Economic Empowerment of Rural Women 

ObjectivesFund scope

Economic Empowerment of Rural Women stakeholders work with women from local communities to improve the socio-economic livelihoods and rights of rural women in Ethiopia, Guatemala, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Nepal, Niger and Rwanda. The coalition between United Nations organizations, national governments, and local partners focuses on generating large scale improvements for rural women in the areas of food security, participation, leadership, social protection, and the provision of legal, educational, and economic services. 

The assistance strategy is articulated around four outcomes:

• Outcome 1: Improving food and nutrition security for rural women and increasing the productive potential of women smallholder farmers, including their management of local food security reserves.
• Outcome 2: Increasing rural women’s income to sustain their livelihoods and grow wealth through the creation and development of rural women-led enterprises and income opportunities linked to high value markets.
• Outcome 3: Enhancing rural women’s community leadership and participation in shaping laws and policies that raises their voices and engages male advocates to champion their empowerment.
• Outcome 4: The creation of more gender-responsive policies for the effective enforcement of rural women’s land rights and their access to decent wage employment, social protection, and infrastructure.

The countries covered by the joint programme were selected based on strong United Nations presence, the local and national contexts, government commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment, economic profile, and existence of ongoing initiatives the programme can build on.

GovernanceGovernance arrangements

International Steering Committee

Oversees the allocation of funds and sets priorities regarding implementation modalities, results-based reporting, and donor visibility. The Committee is composed of senior officials from participating UN organizations and primary donor representatives.

Fund Technical Advisory Committee 

Provides technical support to steering committees and Participating UN Organizations. It is comprised of senior technical/advisor level representatives from the United Nations, relevant government ministries, and regional and civil society entities.

National Steering Committee

Exists in all programme countries and are co-chaired by designated government officials and the leading stakeholder organization. Members include a representative from all participating entities, a representative from the ministries of agriculture/rural development, gender/women’s affairs, economy and finance, community/local development, youth and environment, and from main donors.

Steering Committee

Oversees the allocation of funds, provides coordination and guidance on programme strategic vision and implementation, and reviews and approves the narrative and financial progress reports.

Programme Management Unit

Responsible for the overall management of the programme and is staffed by a senior programme coordinator and operations or knowledge management specialist. In each country a National Project Guidance and Coordination Mechanism was established for networking purposes, to address cross-sector matters, and review progress in the implementation of the programme’s activities. The mechanism is run by government ministry representatives, UN country team members, and the national programme coordinator.

Administrative Agent

Participating Organizations receive funds through the Administrative Agent, the Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office. The Administrative Agent is responsible for the receipt, administration and management of contributions from donors, disbursement of funds to Participating Organizations, and dissemination of progress reports to donors.

Projects

Economic Empowerment of Rural Women

Economic Empowerment of Rural Women is currently supporting count_projects ongoing projectscount_globalInterregional and count_countries country-specific. This table shows the most recently approved ongoing projects.

All project financial information can be found in the Financials section, including delivery analysis by organization, theme and project; project financial status by country and by theme.

Economic Empowerment of Rural Women

ContactsPoints of contact