Women’s economic empowerment and growth in low income countries: a global research programme (2013-2018)

Evidence that barriers to women’s economic participation and productivity may be stifling opportunities for growth is strengthening. Nevertheless, uptake of policies that progress growth through improved economic opportunities for women could harbour indirect risks of unwanted impacts on natural resources if not responsibly managed. This paper states that by ensuring that women’s economic empowerment and growth (WEEG) policies and future programmes are formulated to embrace environment and climate issues in relation to growth, enterprises that exploit natural resources should not be compromised. Key points include: carbon/climate footprints can be mitigated and managed, placing an emphasis on offsets, conferencing and office housekeeping relevant emission reduction strategies of the UN could be applied to reduce the operational impacts of all WEEG collaborators
The paper finds that, if researchers are to engage with policy makers and planners to enhance knowledge and uptake of gender sensitive policy in relation to growth, the principles of sustainable development can be embedded into emerging WEEG policies and programmes. Moreover, in terms of policy implications, the document suggests that bidders address cross-cutting themes, such as climate and environment impacts of their proposed activities, and that this is considered in the evaluation criteria. Furthermore, carbon calculation tools could also be provided to bidders as a guide.