United Purpose’s central goal is to empower communities to be independent – to live lives free from poverty, improve their life chances, and take agency over their future. To do this, it is critical that our work recognises the varied needs of men, women, girls, and boys and purposefully designs initiatives in a way that meets these needs, is inclusive and respectful. Despite positive developments towards Sustainable Development Goal 5, which focuses on gender, and global movements including ’MeToo’, gender inequality continues to be a barrier to global, equitable development. Women and girls are more likely to have low incomes, fewer resources, less power and influence and are more exposed to violence and discrimination. The situation is complex and different in each context. United Purpose are determined to work in partnership with women and men to work towards achieving the sustainable development goals.
UP’s approach to gender encompasses gender responsive programming as well as targeted women’s empowerment programming. We take a holistic approach to addressing gender, recognising that gender inequality is multi-dimensional and pervasive. The following provides an overview of three key sectors where we currently have expertise and capacity in West Africa and Brazil: livelihoods and economic empowerment, social accountability, and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH). Education, skills development and training
Access to decent, resilient livelihoods Power with: Leadership and collective actions
Access to financial services and other assets Better health
An enabling environment: access to information, accountability, advocacy skills, a thriving civil society and women’s voices being heard
UP’s interventions reduce gender inequalities and transform gender relations participation: respect: women can do everything a man can,:development initiatives are stronger when women play a bigger part in them and when gender is mainstreamed: equality does not deteriorate culture: intersectionality: contribution to rights based approaches and SDGs
Intersectionality Inclusion of men & boys: engaging Monitoring and evaluation - disaggregation, gender sensitive indicators and tools Partnership - with women:s organisations and working with our partners to ensure gender
mainstreaming Capacity building for gender and safeguarding Accountability and performance management Gender analysis through project Gender mainstreaming commitments included in Country Programme business plans Building women’s skills, confidence and leadership opportunities
We want to see more economically and socially empowered women across the countries we work with. To do this, we support economic opportunities, especially in agriculture and natural resource-based enterprises but also in artisanal and service provision. We support women to increase the quantity and quality of their crops and value-added products, build their skills to run and grow viable businesses, and to effectively manage their finances so they can save for rainy days and reinvest in themselves, their families and their businesses. We also believe in ’power in numbers’ and support women through Community Savings and Loans Associations in Ghana, mother’s nutrition groups in Gambia and production groups in Brazil. Through these groups women have greater ’power with’ other women to negotiate fair prices for their products, they can aggregate their profits to reinvest into community projects and develop social bonds and networks. It also facilitates opportunities for women to take up leadership positions, increasing their decision making power and voice at group, household and community levels. Our teams work closely with women to ensure that our projects do not inadvertently increase the burden women face, when combined with traditional reproductive and social responsibilities.
Ghana -VSLAs and financial literacy for economic empowerment In Ghana, with seed funding from Alquity, we are working with 191 women in a pilot microfinance project, which links to our wider microfinance programme that reaches over 15,000 annually. The project builds on our evidenced Community Savings and Credit (CSCAs) approach. CSCAs act as the primary vehicle for delivering financial services to some of the most vulnerable and isolated communities, particularly women, saving and advancing loans on their own terms and conditions. Members are trained on how CSCAs function, record keeping and facilitation, and supported to develop policies and rules, and to share-out interest. Interest is charged on loans as agreed by members and earnings shared equitably at the end of the cycle. This model has been proven to reach the rural poor more effectively than MFIs, at larger scale and in more remote areas. It responds to the need for uncomplicated, sustainable and accessible financial services. Our pilot project recognises that women often rely on external sources of credit (from MFIs, for example) but their terms are often unfavourable (high interest rates, slow and complicated administrative processes ect). Therefore, in our pilot we integrated a revolving loan fund that is repaid by each CSCA at the end of the year. This loan fund has enabled women to have timely access to enough credit in communities characterised by seasonal economic activities.
This is Yaa (which means Thursday born, and ’associated with the earth’), who has been part of the Unity CSCA group for two years. She is a farmer and entrepreneur: she owns a food stall in town as well as providing hairdressing services. In her VSLA, Yaa is the money counter. She joined the VSLA after hearing about the positive experiences of other female members. The original VSLA helped her group to establish themselves, set up a management committee and agree by-laws: an exciting and unexpected impact of United Purpose’s work. United Purpose have provided training on enterprise management, financial literacy and VSLA management, as well as ongoing mentoring and mediation in cases where there were disagreements within the group. Since then, she has used loans to buy produce for her stall, enabling her to contribute financially to her household where she couldn’t before.
Guinea – Promoting Entrepreneurship among Marginalised women in Guinea – JAA Clark Trust £75,000 This three year projected aimed to economically empower over 1,500 rural women Non-Timber Forest Product (NTFP) entrepreneurs in Upper Guinea. It aimed to: increase skills and capacity to run successful businesses: increase income and capital from successful NTFP businesses: build women’s social empowerment, recognition and voice in their communities: increase access, control over and knowledge of managing natural resources: and increase access to and control over household assets. Women were primary members of NTFP groups through which they could negotiate, develop business partnership, and generate and save income to reinvest into their businesses. They also had the opportunity to become members of forest management committees, bringing them in to decision making about NTFP trees, a key livelihood for the women. In 59 group enterprises, 100% have started to implement their business plan and all have cash capital varying between £150 and £500 per group. Mrs. S:r: FOFANA is the president of the :Kend:ya la sabaty: NTFP enterprise group in Madinakoura village. She told us that “before the project all women produced shea butter in soumbara in isolation, with rudimentary means. Although this activity is :common: for women in our community, :we were not aware of: the technical processing standards and did not follow them. This resulted in the poor quality and quantity of our NTFP produce. Three quarters of the produce was for self-consumption”. Her monthly income was less than £24 equivalent. Through the project she attended training sessions on production and sales strategies, and was introduced to potential buyers and other business partners. With support from UP she helped to establish a NTFP enterprise group, through which they conducted surveys to understand the NTFP market, the prices and variations of NTFP products, retailers and other key actors. The project did not provide material or financial resources, instead building confidence and skills to approach a rural credit MFI, through which they secured £1,480 credit to invest in a shea mill and packaging. They were able to increase their shea butter production and quality, enabling them to successfully meet the first repayment date. Now, each woman’s average income is £165 per month. Mrs Fofana told us “our husbands respect us and are interested in our activities’ we are valued in the community, we have power and are able to bring economic and social changes in the community”. [Speech translated from French and may therefore vary slightly from original wording:
The Gambia -Reducing micro nutrition deficiencies of women and children in The Gambia through sustainable and integrated approaches to food fortification – European Commission -€ 2647983,75 This project aims to reduce under nutrition and poverty of vulnerable populations (especially women & children:5yrs) in the Gambia by strengthening sustainable access to and consumption of fortified foods. Through the project we aim to establish 300 mother’s clubs, responsible for improved cooking demonstrations and nutrition education for mothers of under five children, lactating mothers and pregnant women. Women are primary decision makers regarding processing pearl millet grain and food preparation, making them critical but often marginalised actors in improving nutrition. The mother’s groups manage grain mills in their villages with support from marketing federations. UP will support the mother’s clubs and marketing federations to develop business plans for operating mills as an income generating opportunity. We will also conduct a gendered market survey into African Leafy Vegetables, Orange Fleshed Sweet Potato and Pearl Millet value chains and gender based barriers and opportunities to accessing the market. This holistic approach aims to facilitate women’s economic empowerment, increase women’s decision making power and leadership and business skills, as well as drawing on their critical roles in the household and community to improve nutrition levels.
Northern Ghana Shea – social enterprise also funded by MCFEA (Mitsubishi) with grants of around £45,000 per year NGS was established in 2012 and registered as a social enterprise in 2018. This project aims to achieve a viable market price for the shea nuts and butter and help reduce poverty through an environmentally sound and viable business opportunity. United Purpose through Northern Ghana Shea (NGS) enables the economic empowerment of women by adding economic value to the processing of the nuts into unrefined Shea Butter for sale to both national international markets. Last year we worked with over 500 female producers in four communities, trained 31 parkland management committee members, and supported women to sell 207.9MT of shea butter, total value equivalent to £143,776. NGS’s design is in line with the principles of success in outgrower schemes for women’s empowerment (AgDevCo). We focus on shea which is traditionally processed by women, and support them to improve the quality and quantity of their product to enable them to engage in more formal markets, with positive impacts on income. Recognising that women are often excluded from training due to gender dynamics, roles and a failure to adapt trainings to women’s needs (eg literacy, timing, childcare, location), women producers are specifically invited to attend training to build relevant skills and knowledge. This included understanding environmental issues and the impact of deforestation on the natural environment and ways to mitigate these risks, fuel efficient butter production, quality shea butter processing and parkland management. We also recognise that women tend to have less access to productive resources than men. Therefore, the project has worked to ensure that women have sustainable access to: land and shea seedlings and trees, by establishing a nursery and building capacity in parkland management: fuel efficient stoves and drum roasters for processing: an aggregation centre to store nuts: and financial incentives to engage in commercial shea butter production. NGS has played a key role in securing market access for women that are traditionally more excluded, by securing new regular buyers and aggregating nuts. Women producers are also awarded bonuses for quantity of production, which they then reinvest into community projects that they prioritise and design. So far they have built toilet blocks and a roof for their community clinic. Finally, our training on environmental issues inspired and supported over 100 women to conduct a peaceful march to advocate for their local government to implement environmental by-laws, tackle deforestation and meet their commitments on conservation. Their actions were promoted by local radio.
Nigeria – SWISH – funded by Polish Aid -€28,609.56 (part of wider UNOPS/ GSF funded RUSHPIN programme) UP have been a key player in providing safe water in Nigeria since 2001, working with over 1.5 million rural people in Akwa Ibom, Benue, Cross River and Ebonyi States. We use the ’UP recognises that women and girls are key players in achieving these goals, and that they have specific needs. Insufficient knowledge of menstruation, cultural taboos and lack of hygienic changing facilities exposes menstruating girls to risk of infection and often result in several days of school absence during monthly bleeding periods. Our SWISH project increased access to safe and hygienic facilities with appropriate privacy for girls and female teachers, and the project reached over 2,000 students in total. This included bins to dispose sanitary pads and an incinerator to burn sanitary waste. It also facilitated education sessions, including Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) and personal end environmental hygiene. Topics included the biology of menstruation, how to manage menstruation including affordable and hygiene options, and breaking down taboos. Boys were included in some discussions to break down taboos and increase their understanding of menstruation. We believe that a key reason that gender inequalities continue is that women’s voices are not heard in decision making. We want to see more women participating in local and national governance processes, on leadership teams in civil society organisations, and more aware of their rights and responsibilities to ensure that their views and needs are better represented and more likely to be met. This requires access to relevant, digestible and accurate information: knowledge about rights, responsibilities and services: skills to assess and communicate local needs and solutions to duty bearers: and confidence in your own ability to positively influence the world around you. We work in partnership with community members, civil society, service providers and other duty bearers to help make this a reality.
Ghana -CIPAH maternal health and social accountability – Funded by the European Union – 20/08/2014 – 19/02/2018 This project contributed to improving the effectiveness and quality of health service delivery, particularly maternal health, in Brong Ahafo, Ghana. The project reached around 63,000 community members who directly participated in community level advocacy activities in 40 communities. The central strategy was to enhance citizen participation in planning an dmonitoring health service delivery, in order to improve access to services, enhance the accountability of local government bodies, and facilitate a sustainable advocacy platform. At the end of the project, we found that citizens (particularly women) were more aware of their rights and more able to hold duty bearers accountable. 5,163 community members participated in participatory planning or review exercises. Duty bearers also have more and better skills and a platform to engage with citizens for participatory planning. As a result of community-led advocacy initiatives, access to maternal health service improved in the districts we worked in. supervised delivery increased from 72.5% in 2016:17 to 97% in 2018 and maternal death reduced by 50%
Brazil – Social Accountability for Participation and Public policies – Funded by the European Union -ongoing
order to meet her family’s basic needs.
Verinha was one of 460 women farmers, fisherwomen and crafts makers from the north-eastern state of Paraiba who participated in the EU-funded project. In 2011 we were invited, by the European Commission Verinha received support by way of irrigation materials Brasil, to submit a concept for rural women’s autonomy and a freezer to store her produce. Through the and empowerment. The resulting project, :Rural promotion of production groups, aimed at motivating Women, Autonomy and Empowerment in Cariri women to work together, Maria also gained a safe Region’ (€717517.08 total budget) was implemented space to talk and discuss the difficulties they face, between 2012 and 2015 in partnership with Brazilian share coping strategies and information on how to NGO Brazilian NGO Cunh: Coletivo Feminista. With the denounce violence, an abuse of rights that is sadly too aim of combating poverty and improving the lives of common in this area. A knock-on effect of the project rural women, and consequently their families and was that communities organised rallies with the communities, this award winning project contributed to message ’against violence, for women’s rights’, their economic and political empowerment, as well as increasing solidarity towards other women outside the their access to municipal and state income generation production groups. As Verinha says ’we have the policies. Importantly, it contributed to their greater knowledge now to help other women, we advise them autonomy and decision-making power in the home. and tell them about the new law that protects women. This latter was recognized on a national level when the We invite them to participate too’. project was chosen as a winning practice during the 5th Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Awards for Brazil This, together with greater economic possibilities, is having an effect in relation to self-esteem, for contributing directly to the MDG objective of empowerment and gender relationships, in the search promoting gender equality and women’s for more equal and equitable relationships in and empowerment. The award was attended by then outside of the home. As Verinha herself says ::through President Dilma Rousseff. the project: we have access to training, to courses and In the hot, dry, semi-arid region of Brazil, where workshops, and regular visits from technical specialists. inequality keeps women in poverty, Maria Ver:nica de All this access to knowledge has made us more Oliveira (Verinha) is an example of entrepreneurship, empowered, with autonomy to make decisions, both at resilience, solidarity and leadership. A small-scale work and in our own homes:. “…I am a happy, satisfied organic farmer, she works from dawn to dusk, tending woman….I'm proud of what I do. I'm an entrepreneur and I the family garden with her husband and older son and have my own business.” selling their vegetables and jams in the local town in Maria Ver:nica de Oliveira (Verinha)
Maria receiving her award from President Rousseff