Overview of the Women’s Economic Empowerment Working Group (WEEWG)

Click here for the DCED’s inter-agency knowledge page on WEE.

WEE WG Members at the DCED 45th Annual Meeting in Geneva and online

Objectives

Private sector development represents a powerful way to address gender inequalities and empower women both economically and socially.  At the same time, engaging women in productive employment can have economy-wide benefits.

The Women’s Economic Empowerment Working Group aims to harness knowledge and experience among DCED member agencies and PSD practitioners on how 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 helping to increase their knowledge, capacity and incentives to address relevant constraints and needs of both women and men equally. The Group is chaired by Karen Moore of Global Affairs Canada.

Recent publications & resources

Ongoing work

The WEE WG is currently working on the following themes:

  • Continuing to share knowledge on gender and WEE, including through podcast episodes and webinars (examples below)
  • Donor engagement in gender lens investing
  • The nexus between WEE and climate change

Recent webinars

Promoting Women’s Economic Empowerment During COVID-19, moderated by Selina Haeney (SDC) & Gillian Dowie (IDRC), with Kate Grantham & Leva Rouhani (FemDev Consulting), Navya D’Souza (Homenet), Emma Caddy (Tiny Totos) and Clara Popeo (Incluyeme), February 2022.
Transformative Approaches to WEE in Practice: Case studies from Africa, presented by Kerry Selvester (MUVA), Charleine Mbuyi-Lusamba and Adriana Sierra (Women’s Entrepreneurship Development Programme/ILO), and Hania Elkady (Econowin/GIZ), March 2020.
What Do Men Have to Do with WEE? Lessons and Challenges, presented by Gary Barker (Promundo), January 2020.
Profiting from Parity: Unlocking the Potential of Women’s Businesses in Africa, presented by Francisco Campos (Africa Gender Innovation Lab, World Bank), November 2019.

 

More information