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Resource library: Economic empowerment

Economic empowerment icon

Welcome to our comprehensive resource collection dedicated to economic empowerment.

Here, you'll find a wide range of resources designed to support organisations in creating, implementing, and monitoring the impact of inclusive economic empowerment activities.

Economic empowerment is all about enabling individuals to exercise their right to earn income and have control over their financial resources. These activities can include providing access to education and skills development, employment programs, financial management training, or resources to start and grow businesses or livelihood activities. Additionally, economic empowerment involves addressing barriers that lead to unequal access to jobs, livelihood opportunities, and financial resources. This includes tackling systems that perpetuate low-income and insecure jobs for women, fail to recognise unpaid care work, or hinder certain groups from accessing employment opportunities.

Ensuring economic empowerment for all groups is crucial for achieving gender equality and promoting social inclusion. It not only improves access to essential services but also plays a significant role in breaking the cycle of intergenerational poverty and exclusion. Furthermore, economic empowerment contributes to broader economic growth and equality within society. 

Displaying 43 - 63 of 65 resources
Published: - Evidence digest
This resource from the Disability Inclusion Helpdesk (DI HD) outlines the evidence on the inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer (LGBTIQ+) people with disabilities. It highlights a shortage of evidence and guidance…
Published: - Multimedia, Podcast
This podcast explores gender inequalities and exclusion faced by women in Africa, with particular focus on experiences of low-income urban residents. It examines how women are impacted by issues related to:economic opportunitiesurban development and…
Published: - Fact sheet 
This guide helps tax professionals consider key questions on gender while designing tax programmes. The purpose of this guide is to share learnings with donors. It refers to two categories of support that development actors may provide to…
Published: - Evidence/literature review
This resource from the Knowledge, evidence and learning for development (K4D) programme examines the issue of management of climate finance in  lower income countries and small island developing states, It makes the case for taking a more…
Published: -
This resource from the Work and Opportunities for Women helpdesk (WOW helpdesk) highlights the key issues around the economic empowerment of women, people with disabilities and other excluded populations. It was undertaken as a piece of rapid…
Published: - Evidence/literature review
This resource from the Knowledge, evidence and learning for development (K4D) helpdesk is a rapid review that sets out how poverty, gender and inclusion are impacted by business environment reforms in middle-income countries.This review illustrates…
Published: - Evidence/literature review
This resource from the Work and Opportunities for Women helpdesk (WOW helpdesk) is an evidence review which outlines how discriminatory laws affect women's economic empowerment, both directly and indirectly. It presents  lessons learned on how…
Published: - Fact sheet 
This resource from the Work and Opportunities for Women helpdesk (WOW helpdesk) is a factsheet on women and disability inclusion in Future Cities programmes. It highlights the challenge that women and people with disabilities face, including…
Published: - Fact sheet 
This resource from the Work and Opportunities for Women helpdesk (WOW helpdesk) focuses on women’s economic empowerment and disability inclusion in financial services. It highlights barriers to accessing financial services experienced by women and…
Published: - Evidence/literature review
This resource from the Knowledge, evidence and learning for development (K4D) programme is a rapid literature review which summarises the available evidence on toolkits that assist the response by humanitarian and development agencies to financial…
Published: - Evidence digest, Guidance document
This evidence digest from the Disability Inclusion Helpdesk (DI HD) compiles key evidence, practical guidance and lessons learnt on engaging with organisations of people with disabilities (OPDs) in development and humanitarian settings. It includes…
Published: - Guidance document, Tools and templates
This resource from the Work and Opportunities for Women helpdesk (WOW helpdesk) is aimed at sustainability, climate and procurement professionals working in multinational companies. It explains how companies can make their work more environmentally…
Published: - Case study, Guidance document, Tools and templates
This resource is a toolkit intended to support businesses to be disability confident. It includes practical guides, checklists, case studies and resources which are based on best practice and principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights…
Published: - Guidance document
This resource from the Work and Opportunities for Women helpdesk (WOW helpdesk) examines gaps in current and historic measurement of women’s economic empowerment (WEE) and identifies core indicators, principles and recommendations for effective and…
Published: - Tools and templates
This resource provides indicators which can be used to measure the effectiveness of activities related to women’s economic empowerment. It explains what economic empowerment is and is not, and how it should be measured. It states that tailoring…
Published: - Evidence digest, Policy paper
This resource summarises the findings from the Africa Gender Innovation Lab’s work on women’s property rights. It shares examples from Benin, Ghana, Rwanda and Uganda, providing lessons learned from various interventions related to improving women’s…
Published: - Evidence/literature review
This resource from the Knowledge, evidence and learning for development (K4D) programme is a literature review which details some of the key programmes implemented to improve the economic self-sufficiency of refugee women in the UK and other wealthy…
Published: - Report
This resource from the Work and Opportunities for Women helpdesk (WOW helpdesk) provides key facts relating to the case for promoting women’s economic empowerment in development programming and business planning. It explains what companies can do to…
Published: - Evidence/literature review
This resource from the Work and Opportunities for Women helpdesk (WOW helpdesk) synthesises evidence on the linkages between gender, social inclusion and trade, highlighting women’s different roles in trade in selected middle-income countries. It…
Published: - Report
This resource from the Work and Opportunities for Women helpdesk (WOW helpdesk) explores how women’s economic empowerment can reduce the risk of modern slavery while also creating a positive impact for women. It examines the drivers of modern…
This guidance document and tool describes practices that Nigerian States can adopt to develop and implement gender equitable and socially inclusive (GESI) budgets. It provides step-by-step directions and tools to make the task easier, alongside…