagement with the corporate sector. In particular, Laraine oversees UN Women's work on the Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs), including efforts to support companies in their implementation of WEPs' Principle 7, which calls on companies to measure and publicly report on progress towards gender equality. Launched in 2010, the WEPs provide a framework and roadmap for business on how to empower women in the workplace, marketplace, and community. The Principles emphasize the business case for corporate action to promote gender equality and women's empowerment, and are informed by real-life business practices and input gathered from across the globe. They are the result of collaboration between UN Women and the UN Global Compact, and are adapted from the Calvert Women's Principles ®.

Moderator

Erin Markel - Principal Consultant, Economic Empowerment, MarketShare Associates and Co-facilitator of The SEEP Network's WEE WG

Erin specializes in market systems and household economic strengthening programs, with a focus on the empowerment of women and youth. Erin is a Principal Consultant at MarketShare Associates (MSA). Erin has led a variety of consultancies including work with the USAID LEO initiative, World Bank, Plan, CARE and the Aga Khan Foundation. Prior to joining MSA, Erin was a Program Manager, Market Development and Access to Finance at the Aga Khan Foundation Canada. Past experience includes working for Women's World Banking, ProMujer, and Aspen Institute. Erin holds a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University.