Promoting Gender Inclusive and Equitable Growth – Women’s Economic Empowerment & Recovery

This project enables women and girls to exercise their decision-making capacity and agency as entrepreneurs and contributes to addressing social and cultural norms related to women’s and girls’ economic roles in communities by raising awareness and changing perceptions of women’s formal participation in the workforce. The project builds the capacity of women to succeed as micro-entrepreneurs in Pakistan’s economy including by providing them with the tools they need to adapt and recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The project will also look to address the dimensions of unpaid care and care-related work. Project activities include: (1) conducting a large-scale multi-faceted awareness campaign that promotes positive images of women’s formal participation in the work force; (2) providing business management skills training to women micro-entrepreneurs to improve their business practices and opportunities; and (3) providing financial skills training to women and girls to improve their financial management capacity.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) increased recognition of women’s and girls’ social and economic recovery roles within communities; and (2) increased household income contributions by women micro-entrepreneurs.