ENGAGE WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT and ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP

Engage is a five-year initiative co-designed by Coady Institute and five partner organizations: Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in India; Organization for Women in Self Employment (WISE) in Ethiopia; Gender Training Institute (GTI) of the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TGNP); Christian Commission for Development (CCDB) in Bangladesh; and Centre Haïtien du Leadership et de l’Excellence (CLE) in Haiti. Coady is a convenor and is bringing these partners together in ways that they can share their expertise with one another.

At its core, Engage recognizes that while empowerment entails change in the lives of individual women and their interpersonal relations, the concept of active citizenship refers to women’s capacity to participate in public and economic life.

The project works primarily with 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 on climate change issues; young women as entrepreneurs and agents of community change; and asset-based approaches to reducing urban and rural poverty through economic development.

Engage is a unique melding of asset-based approaches and women’s leadership development with a focus on community engagement, organizational change, and learning and influence. The project recognizes the importance of collective local leadership for change, and the power of groups in sharing knowledge amongst themselves; improving organizational capacity and change; and the value of learning and influence through action research, outreach to other organizations, and policy influence.

A key component of the Engage program is learning. The Engage newsletters and publications feature updates, key lessons, and changes which partners are seeing and can be found at https://issuu.com/coadystfx/stacks

Engage By The Numbers (to date):

• $10,397,117 Project

• $9,797,117 GAC contribution

• $600,000 partner contribution

• 149 partner staff/network members in online courses

• 107 off campus courses

• 57 new or revised programs

• 100,000 people reached through training, organizing and advocacy

• 10,989 community members brought together in local advocacy and awareness activities undertaken (including building skills of women) to promote gender equitable local governance, inclusive economies, and community resilience.

• 2,237 attendees of community-based training delivered by partners primarily for women

• 15,000 community members reached through education and training programs, follow-up supports, and advocacy and awareness activities.

• 27 new or revised training programs have been developed through Engage on pertinent and applicable topics such as gender responsive budgeting, ABCD approaches, feminist advocacy, and value chain analysis.

• 646 government officials and local leaders reached to be more open to and inclusive of women’s leadership and other marginalized populations.

PROJECT TIME FRAME

December 18, 2019 - February 28, 2025

57 revised training programs

22 learning products (training curriculum, tools, case studies)