Women’s Empowerment & Active Citizenship
Engage: Women’s Empowerment and Active Citizenship is a 6.5 year initiative co-designed by Coady Institute and five partner organizations in India, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Bangladesh, and Haiti. Coady is a convenor and is bringing these partners together in ways that they can share their expertise, learn from each other, and collectively explore new approaches and tools
The project works primarily to support the leadership capacity of informal sector women in addressing key issues they are facing. This includes the future of work faced by women; engaging women in community governance; women’s leadership and feminist approaches, young women as entrepreneurs and agents of community change; and asset-based approaches to reducing urban and rural poverty through economic development.
Tanzania Gender Networking Programme
ENGAGE INTIATIVE
The Tanzanian Gender Networking Programme (TGNP) will empower women to lead gender equitable change in their communities through use of Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB). TGNP will organize womenled knowledge centres to equip women at the local level with the analytical tools and methodology to engage with budgets. The knowledge centre members will participate in leadership and GRB trainings, identify gender-related priorities for their local community, and work toward increased civic participation. TGNP will test and integrate asset-based community development (ABCD) within its GRB practices, and pilot women’s economic and livelihoods development trainings.
TGNP will also develop its capacity for civil society engagement in women’s rights and GRB-related advocacy, engaging directly with local government and other service providers that hold authority over – or can influence – decision-making on local and national budgets
The Organization for Women in Self Employment
ENGAGE INTIATIVE
The Organization for Women in Self Employment (WISE) will provide national and community-based training of women leaders with a focus on women’s empowerment, asset-based approaches, and enterprise development WISE will launch five new savings and credit cooperatives (SACCOS) in Addis Ababa and build the capacity of its union of SACCOS in these three key areas. The organization will revise and renew its women’s legal rights training, pilot new asset-based community development (ABCD) approaches, and undertake advocacy for the integration of women’s priorities with local government offices
WISE will complete information technology (IT) infrastructure upgrades and provide digital literacy trainings for its membership of women entrepreneurs to support their entry into the online business space
le Centre Haitien du Leadership et de l’Excellence
ENGAGE INTIATIVE
The Centre Haïtien du Leadership et de l’Excellence (CLE) will launch Angaje, a blended learning and place-based entrepreneurship development program CLE will deepen its skills, tools, and approaches for women’s leadership, feminism, and social enterprise organizationally and embed them into the Angaje program. Two cohorts of young social entrepreneurs will receive leadership and business training with the opportunity for financial support through seed grants and flexible funding By strategically targeting and investing in a select group of young women CLE will ensure a multiplier effect whereby these women are able to spread a message of women-led, asset-based change across Haiti.
CLE will play a key role in the development and growth of an organizational network in the entrepreneurship ecosystem and will embed itself as the go-to place for social entrepreneurship training in Haiti.
Christian Commission for Development Bangladesh
ENGAGE INTIATIVE
The Christian Commission for Development (CCDB) will work at the community level to support the formation and strengthening of local women’s organizations to address issues of climate change, livelihoods development, and political inclusion CCDB’s training activities will build the capacity of women’s organizations to develop and implement their own leadership and livelihoods training and community change initiatives. The organization will support these women’s groups in advocacy campaigns, enhancing their ability to interact with and influence local government institutions in the development of opportunities for alternative livelihoods.
CCDB will pilot new community level training approaches such as gender responsive budgeting (GRB) and monitoring, and will mainstream assetbased community development (ABCD) approaches into their existing ‘Comprehensive Poverty Reduction and Climate Change Programs’.
Self Employed Women’s Association
ENGAGE INTIATIVE
The Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA)’s Manager School (SMS) will conduct community-based training of women leaders focused on the ‘future of work’ in the informal sector while undertaking innovation in curriculum development and facilitation approaches. SMS will develop and implement a research and dissemination agenda on the recovery from societal shocks and crises while building the school’s capacity as a center for innovation and learning.
SEWA will also set up a ‘climate school’ to enable grassroots members to adapt, mitigate, and respond to climate change
ENGAGE! Women’s Empowerment and Active Citizenship is supported by Global Affairs Canada
