Accelerate Investments in Women
Investing in Women’s Empowerment WOCAN, a leader in women’s empowerment in agriculture and natural resource management, recognized the need to measure the impact of women’s empowerment and accelerate investments in women.
Women are integral to their communities and in agriculture, often working as farmers producing the coffee, cocoa and cotton the rest of the world uses. However, relatively few dollars make it back to these women who are the providers of food, education and healthcare for their families and the community. It’s challenging to determine the best way to create measureable change in the lives of women, so WOCAN and key partners in women’s empowerment and finance developed the W+ Standard.
Setting the Standard W+ Standard: Measures how companies, governments and individuals can drive social and economic empowerment for women. The W+ Standard tracks women’s empowerment in six areas: time, income, health, leadership, education and food security. Investors can rely on the W+ Standard of measurement to ensure that progress is made in these six areas when purchasing W+ Units. W+ Units: A social asset for investors to purchase that represents the social and economic value of women. W+ Units allow investors to make a quantifiable impact in the lives of women around the world, while guaranteeing measurable and verifiable results.
How Investments Work The first W+ project was completed this year in Nepal, where women in rural villages replaced their wood generated stoves with those generated by biogas. This change saved the Nepalese women 2.2 hours every day. Women used this time saved to increase their income, take on leadership roles in the community, care for children and the elderly, improve their health, and benefit from rare leisure time. The time saved has generated W+ Units that investors can purchase to support women’s empowerment. Each W+ Time Unit is $2.40 and represents an eight-hour day. From each sale, $1.20 of the W+ Units returns to women and benefits their families and communities.
Making an Investment There are currently two options to invest in women’s empowerment by purchasing W+ Units.
• Go to www.wplus.org/wplus-pilot-project-nepal to purchase W+ Time Units from the pilot project in Nepal. • To discuss how you can invest in a future W+ project or purchase W+ Time Units from the pilot project in Nepal, Contact: Jeannette Gurung, W+ Team Leader, jeannettegurung@wocan.org Bangkok Thailand Ph 66(0)85 359 1537
Lee West, W+ Market Development and Financing, leewest@wocan.org Los Angeles, USA Ph: 310.393.1900, 415.318.3900
Margaret Bruce, W+ Market Development and Administration, margaretbruce@wocan.org San Francisco Bay Area, USA Ph: 408-605-2761