Women’s Economic Empowerment and Equality: Building a Strategic Framework

USAID just added another layer of commitment to promoting women’s economic empowerment and equality (WE3) to our programming. On March 2-3, USAID gathered over a hundred partners from think tanks, NGOs, implementing partners, Global South representatives, academia and USAID internal offices to collect feedback for a new strategic framework on WE3. The goal of this work is to produce a guide for analysis, programming and implementation that captures the full breadth of issues affecting women’s economic participation while providing highly practical guidance. 

Last year USAID commissioned FHI 360 to take a look at the landscape of USAID’s WE3 activities. What we discovered was mixed:  there were numerous programs and projects addressing WE3 issues, but not shared definition of the problem or unifying approach to address the cross-sectoral nature of the problem. Recognizing that greater impact requires greater coordination, USAID began a series of internal and external consultations to gather expert opinions, culminating in the WE3 Workshop last week. 

The discussion was too rich to capture in a simple blog, but articulated the complexity, peril and promise of this work. Participants recognized that economic empowerment is inextricably linked to political, social, educational, and physical empowerment in a multi-dimensional system that can be changed. There is a business case for WE3 – and it will take greater involvement of men – but what is needed most right now is a strategic framework to galvanize efforts and leverage resources. Put simply, the WE3 Strategic Framework will incorporate participant feedback to define women’s economic empowerment and equality, and provide practical assistance for programs to plan, fund, measure and share WE3.

 Watch this space for updates!