
Private sector development (PSD) represents a powerful way to address gender inequalities and to empower women economically and socially. At the same time, engaging women in productive employment is proven to have economy-wide benefits.
The Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) Community of Practice (formerly ‘Working Group’) aims to harness the knowledge and experience of DCED member agencies to integrate gender and WEE considerations more strategically and effectively into their work. Ultimately, it seeks to enhance the economic development and poverty-reduction impact of PSD programmes by strengthening their knowledge, capacity and incentives to address the relevant constraints and needs of both women and men equally.
The WEE CoP is currently chaired by International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada.
While WEE and inclusion have been mainstreamed within PSD for many years, supported by a strong economic and business case, inclusion principles are increasingly under pressure. A key priority for DCED members is to continue generating knowledge on, and promote the adoption of, effective WEE and inclusion strategies in PSD. Currently, the WEE CoP focuses in particular on
Publications of the Women’s Economic Empowerment CoP are listed below. For curated resources on the topic by other organisations, please refer to the DCED knowledge page:
Review the decisions, action items and discussion summaries of the Women’s Economic Empowerment CoP below. This includes meeting minutes and associated materials since its creation in 2018 and DCED member exchanges on the topic.