UNESCO Chair on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment

Amrita’s UNESCO Chair on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment strives to promote international, inter-university cooperation and networking to enhance institutional capacities and collaborative work.

UNESCO CHAIR ON GENDER EQUALITY AND WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT “This is certainly the first-ever UNESCO chair in this discipline. My thanks to Amrita for the inspired idea and for the beautiful project.

I am confident that through this chair, which is Amma’s and UNESCO’s gift, Amrita will make sure that both the ceiling and the floor for women will be raised.”

-Ruchira Kamboj

Former Ambassador and Permanent Representative of India to UNESCO

Established in 2016, the UNESCO Chair furthers the goals of the Center for Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality and promotes international, inter-university cooperation and networking to enhance institutional capacities and collaborative work.

KEY ACTIVITIES UNDER THE CHAIR UNESCO CHAIRHOLDER

Graduate and postgraduate

“If you believe in the innate potential

educational programs

of a woman— to be creative, to be nurturing— then putting technology in

International partnerships and

her hands will only amplify whatever

collaboration programs

she has to offer and will greatly contribute to the benefit of society.”

Dr. Bhavani Rao

Dean, Amrita School of Social and Behavioural Sciences UNESCO Chair on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (India) Director, Center for Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality Director, AMMACHI Labs

Basic and applied research related to women’s empowerment Community engagement and intervention design and implementation Monitoring and evaluation /Impact assessment

CENTER FOR WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT AND GENDER EQUALITY Thematic research center under the UNESCO Chair.

The activities of the Center are distributed across three core areas: KNOWLEDGE CREATION

Center for Women’s & Gender Equality

KNOWLEDGE Empowerment DISSEMINATION

IMPLEMENTATION & SOCIAL IMPACT

MISSION The Center for Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality seeks to increase women’s empowerment as an equitable approach towards achieving gender equality through participatory Action Research, Implementation and Knowledge dissemination.

KNOWLEDGE CREATION Advancing Women’s Empowerment through Systems Model Expansion (AWESOME 2050) The AWESOME Framework is a uniquely modeled framework that evolved out of years of field experience and extensive research into the empowerment process.

AWESOME Research Ecosystem

AWESOME Research Roadmap

AWESOME Areas of Research

Women's Empowerment Body of

Program design implementation &

Knowledge

evaluation

Certification Standards and Indicators

Computational Social Sciences

Cloud-Based Technology Solution

GIS Applications in Social &

Community Resource Centers Tools for Community Certification

Community Development Gender and Empowerment Studies Sustainable Development Studies

ACADEMICS AT A GLANCE Undergraduate 5 Year Integrated BSW & MSW

Amrita offers integrated academic programs preparing our students to become tomorrow’s changemakers.

Graduate Master of Social Work (MSW)

Doctoral Program Highlights:

Doctoral Ph. D. in Cognitive Sciences & Technology

Post Doctoral research avenues Multidimensional research Innovative research solutions International project collaborations

TRANSFORMING OUR WORLD: THE 2030 AGENDA

M

COMMUNITY, PERSONAL SAFETY AND SECURITY

HEALTH AND SANITATION

3

2

GOOD HEALTH AND WELL BEING

16

ZERO HUNGER

PEACE, JUSTICE AND STRONG INSTITUTIONS

1

6

NO POVERTY

ECONOMIC STABILITY AND LIVELIHOODS

CLEAN WATER AND SANITATION

DECENT WORK AND 8 ECONOMIC GROWTH

12

RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION

5 EDUCATION AND SKILL DEVELOPMENT

4

GENDER EQUALITY

7

AFFORDABLE AND CLEAN ENERGY

QUALITY EDUCATION

10

15

REDUCED INEQUALITIES

13

LIFE ON LAND

CLIMATE ACTION

CLIMATE CHANGE AND DISASTER

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT

The establishment of the Amrita University UNESCO Chair will support India’s progress towards achieving the UN’s 2030 Agenda for

Our projects align with the United Nations Sustainable Development goals holding SDG 5 at the core of our research and field deployments.

Chancellor Amma & former President Sri Ram Nath Kovind present women sanitation “Champions” from rural villages with ODF certificates, 2017

CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT & RESEARCH SMART Self-Help-Groups Socio-economic empowerment

WADI - Sustainable Development projects for tribal belts in Odisha

WISE 2.0 - Women in Sustaining the Environment in India and Tanzania

Supported by: Amrita Vishwa

Supported by: National Bank for

Supported by: Israel Consulate, CSR &

Vidyapeetham & CSR

Agriculture and Rural Development &

Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham

Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham

Amrita Gender Conversation Workshop Series for CRPF

SANKALP - Skill Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion

Supported by: Amrita Vishwa

Supported by: Ministry of Skill

Vidyapeetham & CSR

Development & Entrepreneurship, NSDC, in collaboration with World Bank (Multi-Location)

101 Villages & Amrita SREE Scaling women’s empowerment initiatives accross India

Supported by: MA Math Courses: Basic Sewing Operator, MS Office, Fabric Painting, Artificial Jewelry Making, Soap Making

MONITORING AND EVALUATION Mobile Apps for Implementation Sciences & Impact Assessment Researchers at the Center for Women’s Empowerment & Gender Equality are developing mobile-based apps for remote monitoring and tracking of field projects. Built on the open source Flutter framework, these apps have GIS and low bandwidth capabilities.

• Field Operations Tracker • Water Monitoring App – WISE Project in collaboration with TAU • Implementation Sciences App • Seasonal Calendar App

Researchers from Amrita and Tel Aviv University in Tanzania to equip rural women with technologies to monitor and maintain local drinking water supplies: WISE Project 2021.

KNOWLEDGE DISSEMINATION Under the UNESCO Chair, the Center participates in knowledge dissemination various levels - having conducted several conferences and workshops, and contributed widely to the women’s empowerment body of knowledge.

Commission on the Status of Women - UN Women

Chairholder Dr. Bhavani Rao with members of the UNDEF special event for the CSW62: Empowerment Through Democracy, Civil Society and Innovation.

Global Summit for Gender-Related UNESCO Chairs (W36)

The Global Summit for Gender-Related Chairs and Networks (W36) brought together UNESCO Chairs from around the world, August 19-20, 2021.

AWESOME Conference International Conference

International Colloquium Women’s Empowerment through Community Sanitation and Democratic Participation

International Conference on Advancing Women’s

International delegates along with women “Champions of

Empowerment through Systems Model Expansion

Change” convened at Amrita for three day international

(AWESOME), March 3-5, 2022.

women’s conference, December 18-20, 2018.

A Braided River: The Universe of Indian Women in Science; a UNESCO publication

Transforming MENtalities: gender equality and masculinities in India, a UNESCO publication

Supported by: UNESCO &

Supported by UNESCO &

Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham

Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham

OUR VISION

“Like the two wings of a bird, women and men are of equal value. For without the two in perfect balance, humanity cannot progress.”

Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi Chancellor, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham Amma addressing the United Nations Geneva 2002

UNESCO CHAIR & CENTER AT A GLANCE 16 PhD

Scholars E4 Life

3 Academic Programs

50+

4

1300+

6000+

200,00+ Women

Publications

Bachelor, Master, PhD

60+

Seminars, Workshops, Conferences

Awards

64

Community-led Advocacy Events

members of AmritaSREE Self-Help-Group Network

Students trained

Village Partnerships in 21 Indian states

AMRITA UNIVERSITY RANKED 8TH IN WORLD GENDER EQUALITY

2021

UNESCO Chair on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham Amritapuri, Clappana P. O. Kollam - 690 525, Kerala, India unesco.chair@ammachilabs.org amrita.edu/cwege