In 2015, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation launched the Women and Girls at the Center of Development (WGCD) Grand Challenge, awarding $32 million to projects across 14 African and Asian countries. The goal: to understand how to most effectively and intentionally address gender inequalities and empower women and girls.
ICRW leads the WGCD Learning Agenda to facilitate mutual learning among the 300-member WGCD community, and inform the global development field of approaches that boost women’s economic empowerment, improve adolescent girls’ agency and wellbeing, and reduce gender inequalities. The Learning Agenda activities aim to build the evidence and practice base emerging from the foundation’s unique global investment in the following areas:
ICRW’s knowledge management and technical support enables the diverse set of WGCD partners to share knowledge, resources and tools in ways that enhance their individual and collective capacities, and amplify the shared impact of their work. As WGCD partners complete data collection and analysis, ICRW supports strategic collaborations including events at major international conferences; peer-reviewed publications; blogs and webinars for real-time evidence sharing; and regular learning events, convenings, and site visits.
