Development Blog

CARE is presenting a session on sexual harassment in the workplace at the SEEP Network Learning Forum on Women’s Economic Empowerment. So what are the implications for the industry of the prevalence of sexual harassment, and how can the industry provide a safer work environment for women?

My colleagues and I have spent a considerable share of our time during the past few months in discussions with our private sector partners, figuring out a common ground to work together on women’s economic empowerment (WEE). It can be an exciting but also somehow frustrating process as the potential scope of WEE interventions and the business case are always extremely broad, but the resources to invest are limited. For that reason, prioritisation is paramount. Ahead of the session on Systems Change for Women’s Economic Empowerment: How to work with companies? on 24 May at the SEEP Network Learning Forum on Women’s Economic Empowerment in Bangkok, here are some thoughts and lessons learned.

One of the biggest challenges in achieving programme quality is to link Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL) systems to project management practices. Here are some proven ways to achieve this at project design, baseline, implementation and endline stages.

As the international community gathers for the London Somalia Conference, the role of women in determining the country’s future is high on the agenda. So what are Somali women saying about women’s political participation in their country?

The number of women in the world who still lack access to formal financial services stands at 1 billion. While this figure is going down, the discrimination that women face compared to men, in terms of their access to and control over loans, savings and bank account services, continue to hold women back. If we are to see this 1 billion figure drop down to zero, then private sector organisations, governments and civil society organisations must work together to tackle the barriers slowing up progress, and invest in solutions to target women’s equal inclusion in the formal financial arena.

By choosing to spend two minutes reading this article, you stand with the many millions of others around the world who are choosing not just to ‘make a difference’ for women’s economic empowerment, but who are choosing, in fact, to be that difference. The answer to my own question is that simple: everybody can make a difference when it comes to ensuring women have as equal access and control over economic resources as men.