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Sector View

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 SII Lessons and Materials from a Sectoral Lens
This view of the SII library organizes research materials according to the defining sector or context of the projects being assessed. 
 
You can easily locate any studies of projects that addressed economic development,HIV/AIDS, water and sanitation, basic education or other sectors of interest, such as governance or health as well as the handful of projects that explored women’s empowerment in contexts of recent or recurrent humanitarian crisis.
 
These projects vary considerably in their approaches to gender and women’s empowerment, but offer a scan of the range within some of the development industry’s key organizing sectors of work.

 Focus on Findings

 

Women's Empowerment & Emergencies (also in Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese and French)

Increasingly CARE is alert to how gendered power shapes the way the women and communities we support confront conflict and crises. In complex and rapidly changing circumstances of crisis, how can CARE remain sensitive to the vulnerabilities and new opportunities women face, and adjust our interventions accordingly? The SII examined how CARE’s work impacts women’s lives in conflict (Palestine, Uganda), post-conflict (Bosnia, Burundi, Cambodia, Eritrea, Guatemala, Somalia, Yemen) and natural disaster (El Salvador, Mali, Niger, Ethiopia) settings. This paper teases out lessons from these studies on the dynamics around crisis and empowerment by:

  • Examining the context of crisis and its effect on women’s lives and empowerment;
  • Exploring how CARE has worked with women affected by crisis and the impact of these approaches on women’s empowerment;
  • Highlighting key lessons from the SII on working with women affected by crisis.

Women's Empowerment & VSLA (also in Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese and French)

Within the SII, a cluster of studies examined CARE's work with Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLA), exploring the relationship between VSLAs, economic security, and women's empowerment. This module outlines what we've learned on this relationship from SII studies in India, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Tanzania and Uganda, asking:

  • What potential do we see for women’s empowerment in VSLA work?
  • What kinds of things do VSLA projects tend to accomplish or miss? What have we learned works best, that we should make a part of any VSLA work that seeks to empower women?
  • How can VSLA interventions be a platform for larger changes in the forces that shape the lives of the women we reach?

Women's Empowerment & HIV/AIDS

With support from the Ford Foundation, SII housed a multi-country, comparative study in Africa, Asia and Latin America, to examine how CARE’s HIV prevention programs and advocacy activities affect women’s vulnerability to HIV and empowerment. The study tested assumptions in a global body of knowledge that suggests that:

  • An effective HIV and AIDS response must foster social, economic and cultural changes to empower women and girls to have greater control over their lives and bodies.
  • Most HIV interventions targeting women and girls fail to understand what motivates their choices and overlook the broader factors that shape women’s vulnerability. These shortcomings perpetuate the disconnect between international aid and needs on the ground.

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