September 23, 2020 – September 25, 2020

The EVIDENCE 2020 event is the biennial gathering hosted by the Africa Evidence Network. EVIDENCE 2020 ONLINE is being designed as a virtual working meeting that will foster collaboration, facilitate dialogue, and move forward the thinking, practice, and action to advance the use of evidence in decision-making across the continent.

This webinar will explore intersections of adolescent health and gender-based impacts of COVID-19, including educational opportunities, empowerment collective participation, sexual and reproductive health and health behaviors.

ECWG co-PI, Sapna Desai, will be speaking on ‘Disruption and opportunity: the effects of COVID-19 on organizing women and girls’

September 12, 2020 – September 14, 2020

The conclave aims to explore how evaluation theory and practice can address complex socio-environmental challenges through innovation and collaborative processes, with an emphasis on gender and equity. The conclave will host discussions on new ways of bringing together existing tools and methods,  the use of new processes such as big data and social media, and the use of techniques and tools adapted from other disciplines and sectors.
 

View the recording 

Community groups (SHGs, farmer groups, saving groups, etc.) are one of the important platforms for local economic development (LED). Most of the community group members are women. Focusing on LED strategies is key to ensuring longer-term local economic recovery and resilience. Such approaches entail investing in entrepreneurship of community/women groups, linking community institutions to value chains, investing in productive infrastructure, supporting financial institutions, and developing public-private partnerships. This session will explore how community/women groups are coping up with COVID and discuss strategies to support women groups and collectives for the transition to economic institutions and longer-term local economic recovery.

The webinar will discuss findings of mixed-methods systematic review on community interventions with women’s groups to improve health outcomes in India. Authors will present a summary from a review of 99 studies, followed by a discussion of how the findings can inform large-scale programs with women’s groups implemented by the National Health Mission and National Rural Livelihoods Mission.

The webinar is hosted by the Evidence Consortium on Women's Groups (ECWG) and University College London (UCL) Centre for the Health of Women, Children and Adolescents.

June 25, 2020 – June 27, 2020

This conference is designed to provide an open forum for the exchange of ideas and the dissemination of research relevant to feminist inquiry of economic issues.

The discussion will explore the impact of COVID-19 in these areas of women’s economic empowerment and how projects and organizations are responding to these challenges in practical ways. The virtual roundtable will serve as an opportunity for members to share actionable insights that can inform the work of others in this space.

Savings Groups are one of the most consistent and sustainable platforms for community development worldwide. As mobility is restricted and markets falter, the COVID-19 pandemic poses crucial health and economic risks for Savings Groups. As most members are women, they are likely to be disproportionately affected by the health crisis, including additional burdens as primary caregivers, as well as increased risk of intimate partner and sexual violence. Three months into the global pandemic, what is being done to mitigate the impact of the health crisis on Savings Groups and their communities? How are Savings Groups and the organizations that work with them adapting – and to what effect? And how are they planning to build back better, such that both Savings Groups and the programs that support them are more resilient to future crises?

The National Rural Livelihoods Mission in India has built a resilient platform of community-based organizations reaching every third rural household in India through women groups and their federations. These women groups enable collective capacity building, support access to higher formal finance, and build strong market-oriented producer collectives that enhance voice and value for small farmers.As the COVID-19 pandemic grips the world with paralyzing pace, India’s institutional platform of 6.3 million women groups is at the forefront of a community-led response. The local and state Governments are increasingly using the community platform to develop the response to the crisis. In a post COVID world, with a multi-billion-dollar investment engine at its core and a massive network of decentralized high capacity institutions, does this platform hold the key to swift response and recovery in rural India.  This webinar will discuss implications for investing in this platform for building resilient communities and villages.