Economic Empowerment

This brief assesses progress toward Millennium Development Goal 3, promote gender equality and empower women, by analyzing changes in the 12 indicators proposed by the U.N. Millennium Project Task Force on Education and Gender Equality and offers recommendations that can redouble global efforts to fulfill this worthy goal.

This study focuses on lessons learned in the provision of business development services (BDS) that assist business growth for women-owned enterprises. The study consists of two parts. The first chapter is a review of the existing literature on the international experience in BDS and the major findings of research on lessons learned in BDS as they apply to women clientele and growth in their enterprises. The second part concentrates on deriving lessons from two local BDS initiatives, Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) Sericulture Program and Independent Business Enrichment Center (IBEC) Enterprise Training Program in South Africa.

This series explores those social, cultural and economic factors that could encourage progress toward achieving the third Millennium Development Goal to promote gender equality and empower women. Topics include decreasing violence against women, improving infrastructure and encouraging women's property ownership.

Other publications in this series:
Infrastructure Shortfalls Cost Poor Women Time and Opportunity
Violence Against Women Must Stop

ICRW conducted an analysis of programs in developing countries as well as a field-based assessment of selected programs in three countries: India, Kenya, and Colombia that integrate adolescent reproductive health and livelihoods concerns, with a view to offering recommendations for more effective strategies and approaches. This brief aims to assess the challenges and potential effectiveness of integrated programs, highlight innovative approaches, and define gaps that exist in designing interventions.

ICRW, in collaboration with researchers from India and Sri Lanka, presents the synthesis report of a multi-site research study on social protection, exploring the links of women's ownership of property and inheritance rights and their experience of domestic violence. This report brings together three research summaries as well as a cross-site analysis undertaken by ICRW.

Women in many countries are far less likely than men to own property and assets - key tools to gaining economic security and earning higher incomes. Though laws to protect women's property rights exist in most countries, gender and cultural constraints can prevent women from owning or inheriting property. In this series, ICRW suggests practical steps to promote, protect and fulfill women's property rights.

Other publications in this series:
Women's Property Rights as an AIDS Response, Emerging Efforts in South Asia
Women's Property Rights, HIV and AIDS, and Violence in South Africa and Uganda: Preliminary Findings
Women's Property Rights as an AIDS Response, Lessons from Community Interventions in Africa
Learning How to Better Promote, Protect and Fulfill Women's Property Rights
Connecting Rights to Reality: A Progressive Framework of Core Legal Protections for Women's Property Rights

Women in many countries are far less likely than men to own property and assets - key tools to gaining economic security and earning higher incomes. Though laws to protect women's property rights exist in most countries, gender and cultural constraints can prevent women from owning or inheriting property. In this series, ICRW suggests practical steps to promote, protect and fulfill women's property rights.

Other publications in this series:
Women's Property Rights as an AIDS Response, Emerging Efforts in South Asia
Women's Property Rights, HIV and AIDS, and Violence in South Africa and Uganda: Preliminary Findings
Women's Property Rights as an AIDS Response, Lessons from Community Interventions in Africa
Mending the Gap Between Law and Practice, Organizational Approaches for Women's Property Rights
Connecting Rights to Reality: A Progressive Framework of Core Legal Protections for Women's Property Rights

Using a human rights approach to development, this paper synthesizes the findings from a number of projects that explore women's economic roles and opportunities and their aspirations for advancement. It reviews the constraints women face in fulfilling their opportunities and considers the relationship between women's rights and capabilities on the one hand and development policy and practice on the other.

In June 2000, the United Nations held a formal review to assess the progress made in implementing the goals set at the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing, China, in 1995. The Platform for Action adopted at Beijing outlined 12 critical areas of concern as necessary for advancing the status of women. This paper reflects the authors' stocktaking in preparation for the formal UN review, known as Beijing Plus Five.

This paper is the product of a review of literature on issues of gender in the context of conflict and post-conflict reconstruction. It was prepared as background material for an international workshop on gender equity and peace building jointly convened by ICRW and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). Key findings and research questions are presented in relation to the effective integration of gender concerns into policies and programs that shape post-conflict societies.