The ECWG participates in events, conferences, and meetings around the world with an interest in women’s groups, collective action, and economic development. You can keep up with all upcoming events and conferences here.
Symposium on improving evidence on Women’s Economic Empowerment and Women’s Groups in Uganda
Co-hosted by the Makerere University and the Evidence Consortium on Women's Groups, the purpose of this symposium is to increase awareness on the need to build evidence and a community of practice on women economic empowerment and women groups in Uganda. The symposium is intended to popularize evidence-based research approaches that support knowledge translation for relevant policy making and best practices in the field of women’s economic empowerment.
The objectives of this symposium are to:
1. Enhance the awareness of the importance of fostering WEE and using innovative solutions to improve the evidence base and increase information storage and uptake
2. Raise awareness on building a community of practice of evidence based research on WEE and SGs
3. Facilitate opportunities for networking, collaboration and exchange of ideas with government and NGO leaders and experts in evidence-based practice and education on women empowerment
4. Reinforce the focus on the implementation of information exchange with policy makers to increase the efficiency of evidence-based decision making.
Find the programme here. (all times in EAT)
WWGS 2022: Recovery and resilience
The Campbell Collaboration and Campbell UK & Ireland co-hosted the 2022 What Works Global Summit (WWGS) on 18-20 October. The theme of WWGS 2022 was “Recovery and resilience in crisis”.
ECWG members spoke as part of a panel on "Savings group member resilience over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence From Nigeria and Uganda", presenting ECWG research in partnership with CARE.
ECWG co-PI, Dr. Thomas de Hoop, presented our work on "Convergence of Social Protection Programs in India" as part of a panel on "International development and social welfare".
Women's Groups in South Asia: Landscape, Impact, and the Future
Women’s groups include self-help groups (SHGs), livelihoods groups, producer collectives, and other groups formed with social action, health, and empowerment objectives. Women’s groups are widespread in South Asia where they are instrumental in generating economic opportunities and enhancing women’s well-being. The existing literature highlights promising evidence of positive impacts of some women’s group types on women’s economic, political, reproductive, and social empowerment. However, the women’s groups’ objectives differ as do their results.
Co-organized by the South Asia Gender Innovation Lab (SAR GIL) and the Evidence Consortium on Women's Groups (ECWG), speakers in the webinar presented findings from three streams of work supported by the South Asia Gender Innovation Lab.
- A typology of women’s groups in South Asia with a particular focus on the design frameworks, implementation modalities, and composition of groups.
- Findings from a recent systematic review that assesses the impacts of SHG interventions on women’s economic participation and empowerment outcomes in South Asia.
- Implementation and design experiences from the Strengthening Afghan Women’s Economic Empowerment Project (SWEEP) in Afghanistan
View the recording here.
The Impact of Mentorship and VSLAs on Women Micro-entrepreneurs in Northern Nigeria
Women for Women International serves the most marginalized women in conflict-affected countries and helps them move from isolation and poverty to self-sufficiency and empowerment. The Stronger Women Stronger Nations program, a gendered graduation approach, focuses on building women’s knowledge, skills and resources in four key domains: earning and saving money, health and well-being, rights and decision-making.
From 2018 to 2021, Women for Women International conducted a randomized controlled trial in partnership with researchers from Tufts University to evaluate the addition of VSLAs and group mentorship to our bundled approach in Plateau and Bauchi States in Nigeria. Please join us for a webinar to present the findings of this research, contextualize the findings in global evidence on women’s economic empowerment, and share reflections and recommendations for future programming. This webinar will be relevant for practitioners, researchers, donors, and government ministries with a focus on gender and poverty alleviation.
What Works Global Summit 2021: Evidence for Development
October 18, 2021 – October 27, 2021
Evidence on development policies and interventions is key to addressing many crucial questions: what do children learn when sitting in a classroom? What does it take for children to actually go to school? How can children be properly nourished and escape malnutrition? What will it take for women to be granted equal access to the job market or to be compensated fairly for their work? What will it take for billions of dollars spent on ineffective programmes to be redirected and better targeted to desired development outcomes?
It is over 15 years that the Center for Global Development asked When Will We Ever Learn?, pointing out that billions of dollars are spent each year on development programmes of unknown effectiveness. Since then, there is a growing body of evidence about what works. And that evidence shows that a large proportion of development interventions are ineffective. The availability of this growing body of evidence worldwide is welcome. But there are still three major challenges.
First, to ensure that the evidence is relevant to decision-makers - policy makers and practitioners - by addressing not only what works, but how, why, for whom and at what cost? And that it this evidence contextualized in ways which enhance transferability not generic. Second, to ensure that evidence is communicated in timely and usable ways, which often involves a process of knowledge translation or knowledge brokering and a good understanding of policy processes. And third, to make sure debates on policy challenges are informed by varied and competing sources of evidence, and the people involved in them are capable of discerning between them.
The 'What Works Global Summit 2021: Evidence for Development' takes up these challenges.
Implementing women’s group programs at scale: Implications for costs and cost-effectiveness
The development community is increasingly recognizing the need to integrate robust implementation research with impact evaluations to apply their lessons to decisions about scaling up pilot interventions. Research also has demonstrated the implications of program scale-up for implementation quality and program impacts. For example, studies have shown that many successful pilot interventions fail to produce similar impacts when scaled up, owing to multiple reasons. The decision to invest in a program, however, is guided by both program effectiveness as well as the cost of producing those effects, making it imperative to understand the implications of program scale for costs. This webinar will include two studies that demonstrate costs of scaled-up livelihoods and health interventions, delivered through women’s group programming. The session will specifically explore economies of scale and cost-effectiveness of a Self-Help Group program in India, and the scale-up costs and outcomes of a participatory learning and action cycle with women's groups across multiple countries.
The Gender Equality team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is soliciting brief Letters of Interest (“LOI”) (up to 5 pages) from interested partners to conduct a follow-up survey to generate additional longitudinal data on the long-term effects of group-based models that have shown promise in economically empowering adolescent girls. A LOI is requested by April 16, 2021, with finalist(s) notified by May 7, 2021. Full proposal(s) from the selected finalist(s) will be due by June 4, 2021.
Anticipated timeline of grant: 18-24 months.
More details can be found here
Women's Groups and COVID-19: Impact, Challenges and Policy Implications
In a policy brief released in the early stages of the COVID pandemic in June 2020, the Evidence Consortium on Women’s Groups (ECWG) examined the implications of the pandemic and the lockdown for women’s groups.
What have we learned since then? How has the COVID pandemic affected women’s groups, and how have these groups helped mitigate the negative consequences of the health crisis?
Join the ECWG on April 13 for a discussion on women’s groups and COVID, with the Africa Centre for Systematic Reviews, the American Institutes for Research, the Population Council, and the World Bank.
The ECWG will present the findings of two new reports on the impacts of COVID on women’s groups in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, followed by a panel discussion on the implications and policy recommendations for development organizations and governments.
Digital Solutions for Women's Collectives in Chhattisgarh: Preliminary Insights on What Works
Join LEAD at Krea University and IWWAGE for a webinar that presents emerging evidence on how digital solutions can empower women’s collectives and improve their access to livelihood opportunities.
Women’s Self Help Groups (SHGs) and their federations hold the promise of being transformative change agents for their social and economic empowerment. Digital solutions have the potential to accelerate this progress by improving women’s access to social protection, markets, credit, and improving their book-keeping practices. This webinar will convene key stakeholders to share preliminary insights from the portfolio of research, implementation, and evaluation activities that the Initiative for What Works to Advance Women and Girls in the Economy (IWWAGE) and LEAD at Krea University are implementing in Chhattisgarh in partnership with the State Rural Livelihoods Mission (Bihan). The program is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The event will provide an opportunity to discuss these findings with a curated audience.
In India, with the launch of the POSHAN Abhiyaan/ Nutrition Mission, efforts to improve maternal nutrition services have gained additional momentum in 2018. Nevertheless, it remains a challenge to ensure universal and equal coverage of interventions as well as to contextualize the nutrition care package for the at risk - mothers suffering from obesity, extreme thinness, with or without depression or anemia, both at the facility level and community. The level of awareness on interventions, strategies and innovations is varied among professional nutritionists and gynecologists.
National Institute of Nutrition (ICMR-NIN) and Federation of Obstetric and Gynecologic society of India (FOGSI), in association with UNICEF is organizing a monthly, technical webinar series “Maternal Nutrition technical E-dialogues” with the theme “Strengthening maternal nutrition assessment and services in antenatal care in India”. The goal is to equip nutritionists, gynecologists and other professionals with the latest maternal nutrition interventions, strategies and innovations.