“If you educate women, you have educated the whole family. The balance of the family is in the hand of the mother in a family”.
ENGAGE WOMEN IN DESIGN AND DIFFUSION NGO RAHIs that involve women in the design and diffusion processes are better poised to ensure that they address women’s needs and produce positive and potentially significant impacts on women’s empowerment. Women played an important role in every NGO RAHI examined. The Pill, gender quotas, microfinance-plus and the campaign against female genital cutting most effectively integrated women as key actors in shaping the NGO RAHIs, producing moderate to high impacts on women’s well-being and empowerment. An NGO RAHI does not need to be aimed explicitly at empowering women from the outset in order to have positive, even dramatic impacts on women’s lives. This is particularly true when women join forces with national and international women’s movements to participate in facilitating the subsequent adoption of the NGO RAHI. As evidenced in Taiwan’s economic policy and Peru’s land titling, women’s participation during the diffusion stage often provides a critical push and direction to modify the NGO RAHI in ways that will meaningfully benefit women. Hence, women acting individually and collectively can influence the agenda of successful NGO RAHIs from the beginning, and/or shape the direction of progress after the diffusion of the NGO RAHI has begun. Read More...
