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Resource library: Economic empowerment

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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 1 - 20 of 30 resources
Published: - Guidance document
This resource is written for multinational businesses operating in low and middle-income countries that are working to decarbonise. It is designed for businesses that rely on significant numbers of female employees within their supply chains – for…
Published: - Report
This resource is a think piece from the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and the Girls’ Education Challenge. It looks at why the most marginalised must be prioritised in global efforts to ensure foundational learning for all…
Published: - Report
This resource focuses on evidence around the drivers of transformation of women’s economic empowerment. It looks at how women are impacted by social norms, law, unpaid care and other issues such as ways of working and ways people are hired.The…
Published: - Evidence digest
This resource outlines the barriers to political participation and leadership experienced by people with disabilities. It presents the latest evidence and guidance on the right to vote, inclusive elections, engagement in decision-making processes…
Published: - Evidence/literature review
This resource looks at how different international financial institutions (IFIs) frame and approach working on women’s economic empowerment, and the impact of this in practice. It provides information on what is effective in women’s economic…
Published: - Evidence/literature review
This resource discusses the global shift towards digitalisation, and how this is driving technical, social and organisational changes. Having the capacity to leverage digital technology has been identified as essential to ensuring individual…
Published: - Tools and templates
This resource shows employers how to make their workplaces inclusive of people with intellectual disabilities. It includes clear guidance on accessible recruitment, hiring, communication at work, and organisational policies. It provides templates…
Published: - Tools and templates
This resource pack from the Knowledge, Evidence and Learning for Development (K4D) programme explains how tax policy, administration and research can promote women’s equality and empowerment through being ‘gender aware’.  The resource…
Published: - Evidence digest
This resource 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 available on the experiences and needs of LGBTIQ…
Published: - Policy paper
This policy brief presents findings from a World Bank’s research programme focused on gendered dimensions of forced displacement and poverty. It looks at how poverty intersects with gender and forced displacement and outlines implications for policy…
Published: - Evidence/literature review
This resource explains how gender inequality affects the extent and patterns of different dimensions of poverty in forcibly displaced populations. It also explores how conflict and displacement affect gender norms and the prevalence of intimate…
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 for Development (K4D) Helpdesk 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 inclusive and targeted…
Published: -
This resource 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 research to support interventions of the Rapid Response Facility, set up…
Published: - Evidence/literature review
This resource is an evidence review which outlines how discriminatory laws affect women's economic empowerment, both directly and indirectly. It presents  lessons learned on how to eliminate legal barriers to women’s full and equal…
Published: - Evidence/literature review
This resource examines multidimensional poverty among displaced populations. It brings together three key issues: multidimensional poverty, forced displacement and gender. The analysis builds on the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) from Ethiopia…
Published: - Fact sheet 
This resource is a factsheet on women and disability inclusion in Future Cities programmes. It highlights the challenge that women and people with disabilities face, including barriers to opportunities in cities, and their underrepresentation in…
Published: - Fact sheet 
This resource focuses on women’s economic empowerment and disability inclusion in financial services. It highlights barriers to accessing financial services experienced by women and girls and people with disabilities. It explains how access to…
Published: - Evidence/literature review
This resource is a rapid literature review which summarises the available evidence on toolkits that assist the response by humanitarian and development agencies to financial inclusion of refugees. Since there were few documents defined explicitly as…
Published: - Guidance document, Tools and templates
This resource is aimed at sustainability, climate and procurement professionals working in multinational companies. It explains how companies can make their work more environmentally friendly while economically empowering more women.The resource…