gender.careinternationalwikis.org

This brand-new wiki will soon host key products from CARE's three-year impact inquiry on women's empowerment. The SII core staff, Elisa Martinez (Coordinator), and Diana Wu (SII Knowledge Sharing Fellow) are currently developing a range of documentation from this organization-wide learning effort. We are also working on an IT strategy to ensure full and open access to all SII research, methods, tools and lessons documentation.

Overview

What is an SII? What does it offer CARE for deeper impact on underlying causes of poverty, social injustice?

The Strategic Impact Inquiry (SII) is

in-depth impact research designed with the specific goal of fostering a culture of critical thinking in CARE, and with those we serve. This goal makes the SII different from many other forms of “impact evaluation” - affecting the stakeholders we engage, the questions we ask, the methods we use, and the processes we support to promote learning and uptake of the findings about CARE's global impact on the underlying causes of poverty and social injustice. It is only one part - an important one - of an overall system for impact assessment, program quality improvement, and organizational performance in CARE. Within those systems, the SII helps clarify our understanding of what it takes to impact on the underlying causes of poverty, through:

• A conceptual framework to assess work that was designed with NO unified model
• Original and secondary research, including creative use of multiple streams of existing data
• Analysis of all layers of CARE’s work, situating project-level analysis in organizational, national and industry contexts to learn what drives program impacts
• An evidence-based narrative to aid learning, and drive performance improvement.

The SII on women's empowerment is the first of CARE's Strategic Impact Inquiries. Future SIIs will focus on other key underlying causes of poverty and social injustice that CARE is trying to affect. Work is underway to organize the second SII, on Governance.

Women's Empowerment Framework

At CARE, we view women’s empowerment through the lens of poor women’s struggles to achieve their full and equal human rights. In these struggles, women strive to balance practical, daily, individual achievements with strategic, collective, long-term work to challenge biased social rules and institutions.

Therefore, CARE defines women’s empowerment as the sum total of changes needed for a woman to realize her full human rights – the interplay of changes lie in:

Agency: her own aspirations and capabilities,

Structure: the environment that surrounds and conditions her choices,

Relations: the power relations through which she negotiates her path.

Women’s empowerment is a process of social change, and we only capture part of its richness when we assess the process of empowerment in terms of its outcomes. Furthermore, the nature of gender power relations, and the triggers for empowerment, differ from culture to culture and context to context. No standard list of impact indicators can be relevant in all places and times, for all kinds of women. For that reason, the SII requires each research team to build a process for exploring gender power relations in context, with the affected stakeholders - both to ground-proof relevant indicators, and to “fill in the spaces” with insight about how changes come about, and what role, if any, CARE's work has played.

However, we need a place to start, and that is what the SII’s global women's empowerment framework tries to offer. It focuses on concrete outcomes for which we can hold ourselves accountable, and

organizes the diversity of women’s realities into a shared framework

. In each context, we can start to focus our work by linking women’s own definitions and priorities for empowerment to 23 key dimensions of social change which have been shown to be widely relevant to women’s empowerment across many studies and contexts:

As noted above, CARE believes that women's empowerment is more sustainable, and more complete, when it is firmly anchored in inter-related changes across all three of these domains - the empowerment framework challenges us to think outside the “agency” box that development projects so often address. And any given dimension of change listed in the framework, of course, requires some form of change across all three of the key domains of empowerment: agency, structure, and relations.
So in using the SII's Women's Empowerment Framework, we must broaden our lens on empowerment in two ways:
* explore changes in a mix of dimensions that cut across these three domains (probing a relevant mix of A-S-R dimensions);
* explore each dimension through a set of indicators that reflect changes in agency, structure and relations. See the example below:
|| Example: if political representation is one key dimension of women’s empowerment in Liberia, three critical indicators for this dimension might assess: how diverse women are exercising voice in public processes (agency), how women are building coalitions to advance collective agendas (relations), and whether laws and policies reflect the incorporation of those agendas (structure). || Research Design and Approach

In design, the SII is also:

• An expression of CARE’s rights-based approach tailored to promote learning, empowerment and voice by those to whom we seek to be accountable.
• A catalyst for acting on analysis that engages all layers of CARE and wider stakeholders in all stages: design, implementation and analysis.

Methods

The SII engaged diverse methods that emphasized rigor, empowerment and participation of institutions/experts and women themselves in key steps of research, and included:

• In depth site research
• Analysis of 31 evaluations, 404 CARE projects, 31 proposals and C-PIN
• Promising practice review and mapping in Asia
• Secondary literature reviews
• Self-Assessment Desk Reviews
• Embedding in Evaluations and Proposals
• Participatory Impact Dialogues
• Promising Practices Self-assessment & Peer Reviews

Key Findings and Implications

What did the first SII reveal on the nature of women’s empowerment?

Women’s empowerment, societal change:

• Empowerment is more than women doing or having more, being smarter or stronger. It requires change in the structures and relations that shape the choices/results to which women can aspire.
• Women’s empowerment is complex, nonlinear and unpredictable. It is beyond the scope of one organization, let alone one time/resource-bound project, and requires a fundamental shift from the artificially resourced “project laboratory” to the dynamic world of society/social change

What strategies does the first SII suggest to better impact Women’s Empowerment?

CARE must commit long-term to a broad-based impact population through evolutionary programs with a theory of change that engage strategic partnerships, but keep us learning as we navigate shifting pathways of social change:

Implications for Programmatic Approaches

• Start with local contexts, realities and power dynamics, including:
  • The analyses and agendas that women’s rights and social justice movements are already defining and leading; and
  • Building a deeper understanding of women’s preferred paths and strategies for empowerment, while not being timid about consciousness raising.
• Make empowerment goals explicit from program design to evaluation, ensuring that interventions contribute to holistic change in agency, structure and relations.
• Seek entry points to maximize chances of engaging/learning about local communities, building relations of trust and interdependence, and bringing opposing interests together.
• Solidarity groups can provide women with empowering space and support, but we must recognize that our work with groups is often a woman’s first step into collective identity/action, and use group strategies to link to wider movements for social change.
• Engage men/elites to explore their interests, beliefs, and fears – expanding the potential alliance for affirming, just gender-power relations, and reducing backlash against women.

Implications for Organizational Alignment

• Support advocacy led by women’s own movements, and ground our own advocacy efforts in their broader vision and theories of change.
• Ground global indicators of key change domains in local realities, including indicators for agency/structure/relations-related aspects.
• Align contracts and build long-term alliances with partners and donors to work across shared analysis, hypothesis generation/testing, critical reflection, and strategy shift.
• Support staff through training, accountability and organizational structures that emphasize gender equity and expand space to questionwho we are and what we are doing – ensuring consistent action-learning on what constitutes good empowerment work

Related Topics

• engaging_men_boys
• Gender and Conflict
• Violence Against Women

Find SII summary findings and more information on current gender initiatives for each country involved in the research:

Bangladesh | Bolivia | Burundi | Cambodia | Ecuador | El Salvador | Eritrea | Ethiopia | Guatemala | India | Lesotho | Malawi | Mali | Niger | Peru | Somalia | Tanzania | Uganda | Yemen

Resources

In the coming months, this page will host key documents that seek to offer synthesis materials for widespread use in and beyond CARE. These products are shaped by the SII team's reading of the key knowledge that the SII can share, and by the call for key products from stakeholders at all levels of the organization. The attached PowerMinute (the monthly SII newsletter) summarizes the stakeholder feedback, so that all of the gender change agents can easily get a feel for the kinds of materials they, too, can usefully produce to support different leaders of gender/power work across CARE. Onward, together!

SII Briefs

• SII Women's Empowerment Framework 1 : A one-page document explaining the women's empowerment framework used for the SII.
• SII Women's Empowerment Lessons 1 page: A one-page document explaining the women's empowerment SII: its vision, approaches and key findings and their implications.

SII Full Synthesis Reports

• SII Women's Empowerment Global Phase 1 Synthesis Report 2005 : The Final report of Phase 1 of the SII. This paper documents the beginning of the SII journey, and explores: What is women's empowerment and how do women define their own empowerment, locally? What are CARE's Impacts on women's empowerment? How do CARE's internal dynamics affect empowerment? To explore these questions, Phase I of the SII conducted: original field research from Bangladesh, Ecuador, India and Yemen; global literature reviews of women's empowerment; a proposal analysis of 32 CI projects; an analysis of 2004 data of CARE's Program Information Network (CPIN) survey; a meta-evaluation of 31 project evaluations; and a gender mapping exercise in Asia.
• SII Women's Empowerment Global Phase 2 Synthesis Report 2006 (English ): Phase 2 of the SII focused on similar questions from Phase 1, but expanded the inquiry to probe deeper and broader across CARE to encompass 30 countries, representing projects from each region where CARE works and the voices of thousands of women. This study offers rich insights, implications and lessons on women's empowerment, how CARE's programming approaches interact with empowerment, how CARE as an organization and the development industry writ large influence empowerment, and what we can do to improve our impact to support women in their journey toward empowerment.
  • SII Women's Empowerment Global Phase 2 Synthesis Report 2006 (Arabic)
  • SII Women's Empowerment Global Phase 2 Synthesis Report 2006 (French)
  • SII Women's Empowerment Global Phase 2 Synthesis Report 2006 (Spanish)
• Women's Empowerment SII Phase 3 global synthesis report (ICRW - forthcoming): The Final report of Phase 3 of the SII. Phase 3 examined the nuances and complexities facing marginalized and vulnerable women in terms of gender, sex and power. It sought to improve the ways that HIV policy and programs understand the gendered power dynamics that drive women’s vulnerabilities to HIV by:
  • Exploring women’s vulnerability to HIV, empowerment and their relationship.
  • Assessing how CARE projects, particularly through solidarity groups and influencing power brokers, shape women’s empowerment and their HIV vulnerability.
  • Informing HIV policy and programs on the realities of gender, sex and vulnerability.

SII Communications and Knowledge Sharing Plans

• POWERminutes vol 4.4.pdf (February 20 2009): a newsletter about the latest developments concerning the SII.
• SII Knowledge Product consultations - synthesis.doc: a synthesis of feedback from multiple stakeholders from across CARE, about how best to share and communicate the learning from the SII.
• Unlocking the SII_5.doc: key take-away points from the SII for CARE's external relations and communications teams.

SII Presentations

• March 18, 2009, Listen to recent presentations on the SII:
  • What is the SII (introductory presentation with three of CARE's External Relations teams): media_typefile_keywhat_is_the_sii_elisa_031809.mp3_width240_height20
  • How can we communicate the SII (meeting with CARE's External Communications and Marketing teams): media_typefile_keythe_sii_and_communications.mp3_width240_height20
• November 10, 2008, CARE International Global Conference Presentation, Women's Empowerment: The Heart of the Challenge:
  • Heart of the Challenge.ppt -Slides for 2-stage presentation (Part 1: information sharing, Part 2: participant discussion)
  • Heart of the Challenge detail.doc - Facilitator notes for Part 2, designed to engage audiences from their own life wisdom
  • Heart of

CARE's Experience in East and Central Africa

empowering_women.pdf

• Burundi SII Summary.pdf

- a two-page summary of CARE's women's empowerment research in Burundi.

• Burundi SII3 Summary.pdf

- a two-page summary of CARE's women's empowerment research on HIV and AIDS prevention in Burundi.

• El Salvador SII Summary.pdf

- A 2-page overview of CARE's research on women's empowerment in the disaster prone region of Jiboa River Basin, and the impact of CARE's work on women's lives there.

• Guatemala SII Summary.pdf

- A 2-page overview of CARE's research on women's empowerment among Mayan womewn in Guatemala, and the impact of CARE's work in promoting women's rights there.

• · India SII Summary.pdf

- A 3-page overview of CARE's research on the impact of its work on women's empowerment in India. The research covered projects focused on: village savings and loans associations, tribal rights initiative, and its HIV and AIDS prevention work with sex workers.

· India SII Phase 3 Summary.pdf

- A 2-page overview of CARE's research on the impact of its HIV and AIDS prevention work with sex workers on women's empowerment.

· Eritrea SII Summary.pdf

- In 2006, CARE Eritrea studied the impact of its programming on women's empowerment. This document offers a 2-page overview of that report.

• · Ecuador SII Summary.pdf

- A 2-page overview of CARE's research on women's empowerment among recyclers in Ecuador and the impact of CARE's work on their lives.

• Lesotho SII Summary.pdf

- A 2-page summary of CARE Lesotho's study the impact of its HIV prevention work with migrant factor workers on women's empowerment.

· Malawi SII Summary.pdf

- A 2-page summary of Malawi's research on the impact of its village savings and loans programming on women's empowerment.

· Mali SII Summary.pdf

- A 2-page overview of CARE's research on the impact of its village savings and loans groups on women's empowerment in Mali. Niger SII Summary.pdf

1. A 2-page overview of CARE's research on the impact of its village savings and loans groups on women's empowerment in Niger.

Peru SII Summary.pdf

- A 2-page overview of CARE's research on women's empowerment among sex workers in Iquitos, Lima and Callao.

Somalia SII Summary.pdf

- A 2-page overview of CARE's research on women's empowerment in Somalia and the influence of our Northern Somalia Partnership Program on women's lives.

· Tanzania SII Summary.pdf

- A 2-page overview of CARE's research on the impact of its village savings and loans groups on women's empowerment in Tanzania.

· Uganda SII Summary.pdf

- A 2-page overview of CARE's research on the impact of its village savings and loans groups on women's empowerment in Uganda.

Yemen SII Summary.pdf

- A 2-page overview of CARE's research on women's empowerment in Yemen, and the impact of CARE's work on it.

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