• Building Women’s Economic and Social Empowerment

    Jeannie Annan, Christopher Blattman, Eric Green, Julian Jamison

    ABSTRACT
    Investing in women is said to be a key to development. In this view, providing education, a cow, or the ingredients for a business will result in great things: increases in income, empowerment, social inclusion, and improved mental health. In this study, IPA researchers studied whether the most vulnerable women could start and sustain small businesses. They evaluated a program by AVSI Uganda, the Women’s INcome Generating Support (WINGS) program. WINGS offered extremely poor people basic business skills training, ongoing mentorship, and cash grants with a purchasing power of $375. The message: the poorest women have high returns to cash, training and supervision. Not only can cash-centered programs help the poorest start and sustain microenterprises, but they do so cost-effectively. Moving ahead, there are ways to improve cost-effectiveness, and programs should note that higher incomes alone may not address women’s social and personal challenges.
    CITATION
    Annan, Jeannie, Christopher Blattman, Eric Green, Julian Jamison. 2015. "Building Women’s Economic and Social Empowerment". Policy Brief. New Haven: Innovations for Poverty Action.
    Briefs
    ORGANIZATION
    Innovations for Poverty Action