Multiple pathways to women’s economic empowerment

A version of this post originally appeared on WomenThrive.org. Reposted with permission.


Andrea BertoneAt FHI 360, we take a 360-degree perspective to addressing the most complex human development needs. We envision many pathways to girls’ and women’s economic empowerment — through education; training; access to resources; and the elimination of social, political and gender-related barriers.

To increase equality between girls, boys, women and men, we believe that a gender perspective has to be integrated into every aspect of all development programs.

FHI 360 supports women and girls living in poverty, through cutting-edge interventions in health, nutrition, education and economic development interventions. Not only are we implementing some of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID’s) flagship projects on HIV care, prevention and support — we are also working with multiple donors implementing girls’ education projects as a pathway out of poverty.

We are addressing women’s poverty in value chains, small and medium businesses, and micro-lending and savings and loan activities. Equally important, we work to engage men and boys as partners and agents of positive social change.

Why prioritize attention on women and girls? For FHI 360, it comes down to three simple reasons:

  • It is the right thing to do.
  • It improves project outcomes.
  • FHI 360 has strong political will to do so at all levels of the organization.

We aim to impact in the short, medium and long term the lives of women and girls in many countries. We want to improve women’s and girls’ current access to resources, their economic empowerment, their levels of education and their resiliency in the face of hardship.

We also aim to reach a critical mass of women and girls in every project so that the impact on the lives of their children and other women, girls and boys is exponential.

In Zambia, we are supporting women’s village savings and loans associations as risk mitigation to HIV and AIDS. In Kenya, we followed a group of young girls from primary to secondary school and supported their entrance into the formal economy.

In Jordan, we are supporting women by promoting sustainable growth among small and micro enterprises. In Swaziland, we are improving access to legal services to help women protect their assets and safeguard the well-being of their dependents.

Women and girls are key to lifting communities around the globe out of poverty. FHI 360 is committed to ensuring that gender is integrated into all of our projects and that as an organization, we embrace principles of inclusion and equity among our staff and in our policies and processes.

Learn more at www.fhi360.org/gender.

1 Response

One Response to “Multiple pathways to women’s economic empowerment”

  1. Herivola Rakotosoa on

    I am pleased that the FHI 360 is interested in integrating gender (women and girl) in all projects, I would say even in large infrastructure projects. Since I worked in West Africa, I think this aspect is mentioned but not really taken into account on the ground.
    I am currently working, on an informal basis, on the analysis before and during projects of project effects on gender (women and girls) and HIV