w+ program proposal
TRANSCRIPT
W+™ Program Proposal
A WOCAN Initiative to Accelerate Investments in Women
WOCAN October 2014
October 2014
1
W+™ Program Proposal
Table of Contents Page
The WOCAN W+ Standard and Program 2
The Woman Effect: Funding Women’s Empowerment 3
Introduction to WOCAN 4
The Issue and the Response 5
A New Revenue Stream for Women 6
Leveraging the Global Carbon Market Experience 7
W+ Performance Measures 8
The Demand for W+ Units 9
W+ Standard™: Governance and Operational Design 10
Scope of Work 11
W+ Team 12
4W+ Capacity Fund 14-15
Workflow of W+ Capacity Fund 16
Six W+ Standard™ Domains 18
Time 18
Income and Assets 19
Education and Knowledge 20
Health 21
Food Security 22
Leadership 23
Pipeline of 8 Sample Projects for W+ Standard 24
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The WOCAN W+ Standard and Program
To accelerate women’s empowerment, WOCAN1 has created W+: the world’s first standard to measure positive impacts to women’s social and economic empowerment from projects supported by climate change and international development programs, and products and services (and their supply chains) that improve women’s lives. When incorporated into project design and execution, the W+™ provides measurable, verifiable benefits to women, resulting in marketable W+ Units for sale to corporate, institutional or individual buyers interested in robust measurement of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and development investments. Rigorous methods and processes ensure buyers that W+ certified Units will be protected from false or inflated claims, and can confidently measure the beneficial impacts of their investments. WOCAN has supported the development of the W+ Standard through its own core funding resources, investing more than USD $250,000 in standard and method development, and field testing within pilot projects. Some additional funds have been secured for core funding, but more is needed for method development and marketing and communications. The W+ Capacity Fund is being established to build broad external and internal institutional capacity and private sector procurement demand for W+ Units through projects demonstrating the viability of the W+™ as means to empower women and serve the CSR interests of W+ Unit buyers. The Fund achieves this objective by pooling contributions (financial commitments) of participants to forward-purchase W+ Units from eligible projects. Sample projects are listed on Page 22. W+ units will be issued from those projects that can be verified to have included women’s benefits by quantifying and assigning a financial value to them. W+ Units have now been issued from a Pilot Project measuring time- savings for women using biogas digesters in Nepal. Over 1.2 million verified W+ Time Units were originated, demonstrating a savings of 2.2 hours/per for each woman biogas user. These units will be available for sale in early November 2014. At this time, WOCAN is seeking USD $500,000 to support the establishment of administrative and operations functions and methodology development, and USD 4.5 million to support the Fund.
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The Woman Effect: Funding Women’s Empowerment
Governments, development agencies, corporations and investors are increasingly funding women’s empowerment and gender equality, based on human rights for women and evidence of improved project outcomes in developing country communities. Studies by Goldman Sachs and others point to the potential increases in GDP if women had equal access to employment and credit. “Gender lens investing” is gaining popularity as a way to use capital to deliver financial return and improve the lives of women and their communities.2
However, what is lacking for many is a robust means of measuring these outcomes in a way that can be simply communicated. At this time, certification schemes and standards widely used by companies, carbon projects, impact investors and others to indicate their ‘good corporate citizenship’ or “do no harm” do not quantify benefits or outcomes to women of project communities; many refer only to gender and women in relation to their workplaces or social safeguards. The W+ aims for a more pro-active approach to tackle the issue, by incentivizing projects and companies to deliver new resources to women of affected communities, to address both their practical and strategic interests.
The W+ offers a unique mechanism to value women’s contributions to unpaid care work, climate change and development initiatives and spur their empowerment by sharing revenues from the sales of W+ units with women and their groups.
2 Kaplan, S. and J. Vanderbrug, The Rise of Gender Capitalism. Stanford Social Innovation Review, Fall 20014.
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WOCAN and the W+ Standard: Ensuring Benefits to Women
Introduction to WOCAN:
• Women Organizing for Change in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management - A women-led US-registered NGO founded in 2004
• Global membership network of over 1000 women and men in 105 countries
• Supported by diverse donors with core support from Norway
• Mission: to build women’s leadership in agriculture and natural resource management through organizational and individual transformation.
• Focus on:
– women’s leadership
– capacity building for gender equality within agriculture and environment organizations
– responses to climate change and food security challenges
• NEW W+ program expands women’s empowerment through a Results Based Approach to:
– increase benefits and impacts for women and their groups
– build capacities of organizations to deliver these benefits
www.wocan.org and www.wplus.org
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The Issue and the Response
There is a response: Governments, development agencies, corporations and
investors are increasingly funding women’s empowerment/gender equality,
based on women’s rights and empirical evidence of improved project outcomes.
The W+ Standard Enables a Response –
The W+™ is a unique certification label for W+ Units; quantified, verified social/economic/environmental benefits are created through:
- Renewable energy technologies
- Time and labor saving devices
- Forest and agriculture activities
- Employment opportunities
- Community development programs
The W+™ quantifies and verifies benefits to women in 6 domains:
Time Income & Assets Health Education & Knowledge Leadership Food Security
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W+ provides a new revenue stream to women
Once projects are defined and underway, their outcomes will be monitored and measured and verified by an external auditor that has been approved by WOCAN. Organizations/projects that have obtained satisfactory results will be issued W+ certificates for a specific number of units, which can then be sold to corporations, investors and individual buyers. The sale of W+ units will provide a new revenue stream to women and their groups through benefit sharing mechanisms required by the Standard. The appropriate mechanism will be designed together with the women’s groups in a transparent and collaborative manner, specific to each context, to assure that direct shares of the revenues from unit sales reach the hands of the women beneficiaries. Many studies have shown that when women are provided the means and opportunity to improve their well being, their families and communities benefit. By directing revenues back to women in project communities, who then themselves determine how to use these, the W+ will provided a much-needed source of cash for women’s collective actions to use as they see best fit to reduce poverty, drudgery and food insecurity, improve health and education, and provide opportunities for women’s leadership in the community.
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Voluntary Carbon Market as a Model for Social Capital Market
Using a Successful Model – Voluntary Carbon Markets
W+ Standard Units and a Social Capital Market
The carbon market rewards investors and project developers producing “environmental capital”.
A market for economic, social and environmental benefits producing “social capital” valuing women’s contributions.
Carbon emission reductions benefit the global climate.
Growth of women’s empowerment enables virtuous cycles of social, economic and environmental improvements for women, households and communities.
A “voluntary” market for carbon reductions (offsets) provides incentive and compensation to encourage reduction activities.
A voluntary market for social capital provides incentives and compensation to encourage women’s empowerment activities of projects and companies.
Carbon markets require rigorous quantification and verification of emissions reductions claims
A social capital market created through the W+ Standard will use rigorous quantification and verification of women’s empowerment claims.
A voluntary carbon market enables organizations to address their climate impacts with credibility.
The voluntary social capital market created through the W+ Standard enables corporations and organizations to implement their Corporate Social Responsibility and development goals with credibility.
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W+ Performance Measures
Domain Example
Outcome Example Indicator Example Activity Example Measure
Income
and Assets
Increased
community
funds under
women’s
control.
Increase in Assets
(land, trees,
equipment, and
livestock).
Support development of
women’s savings and
loan initiatives (ex.
through seed funds).
Bank accounts in
women’s name.
Time Improved
well being
and
increased
productivity.
Increased
discretionary time.
Increased sharing of
women’s work.
Provision of time saving
technologies and tools.
Numbers of hours/day
saved from fuel wood
collection and spent on
other activities.
Education
and
Knowledge
Increased
knowledge
and skills.
Increased access to
literacy/numeracy,
business skills, and
agriculture and health
skills.
Classes or training and
site visits to see
successful activities of
others.
Records of classes,
certificates of completion,
attendees list, etc.
Leadership Increased
decision
making roles
for women.
Increased
representation in
governance bodies.
Establish quotas for
representation of women
in governance bodies.
Number of women
members, and women’s
groups.
Food
Security
Increased
food security
(decrease
under and
malnutrition).
Decrease in period of
Food insecurity
(determined locally).
Provision of technical
inputs (including seeds,
tools, storage bins,
irrigation, etc.).
Amount of food in
storage; amount of food
purchased from daily
wage payments.
Health Improved
health.
Improved air, water
quality.
Installation of improved
services (e.g. cook
stoves, methane
digesters).
Change in indoor air
quality.
Change in GI diseases.
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The Demand for W+ Units
W+™ promotes demand for W+ units in the context of Gender Lens Investing, international development assistance (ODA) budgets, United Nations Millennium Development & post 2015 Sustainability Development Goals, gender-related CSR commitments and women-inclusive businesses and “women-branding”:
• Beyond philanthropy there is a rise in “Gender Capitalism” to create
financial and social impact, driven by donors investing with a gender lens
to increase women’s access to capital, promote workplace equity, and
create products and services that improve the lives of women and girls.
• Gender lens investors aim to bridge the credit gap of $320 billion for women
New study commissioned by Women Moving Millions shows North American women have capacity to give $230 billion annually. This
expansion of giving potential is due to growth in women’s wealth,
presenting tremendous opportunity to transform the lives of women.
• International Finance Corporation (IFC) has committed over $175 million in capital to invest in women’s businesses through a Women’s Bond
• Global ODA earmarked for gender activities is USD $20 billion
• 168 global companies have set gender or women-specific CSR targets
• Over 800 CEOs from 59 countries and 39 industries have signed the CEO Statement of Support for Women’s Empowerment Principles, signaling their support for gender equality.
• 85% of consumer/household decisions in Europe and US are made by women
W+ units have a high emotional appeal and need no explanation. Initial focus group results suggest substantial willingness to pay.
W+ units have the potential to be recognized in sustainability (and maybe one day financial) accounting.
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W+™ Standard: Governance and Operational Design
W+ Standard Committee:
Defines procedures and requirements for methods, units, accreditation of verification entities, and resolves complaints, disputes and appeals
W+ Advisory Council:
Provides objective input on strategy, marketing and connections to networks
W+ Developers:
Apply methods and drive issuance of units, including verification
Operate using W+ Standard rules and procedures, verification by W+ Standard accredited entities
W+ Auditors:
Independent, 3rd party auditors accredited by WOCAN to verify W+ applications
W+ Beneficiary Payment Aggregator:
Manage payments to W+ beneficiaries,
Identified by W+ developer, according to W+ rules, validated by accredited verification entities
W+ Unit Intermediaries:
Build demand, transfer and sell units using W+ approved registries
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Scope of Work
Outcome Activities Outputs Impacts Inputs
Build Demand for W+ Units using
Fund
W+ Standard as fulfillment instrument for company and donor targets.
Develop metrics for women’s empowerment target setting & accounting (compatible with W+ units); Identify women investors/corporate leaders, draft term sheet and obtain support pledges (pooled into W+ Capacity Fund).
W+ Standard for target setting and achievement reporting
W+ Capacity Fund and procurement contracts in place.
Entities use W+ Standard to define CSR targets and buy W+ units to reach them. Revenue from fees and delivered W+ units.
WOCAN to provide paid advisory and metric development activities. 50 k USD Resources to conduct road show. 250 k USD loan, repaid via fund management fees. Management Fees finance operation.
W+™ branding.
Create demand as developers conceive client-driven W+ brand products.
Women Power, W+™ spa in hotels W+™ branding for cosmetics and hair/skin care products, etc.
W+™ co-branded products, revenues from W+ unit delivery.
Developed by 3rd.
parties on basis of client fees, venture capital.
W+ Capacity Fund as procurement vehicle.
Propose use of W+ Standard for Results Based Financing Framework of women’s empowerment to agencies/companies.
Management of W+™ procurement contracts with project developers.
Increase supply of W+ Units, fee revenues.
Resources for pitching. Cost recovery via market development funds/management fees.
Assurance in the credibility of W+™
Create Standard Committee, review standard documents, and approve methods and tools.
Operating Standard Committee guidance and method documents.
W+ is fully operational, based on revenues from issuance fees.
Resources funded by seed funding grants, issuance fees, founder loans (repay from fees).
Supply of W+ Units
W+ Unit origination from flagship pilots plus other projects.
Issued Units Revenues from delivered Units.
Resources for origination. Financed via benefit-sharing and market development grants $50-$80k USD/project.
Funding for market-development
Seek funding to support W+™ market development activities as grants or pre-payments.
Grant support, procurement contracts with pre-payments.
Revenues for market-and project development.
Resources for pitching.
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The W+™ Team
WOCAN Team
Team Leader W+ Project Advisory Team Methodology Development W+ Market Development and Administration Communications
Implementing Partners:
South Pole Group Method and project development, unit procurement and sales
Various other project developers and donor agencies
Advisory Council and Standard Committee Members
Edwin Aalders Development Manager, Det Norske Veritas (DNV), Norway
Liz Allen Social Auditors Network, UK
David Antonioli Executive Director, Verified Carbon Standard (VCS), USA
Leslie Durshinger Managing Director, Terra Global Capital, USA
Nancy Gillis Senior Manager, Climate Change & Sustainability Services, Ernst & Young, USA
Sarah Hobson Executive Director, New Field Foundation, USA
Sylvia Low Corporate Responsibility Asia Pacific, Hilton Worldwide
Wangu Mutua Deputy Program Director, Vi Agroforestry Project, Kenya
Eija Pehu Project Leader, Gender in Agriculture Program, World Bank
Ingo Puhl Partner, South Pole Carbon Asset Management, Switzerland
Alyson Slater Senior Associate, CSR Asia, Hong Kong, China
Lee West WOCAN Board of Directors; President, Defensive Portfolio Mngt., USA
Kevin Whitfield Head of African Treasuries, NED Bank Capital, South Africa
-The Standard Committee is a sub-committee of the Advisory Council. Bios found at http://wplus.org/advisory-council
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W+ Pilot Project: Time Saving for Women using Biogas Digesters in Nepal
In 2014, WOCAN selected Nepal as the site for its first method development and application in partnership with the Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC) of the Government of Nepal and the South Pole Carbon Group. The WOCAN W+ team collaborated with HIMAWANTI (a federation of Nepal women’s groups) to apply the W+ to a Biogas Distribution Program of AEPC in two districts, using the W+ TIME method to measure time saved by women biogas digester users over the past two years. Surveys were conducted with non-users as well, to provide the baseline data. HIMAWANTI local members were trained as enumerators and collected the data themselves under the W+ Team’s guidance – a feature of the initiative which itself proved empowering to the local women.
The unique feature of this Standard is benefit sharing with rural women. When the verified units from W+ certified projects are sold, 50% of the net revenue will be returned to women and women’s groups in project communities. Cash transfers will be made through local financial institutions that can guarantee that payments reach the women and their groups. In the case of Nepal, such payments will be made with a women-focused micro-finance institution that assists rural women set up bank accounts and receive loans. The W+ payments will provide women with cash to more easily pay back loans used for entrepreneurial activities. The W+ certified Time units from Nepal would be available for sale in November 2014 to a select group of buyers who wish to demonstrate their early support for the W+ program and its objectives.
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The W+™ Fund
Name W+ Capacity Fund, a program of WOCAN
Legal Entity WOCAN (Women Organizing for Change In Agriculture & Natural Resource Management), registered in New York and Washington, D.C.
Nonprofit Status
WOCAN is a registered US-based 501 (c) 3 nonprofit with the IRS (12/2004)
Governance W+ Advisory Council, Standard Committee and Investment Committee govern W+™ and W+ Standard.
Life of Fund 4 years
Objective The objective of the Fund is to build broad external and internal institutional capacity and private sector procurement demand for W+ Units through development projects demonstrating the viability of the W+™ as means to empower women in developing countries and serve the Corporate Social Responsibility interests of W+ Unit buyers. The Fund achieves this objective by pooling contributions (financial commitments) of participants to forward-purchase W+ Units from eligible projects which integrate and measure women’s empowerment and participation in six domains: Time, Income & Assets, Health, Leadership, Education & Knowledge and Food Security. W+ Units will be issued from those projects that can be verified to have included women’s empowerment-related elements, quantifying and assigning a financial value to them.
Fund Management
The Fund Management team consists of experts with strong financial backgrounds in the structuring of fund vehicles (HFS-Hedge Fund Services), procurement of carbon credits (South Pole Carbon Asset Management) and women’s empowerment/gender experts (WOCAN). The involved entities operate a large network of on-the-ground staff (in developing countries) to obtain risk management, auditing, and other supporting services as needed.
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Procurement Strategy
The Fund Manager solicits and evaluates proposals from interested project developers to originate a supply of W+ Units. The Fund Manager, with the W+ Program Team and Advisory Council, evaluates eligibility of projects to meet W+ criteria, assesses non-delivery/default risks and submits to the Investment Committee a portfolio of procurement options and indicative procurement terms.
Fund Returns and Benefits
The Fund will distribute W+ Units, once issued, and at least annually thereafter, to all participants pro rata in accordance with their paid in contributions. Contributors will receive additional benefits based on their contribution levels (Bronze, Silver or Gold).
Eligible Projects
Eligible projects must meet the requirements of the W+ Standard and any additional criteria formulated in the Fund’s procurement strategy.
Procurement Criteria
All procurement decisions of the Fund are made in accordance with the rules of the W+ Standard and the Procurement Strategy of the Fund, which is negotiated, agreed and updated from time to time, by the Investment Committee and the Advisory Council. The Fund Manager will solicit procurement proposals in accordance with the Procurement Criteria (i.e. in relation to targeted countries, project types, etc.).
Investment Committee
The Investment Committee consists of those participants that have contributed a total of USD $1 million, or more. The Investment Committee meets four times per year.
Stakeholder Consultation
The Fund Manager will conduct an open, publicized, international stakeholder consultation that provides an opportunity for all interested stakeholders to comment on the Fund’s Procurement Strategy.
Participants Committee
The Participants Committee includes the Fund Manager and all Fund Participants. The Committee convenes annually (remote participation is possible) as a closed side event of a global conference on social investing or other events with substantial women’s empowerment agenda. The Fund Manager reports the status and progress of the Fund.
Registry and Public Listing of W+ Units™
It is anticipated that W+ Units will be: Validated by a leading third party verifier Custodied within an internationally recognized registry Listed and tradable on an international commodity exchange
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Workflow of the Fund
Activities Resources and Results Launch Procurement Criteria defined. Formation of all functional
bodies that govern the Fund and operate the W+™ program.
Procurement tendering
Fund issues tender documents (approved by Advisory Council).
Information events in target countries, or targeted venues
Fund conducts outreach/informational meetings in targeted countries, identifies potential partners, project developers and stakeholders.
Pre-screening of submissions
Fund provides feedback, Q&A to tender, receives and pre-screens submissions.
Submission of positive pre-screened projects & initial project selection
Fund submits a list of candidate projects for further consideration by the Investment Committee.
W+ Standard pre-screening
Candidate projects are invited to prepare PIN and submit to W+ Standard pre-screening (a USD $500 pre-screening fee shall apply).
W+ Unit purchase contract negotiation
Fund negotiates key terms of W+™ purchase contract with project developer (on the basis of guidance given via procurement criteria).
Support development of pre-screened projects
Accepted/contracted projects receive first tranche of W+™ development payment to prepare full PDD and request W+™ registration (if the project fails to register the first tranche development payment is lost). Project developer can nominate W+ Unit developer to provide this service for them.
Project operation and first issuance
Following successful registration, the project developer receives the second tranche of the development payment. W+ Unit (project) developer submits monitoring report to accredited verification entity that sends issuance request to W+™ Standard Committee.
Transfer of W+ Units W+™ Standard organization (within WOCAN) issues W+ Units and transfers the contracted volume to the Fund. The Fund distributes issued W+ Units at least annually. Units will be eligible for custody by a registry and listing on an international commodity exchange.
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The WOCAN W+™ Standard and Program
To accelerate women’s empowerment, WOCAN3 has created the W+™: the world’s first standard to measure positive impacts to women’s social and economic empowerment from projects such as climate change mitigation and international development programs. The W+™ Standard creates shared social value4 in six domains: Time, Health, Education & Knowledge, Food Security, Income & Assets and Leadership. When incorporated into project design and execution, the W+™ provides measurable, verifiable additional social benefits, resulting in marketable “W+ Units” for sale to corporate or institutional buyers interested in robust measurement of the CRS investments. Further details of each of the six domains and the types of activities relevant to each are described below.
3 WOCAN’s Mission is to build women’s leadership in agriculture and natural resource management through
organizational and individual transformation. WOCAN focuses on three pillars to fulfill its mission: Women’s Leadership Development, Policy Advocacy and Women's Empowerment. 4 The central premise behind creating shared value is that the competitiveness of a company and the health of the communities around it are mutually dependent. Recognizing and capitalizing on these connections between societal and economic progress has the power to unleash the next wave of global growth and to redefine capitalism.
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Six Domains “Time” Time is the domain that enables success in all other domains, and so is the highest priority for method development. In many parts of the developing world, women spend many hours each day performing tasks such as gathering fuel wood or collecting water. When the introduction of technology or new practices frees women from these physically demanding and time-consuming tasks, women have more time to care for their own health, earn cash income, cultivate gardens and new crops, improve their knowledge and education and participate in the enhancement of their communities. In the developed world, the availability of clothes washing machines freed women from the time-consuming chore of hand laundering clothing. The W+ seeks to provide similar time relief to women, who can then devote more time toward improving their lives in other ways.
To achieve the goals of this method, projects need to document an increase in women’s discretionary time, by measuring shifts in the use of time away from lower-value activities toward higher-value activities. This can be accomplished through the use of timesaving technologies and tools, including; tractors, biogas digesters, improved cook stoves, water pumps and storage facilities. The methodology will provide direction and guidance on survey techniques, culturally appropriate stakeholder engagement and appropriate degrees of certainty and detail. Time is the key. Many organizations support women’s entrepreneurship,
education, maternal health, and food security in the developing world. But, until women are freed from the necessary chores that consume so much time, they will make little progress in other areas. By addressing “time poverty” through new technologies and practices, particularly through additional benefits (such as prevention of deforestation, improved air quality and health), the W+ Time methodology unlocks women’s potential. WOCAN estimates that pilot project partnerships can be confirmed, and that the “Time” methodology can be completed and field-tested within four months of funding. Funding need estimates are: $25,000 for Method Development $25,000 for Field-test validation $50,000 for Pilot Project Activities
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“Income & Assets”
In many regions of the world, women have very limited access to financial or technical assets. Owning property (tools, livestock, land, jewelry), controlling money (having a personal bank account), and making independent decisions about resource use are important leverage points for empowerment. Women’s contributions are often un-compensated, but when they are, women can powerfully affect the well being of their families and communities.
The Income & Assets method enables project developers to measure how a project increases income and assets that are accessible to or controlled by women. Examples of assets may be money, jewelry, land, trees, livestock, or equipment. Additionally, the provision of
legal rights to women, including that of citizenship and the right to own land, can be essential to women’s empowerment.
“While women make up 66 percent of the labor force in urban areas of developing countries, they account for only 10 percent of income. Research clearly shows that when women’s incomes go up, the additional income goes directly to increasing household consumption and therefore into the overall economy, while increases in men’s income more often go into personal consumption. In addition, it is well established that the availability of secure property rights drives economic development through investment in property improvements, increased manufacturing and purchasing on wholesale and retail markets, access to better employment opportunities, and improved health and education.”5
Corporate investments such as the Goldman Sachs ‘10,000 Women Initiative’ and similar efforts bring needed attention to the vast but under-developed social and economic potential of women. The Income & Assets methodology will enable measurable and verifiable improvements in access to resources and control of earned assets by women in project communities.
WOCAN estimates that pilot project partnerships can be confirmed, and that the “Income & Assets” methodology can be completed and field-tested within four months of funding.
Funding need estimates are: $25,000 for Method Development, $25,000 for Field-test validation $50,000 for Pilot Project Activities
5 A Critical Issue in Urban Economic Development prepared for: the International Housing Coalition and the Urban
Institute - prepared by Carol S. Rabenhorst with the assistance of Anjali Bean, July 2011
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“Education & Knowledge”
The benefits of female education for women's empowerment and gender equality are broadly recognized: As female education rises, fertility,
population growth, and infant and child mortality fall and family health improves.
Increases in girls' secondary school enrollment are associated with increases in women's participation in the labor force and their contributions to household and national income.
Women's increased earning capacity, in turn, has a positive effect on child nutrition.
Children — especially daughters — of educated mothers are more likely to be enrolled in school and to have higher levels of educational attainment.
Educated women are more politically active and better informed about their legal rights and how to exercise them6.”
The Education & Knowledge method will enable project developers to evaluate how projects have resulted in women’s increased knowledge and skills, as well as the transmittal of women’s knowledge and skills to others in the community. This can be measured by increased knowledge and skills gained from extension services about agriculture, forest management, livestock, renewable energy, sanitation and health, etc. Other skills include those of basic reading and writing, numeracy, business management, computer and GPS use, and communication. Local initiatives to share knowledge, skills and information, and invitations to participate in training and education opportunities and exposure visits to observe successful initiatives in other communities, especially those run by women, can provide strong incentives and positive examples. The economic benefits of enhanced education and knowledge among women and girls are compelling and some businesses see these benefits as a path to creating market demand for their goods or services or developing a more effective workforce. In addition to these business motivations, national and regional governments may realize great benefits through improved economic outputs and reduced social costs, through the educational empowerment of women and girls. “Women in developing nations are usually in charge of securing water, food and fuel and of overseeing family health and diet. Therefore, they tend to put into immediate practice whatever they learn about nutrition and preserving the environment and natural resources7.” WOCAN estimates that pilot project partnerships can be confirmed, and that the “Education & Knowledge” methodology can be completed and field-tested within four months of funding.
Funding need estimates are: $25,000 for Method Development $25,000 for Field-test validation $50,000 for Pilot Project Activities 6 Population Reference Bureau, 2003
7 UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, 2012
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“Health” According to the UNICEF, 66% of the world’s work is done by women. This includes work inside the home as caregivers for children and seniors, paid and un-paid labor, food production (cultivating crops, collecting and storing harvests) and resource management (water and fuel). If women are in poor health, due to poor nutrition, lack of access to health care, or the impacts of disease, their reduced work capacity will inevitably lead to multiple, cumulative, negative impacts to families, communities and to national economies. Improving women’s health, and community health overall, can have a positive multiplier effects locally, and nationally. The Health method enables project developers to evaluate how the project has improved the overall health of women. This can be documented through improved health education, expanded access to health services and clinics and improved staffing and supplies to existing health clinics. Additional measurable improvements may include: infant and maternal mortality rates, rates of anemia amongst women, vaccination rates and local disease rates (respiratory, gastrointestinal, etc.). Investing in women’s health is not only the ‘right thing to do’, but investments in health enable success in other domains. Further, outcomes in health investments can be effectively measured, and changes over time can be tracked. WOCAN estimates that pilot project partnerships can be confirmed, and that the “Health” methodology can be completed and field-tested within four months of funding.
Funding need estimates are: $25,000 for Method Development $25,000 for Field-test validation $50,000 for Pilot Project Activities
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“Food Security” Improvements in Food Security are critical for women’s attainment of economic, social and health improvements. Women are often responsible for ensuring that their families are fed, yet they themselves may go without adequate nutrition. Women in developing economies, particularly in indigenous communities, are the custodians of local plant knowledge, traditional methods and practices of crop and soil management. Supporting women in their role as food-producers is critical for long-term food security, improved nutrition and effective, sustainable resource stewardship. The Food Security method will enable project developers to evaluate how the project has decreased the quantity and quality of food insecurity within households within the project scope or boundary. This can be measured through documentation of increased soil fertility and yields, diversity of crops and vegetables, and other improvements in farming systems. Another approach is to measure and document improvements in tools or access to tools, food storage facilities, irrigation systems and post-harvest practices that result in improved crop yields and decreased post-harvest losses, leading to more availability of nutritious foods for women and their families.
In developing economies, women produce from half to far more than half of all food production, yet they receive a small fraction of aid resources directed toward agricultural development. Investments in the Food Security method and associated projects, to ensure that women have access to tools, resources, knowledge, facilities, and access to markets for their production, can have multiple positive benefits in women’s economic empowerment, nutrition and health, and resource stewardship.
WOCAN estimates that pilot project partnerships can be confirmed, and that the “Food Security” methodology can be completed and field-tested within four months of funding. Funding need estimates are: $25,000 for Method Development $25,000 for Field-test validation $50,000 for Pilot Project Activities
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“Leadership”
Within developing economies, women are still widely under-represented in decision-making at all levels, in the household, in businesses, and in the public sphere. Addressing these inequities through laws and public policy is a way of formalizing the goal of gender equality. However, legal changes are not always sufficient to overcome customs to create lasting changes. Implementation of programs such as the W+™ methodology can help close the gap between what laws proscribe and what actually occurs.
The Leadership methodology enables project developers to evaluate how projects result in increased decision making roles for women – within the context of the project itself or within households and communities. This can be measured through evaluating increases in the representation and participation of women both quantitatively and qualitatively in governance bodies of community organizations (measuring how many women are in leadership roles and how many are active in discussions and decisions) or an increase in the effectiveness of women's groups to advocate, manage funds, negotiate and network through leadership and entrepreneurship skill development and coaching.
“Gender equality is important in its own right. Development is a process of expanding freedoms equally for all people—male and female (Sen, 2009). Closing the gap in well being between males and females is as much a part of development as is reducing income poverty. Greater gender equality also enhances economic efficiency and improves other development outcomes8.”
WOCAN estimates that pilot project partnerships can be confirmed, and that the “Leadership” methodology can be completed and field-tested within four months of funding. Funding need estimates are: $25,000 for Method Development $25,000 for Field-test validation $50,000 for Pilot Project Activity
8 International Monetary Fund. Empowering Women Is Smart Economics
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Pipeline of 8 Sample Projects for W+ Standard Project Name
Country Project description W+ Domains Org Website
Kariba REDD+ Project
Zimbabwe REDD Forestry project with significant women’s involvement.
Time, Leadership
South Pole
http://southpolecarbon.com/Kariba/page/projectpage.php
National Programme for Improved Cookstoves
India
Introduces improved cook stoves pan India, which helps in reduction of firewood, therefore time saving for women. Also, improves health condition.
Health, Time, Education and Knowledge
South Pole
http://www.southpolecarbon.com/projects/project_overview
Improved Woodstoves in Udaipur - Helping Women and Environment
India Improved woodstoves help in easier and faster cooking and better health.
Health, Time, Education and Knowledge
Seva
https://products.markit.com/br-reg/public/project.jsp?project_id=103000000001909
Kenya Agricultural Carbon Project
Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda
Works with women farmers’ groups to plant trees, offset carbon in soils, maintain active saving and borrowing groups, provide biogas, solar power and briquettes, provide training in agriculture and soil fertility, constructed water collection systems.
Time, Food Security, Health, Leadership, Education and Knowledge
Vi Agro-forestry
http://www.viagroforestry.org
International Water Purification Project
Uganda + 10 Countries
Aims in improving health condition of women and children in the project area. It also helps in reduction firewood collection as it employs clean technologies for water purification.
Health, Time, Education
South Pole
http://www.southpolecarbon.com/projects/project_overview
Voluntary Cook stove PoA
4 Countries
The PoA aims in introducing improved cook stoves Across many LDC, which helps in reduction of firewood, therefore time saving for women. Also, improves Health condition.
Health, Time, Education
South Pole
http://www.southpolecarbon.com/projects/project_overview
Dissemination of fuel efficient biomass stoves and water purification systems
Tanzania
This project gives improved biomass stove and water purification systems to households in Tanzania.
Time, Health, Income and Assets, Leadership
Envirofit
https://products.markit.com/br-reg/public/project.jsp?project_id=103000000002079
Biogas Micro-digester Introduction to Rural Households
China
Aims at installing micro bio-digesters at community -household level, improving sanitation by providing toilets, less backbreaking jobs done by women and more free time for women.
Health, Time, Education and Knowledge
PEAR Carbon Offset Initiative, Ltd.
http://www.pear-carbon-offset.org/english/index.html
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www.wplus.org