Prepare Women Leaders in Financial Management

Project Update

While we wait for optimum funding for the Training and Apprenticeship of Women leaders in Financial Management, we are trying to mobilise some volunteers to spread the word about the Project in creative ways, so that we can raise more resources.

One of the Women’s Federations, Mahila Vikas Sangathan, has already registered itself as a Cooperative. The other Federation, Samarthan Mahila Sangathan, has discussed its membership with the Gujarat State Women’s Cooperative

Alongside, team took up an important reading, Promoting pro-poor growth: Role of Empowerment, OECD 2012 (The OECD DAC Network on Gender Equality (GENDERNET); to holistically understand Economic Empowerment. A collective understanding emerged:

Economic empowerment:

• It is the capacity of women and men to participate in, contribute to and benefit from growth processes in ways which recognise the value of their contributions, respect their dignity and make it possible to negotiate a fairer distribution of the benefits of growth (Eyben et al., 2008).
• It is a prerequisite for sustainable development and pro-poor growth.
• It increases women’s access to economic resources and opportunities including jobs, financial services, property and other productive assets, skills development and market information.
• Women’s economic participation and empowerment are fundamental to strengthening women’s rights and enabling women to have control over their lives and exert influence in society. It is about creating just and equitable societies. Women often face discrimination and persistent gender inequalities, with some women experiencing multiple discrimination and exclusion because of factors such as ethnicity or caste.

• Women's Economic empowerment- for sustainable dev (PDF)