The W+™ : Accelerating Investments in Women © ASHDEN/Martin Wright
February 2015
Š Aiden Dockery
The W+ measures how companies, governments and individuals can drive social and economic empowerment for women. Establishing this standard of measurement made it possible to create W+ Units that investors can purchase to ensure progress in six areas.
The W+ quantifies and verifies benefits to women in 6 domains: Time Income/Assets Health Education and Knowledge Leadership Food Security
How it Works $
BENEFITS
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Project
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W+ units
STAGE 1 Certification
Project Developers
Buyers
W+ units
STAGE 2 Marketing / Sales
Results The first W+ project measured time savings for 7200 rural Nepalese women who replaced their wood generated stoves with those generated by biogas, relieving them of the need to collect fuel wood from the forest and saved 2.2 hours per day.
Consultations with Women Stakeholders
Development of Time Method
Baseline Survey
Measurement of Results
Issuance of Units
Benefit Sharing with Women
Cash Flow of a W+ Unit Transaction
TEAM • WOCAN - A women-led US-registered NGO founded in 2004 • Membership network of > 1000 women and men in 100 countries • W+ Standard Committee: Defines procedures and requirements for methods, units, accreditation of verification entities, • W+ Advisory Council: Provides objective input on strategy, marketing and connections to networks
Advisory Council Alyson Slater David Antonioli
Associate, CSR ASIA
Thailand
Chief Executive Officer, Verified Carbon Standard (VCS)
USA
Dr. Eija Pehu Edwin Aalders
Gender Advisor, World Bank
USA
Business Development Manager Climate Change Services, Det Norske Veritas (DNV)
Norway
Ingo Puhl
Project Developer, South Pole Carbon Asset Management
Thailand
Lee West
President, Defensive Portfolio Management (DPM)
USA
Leslie Durshinger
Founder, Managing Director, Terra Global Capital
USA
Liz Allen,
Social Accountant & Auditor, Social Auditors Network (SAN)
UK
Sarah Hobson
Executive Director, New Field Foundation
USA
Sylvia Low
Manager, Corporate Responsibility Asia Pacific, Hilton Worldwide
Singapore
Wangu Mutua
Deputy Program Director, Swedish Cooperative Centre and Vi Agroforestry
Kenya
Kevin Whitfield
Head of Carbon Finance, Nedbank Capital
South Africa
Governance and Partners W+ Developers: apply methods and drive issuance of units, incl. verification –
Operate using W+ Standard rules and procedures, verification by W+ Standard accredited entities
W+ Unit Intermediaries: build demand, transfer and sale units – using W+ approved registries
Women Beneficiaries – Eligible beneficiaries, identified in W+ project design document
Beneficiary Payment Aggregator: manage payments to W+ beneficiaries – Identified by W+ developer, according to W+ rules, validated by accredited verification entities