In my professional experience as a “bridge” between grassroots women’s groups and businesses I see the importance of finding common language and frames to build real partnerships and the need to understand each other’s challenges, goals, expertise and motives - to build trust on the human and professional level. Articles like this from bridge builders like Marissa and Dina are critical tools in helping businesses and women thrive. Thanks SSIR for making it a cover story and for providing some many resources in this piece.
Thanks to the authors for this thoughtful article and, importantly, concrete examples and guidance for integrated partnership models. As my organization begins its own thinking on strategies to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment, these ideas are immensely helpful.
This article really help me to see more context for gender and NRM issues at the grassroote level. There are more works for project implementer to support community to engage with Gender Action Plan and gender inclusive will be there.
Kudos for this tour de force: it sets the stage for critical work in the years (and, indeed, decades) ahead making corporate-grassroots connections and forging winning partnerships. May it emerge as essential reading for folks in CSR, philanthropy and social movements!
All the way from Kigali - Rwanda. I find the tips shared from Dina Dublon and Malissa extremely inspiring. Given the nature of my work which focusses on women grassroot associations. The tips to partner with Entrepreneurs and corporates extremely important. At Rwanda Women’s Network, we encourage a lot another level of learning from the Academic institutions especially those in the field of research. Evidence based from any work we do is critical if grassroot organisations work on advocacy is to be credible. Dina and Malissa congratulations and keep up the good work.
Thanks to Marissa and Dina, as well as SSIR, for shining the spotlight on the contributions of Grassroots Women’s Organizations for poverty alleviation, food security, environmental management and so much more, that their households, communities and the world benefit from.
The increasing numbers of investors who are jumping on the gender lens investing train is indeed an exciting development for those of us who have long worked to build support for gender equality and women’s empowerment programs within international development schemes. However, the current discourse of gender lens investing has focused almost entirely on entrepreneurs – neglecting the potential of GWOs, as well as non-entrepreneurs, who are part of a vast network of collective actors serving needs of women across most developing countries, with very few resources to do so. According to the World Bank, only two cents of every dollar in international aid funding goes to support programs for girls and women. Women’s organizations receive only 9 % of these funds; while large international NGOs and others receive the bulk of the resources (W+ White Paper: Accelerating Investments in Women through Certification, http://wplus.org/download/519/W+ White Paper 2015_1.pdf?redirect=node/285).
The authors’ mention of a few multi-national corporations partnering directly with GWOs raises questions as to the feasibility of bringing this approach to scale. Alternatively, enhancing the role of intermediaries (also mentioned in the side box) could be a more likely scalable solution, to bridge the divide between the worlds of business and development, and act as translators and trust builders. Women’s organizations that operate at national, regional and international levels, with GWO partners, may provide the most appropriate bridges to the larger world of financial institutions, investors, corporations and others that wish to support women’s empowerment and improve supply chains.
Women Organizing for Change in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management (WOCAN) has for 10 years operated at the nexus of these two levels, to leverage the resources of professional women (and men) – including their knowledge, connections to influential actors, institutional affiliations, etc. – for the benefit of GWOs. If supported by Gender Lens Investors, WOCAN and similar women-led organizations can provide a invaluable resource to investors by building the pipeline that otherwise seems elusive: by identifying appropriate GWOs, building their capacities to produce and manage projects that investors are seeking, and channel loans and other forms of badly needed capital to these groups. In addition, such projects could be required to achieve W+ certification for women’s empowerment (http://www.wplus.org), thus providing investors and corporations with quantified, verified results that reflect real impact. These four things – Intermediaries, GWOs, W+ measurement and certification, and Gender Lens investors - could bring about transformational changes in the lives of women and their household members
Fascinating article, filled with terrific examples. Absolutely, building on grassroots organizations and and building in both a fee for service (for institutional continuation) and building it into the whole business plan is imperative for self-sustainability.
From years in the field, I need to add that not only must we evaluate its impact by listening to the GWOs and women, but also to their husbands as women do not generate income in a vacuum without other responsibilities and gender expectations.
Also heaping more on their over-filled work-plates is not ideal; child-minding was mentioned in one case and anything that frees up their time to participate (e.g. easy access to water, fuelwood/ efficient stoves. clinics for healthcare) will support successful of any gender-based activity.
Finally, the previous comment from Ms. Gurung is key: “According to the World Bank, only two cents of every dollar in international aid funding goes to support programs for girls and women. Women’s organizations receive only 9 % of these funds”. Shocking. We must focus on country-led development in partnership with us, but no longer donor countries benefitting more than recipient countries. Public-private-partnerships can be terrific, especially when all profit.
women are definetly an under-utilized resource in the world. i cant even begin to imagine the amount of wealth & productivity we will unleash if the skillets of women around the world are empowered and given capacities to be agents of change, wealth & value creation. I feel that by nature women have a greater interest in the greater good than man so an investment in women will go a long way in helping the community at large
In the Spring 2015 issue of Stanford Social Innovation Review, authors Marissa Wesely and Dina Dublon do a disservice to international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) in their article “Empowering Women at the Grassroots.”
While we agree that grassroots women’s organizations (GWOs) and other local nonprofits are key partners in creating sustainable and transformative change in women’s lives, INGOs should not be overlooked as powerful connectors and supporters of this process.
INGOs can serve as effective bridges to remotely based and nascent groups. They can help with the translation of ideas to local contexts and the rigorous measurement of impact that the author recommends.
For example, Pact, an INGO with offices in 25 countries worldwide, provides local organizations with training and support to build their capacity to serve their communities, including through effective partnerships and results-based programming. It enables them to seize future opportunities they may not have been previously equipped for.
In Myanmar and Vietnam, we partner with Coca-Cola, in alignment with their 5by20 initiative, supporting savings and loan groups to empower women through training, capacity building, and microenterprise development. This work could not be accomplished without local support, such as the Women’s Union in Vietnam.
Rather than closing the door for potential connectors, we should advocate for INGOs and national NGOs to continue to connect local groups to corporations and build robust networks of prosperity for the people we serve.
We certainly do not intend to close the door to INGOs as potential connectors, and view them as having a potentially powerful role to play in this regard. I am not familiar with Pact’s work, but it sounds great. In our experience, however, we have seen few examples of INGO’s effectively connecting corporations to GWOs in circumstances where the GWO was a real partner. I would love to learn more about how Pact operates. Would it be possible to speak with you or someone else in the organization? Let me know. My email is .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Thanks.
INGOs yes are great connector, what is critical is for them understanding their role in and stick to it. Context differ, and their understanding critically the context they operate from should be their first priority in order to determine how to operate. Capacity building is often their best role but they need to know that such should be demand driven, which often is not the case. Defining parternership that works, help to address the gaps that we, who operate at the grassroot often experience. So a good connector should take all that into consideration.
It was a great thing to know that GWOs are making efforts on breaking down our barriers that is held by different sociopolitical and religious differences. My sister wants to learn more about feminism, because she grew up in a family where toxic masculinity is most prominent. I’ll definitely support her by helping her find the a good group that’s focused on women empowerment.
COMMENTS
BY Marissa Wesely
ON February 19, 2015 11:19 AM
I look forward to receiving comments!
BY Sufia
ON February 19, 2015 02:49 PM
I belong to a GWO in Souther Africa and I have found this very useful
BY Patricia Lopez Aufranc
ON February 20, 2015 05:23 PM
Marissa
This is great! I will review it carefully and send comments. It is inspiring!
BY Lisa Witter
ON February 25, 2015 04:27 AM
In my professional experience as a “bridge” between grassroots women’s groups and businesses I see the importance of finding common language and frames to build real partnerships and the need to understand each other’s challenges, goals, expertise and motives - to build trust on the human and professional level. Articles like this from bridge builders like Marissa and Dina are critical tools in helping businesses and women thrive. Thanks SSIR for making it a cover story and for providing some many resources in this piece.
BY Brandee Butler
ON February 25, 2015 05:20 AM
Thanks to the authors for this thoughtful article and, importantly, concrete examples and guidance for integrated partnership models. As my organization begins its own thinking on strategies to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment, these ideas are immensely helpful.
BY Tous Sophorn
ON March 4, 2015 10:26 PM
This article really help me to see more context for gender and NRM issues at the grassroote level. There are more works for project implementer to support community to engage with Gender Action Plan and gender inclusive will be there.
BY Daniel Lee
ON March 6, 2015 11:08 AM
Kudos for this tour de force: it sets the stage for critical work in the years (and, indeed, decades) ahead making corporate-grassroots connections and forging winning partnerships. May it emerge as essential reading for folks in CSR, philanthropy and social movements!
BY Mary Balikungeri
ON March 10, 2015 06:42 AM
All the way from Kigali - Rwanda. I find the tips shared from Dina Dublon and Malissa extremely inspiring. Given the nature of my work which focusses on women grassroot associations. The tips to partner with Entrepreneurs and corporates extremely important. At Rwanda Women’s Network, we encourage a lot another level of learning from the Academic institutions especially those in the field of research. Evidence based from any work we do is critical if grassroot organisations work on advocacy is to be credible. Dina and Malissa congratulations and keep up the good work.
BY Jeannette Gurung
ON March 16, 2015 11:33 PM
Thanks to Marissa and Dina, as well as SSIR, for shining the spotlight on the contributions of Grassroots Women’s Organizations for poverty alleviation, food security, environmental management and so much more, that their households, communities and the world benefit from.
The increasing numbers of investors who are jumping on the gender lens investing train is indeed an exciting development for those of us who have long worked to build support for gender equality and women’s empowerment programs within international development schemes. However, the current discourse of gender lens investing has focused almost entirely on entrepreneurs – neglecting the potential of GWOs, as well as non-entrepreneurs, who are part of a vast network of collective actors serving needs of women across most developing countries, with very few resources to do so. According to the World Bank, only two cents of every dollar in international aid funding goes to support programs for girls and women. Women’s organizations receive only 9 % of these funds; while large international NGOs and others receive the bulk of the resources (W+ White Paper: Accelerating Investments in Women through Certification, http://wplus.org/download/519/W+ White Paper 2015_1.pdf?redirect=node/285).
The authors’ mention of a few multi-national corporations partnering directly with GWOs raises questions as to the feasibility of bringing this approach to scale. Alternatively, enhancing the role of intermediaries (also mentioned in the side box) could be a more likely scalable solution, to bridge the divide between the worlds of business and development, and act as translators and trust builders. Women’s organizations that operate at national, regional and international levels, with GWO partners, may provide the most appropriate bridges to the larger world of financial institutions, investors, corporations and others that wish to support women’s empowerment and improve supply chains.
Women Organizing for Change in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management (WOCAN) has for 10 years operated at the nexus of these two levels, to leverage the resources of professional women (and men) – including their knowledge, connections to influential actors, institutional affiliations, etc. – for the benefit of GWOs. If supported by Gender Lens Investors, WOCAN and similar women-led organizations can provide a invaluable resource to investors by building the pipeline that otherwise seems elusive: by identifying appropriate GWOs, building their capacities to produce and manage projects that investors are seeking, and channel loans and other forms of badly needed capital to these groups. In addition, such projects could be required to achieve W+ certification for women’s empowerment (http://www.wplus.org), thus providing investors and corporations with quantified, verified results that reflect real impact. These four things – Intermediaries, GWOs, W+ measurement and certification, and Gender Lens investors - could bring about transformational changes in the lives of women and their household members
BY Jindra Cekan
ON March 27, 2015 02:14 AM
Fascinating article, filled with terrific examples. Absolutely, building on grassroots organizations and and building in both a fee for service (for institutional continuation) and building it into the whole business plan is imperative for self-sustainability.
From years in the field, I need to add that not only must we evaluate its impact by listening to the GWOs and women, but also to their husbands as women do not generate income in a vacuum without other responsibilities and gender expectations.
Also heaping more on their over-filled work-plates is not ideal; child-minding was mentioned in one case and anything that frees up their time to participate (e.g. easy access to water, fuelwood/ efficient stoves. clinics for healthcare) will support successful of any gender-based activity.
Finally, the previous comment from Ms. Gurung is key: “According to the World Bank, only two cents of every dollar in international aid funding goes to support programs for girls and women. Women’s organizations receive only 9 % of these funds”. Shocking. We must focus on country-led development in partnership with us, but no longer donor countries benefitting more than recipient countries. Public-private-partnerships can be terrific, especially when all profit.
BY Shela Zane
ON March 31, 2015 04:54 AM
women are definetly an under-utilized resource in the world. i cant even begin to imagine the amount of wealth & productivity we will unleash if the skillets of women around the world are empowered and given capacities to be agents of change, wealth & value creation. I feel that by nature women have a greater interest in the greater good than man so an investment in women will go a long way in helping the community at large
BY Kerry Bruce
ON March 31, 2015 03:30 PM
In the Spring 2015 issue of Stanford Social Innovation Review, authors Marissa Wesely and Dina Dublon do a disservice to international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) in their article “Empowering Women at the Grassroots.”
While we agree that grassroots women’s organizations (GWOs) and other local nonprofits are key partners in creating sustainable and transformative change in women’s lives, INGOs should not be overlooked as powerful connectors and supporters of this process.
INGOs can serve as effective bridges to remotely based and nascent groups. They can help with the translation of ideas to local contexts and the rigorous measurement of impact that the author recommends.
For example, Pact, an INGO with offices in 25 countries worldwide, provides local organizations with training and support to build their capacity to serve their communities, including through effective partnerships and results-based programming. It enables them to seize future opportunities they may not have been previously equipped for.
In Myanmar and Vietnam, we partner with Coca-Cola, in alignment with their 5by20 initiative, supporting savings and loan groups to empower women through training, capacity building, and microenterprise development. This work could not be accomplished without local support, such as the Women’s Union in Vietnam.
Rather than closing the door for potential connectors, we should advocate for INGOs and national NGOs to continue to connect local groups to corporations and build robust networks of prosperity for the people we serve.
BY marissa wesely
ON March 31, 2015 08:12 PM
We certainly do not intend to close the door to INGOs as potential connectors, and view them as having a potentially powerful role to play in this regard. I am not familiar with Pact’s work, but it sounds great. In our experience, however, we have seen few examples of INGO’s effectively connecting corporations to GWOs in circumstances where the GWO was a real partner. I would love to learn more about how Pact operates. Would it be possible to speak with you or someone else in the organization? Let me know. My email is .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Thanks.
BY Mary Balikungeri
ON April 1, 2015 12:46 AM
INGOs yes are great connector, what is critical is for them understanding their role in and stick to it. Context differ, and their understanding critically the context they operate from should be their first priority in order to determine how to operate. Capacity building is often their best role but they need to know that such should be demand driven, which often is not the case. Defining parternership that works, help to address the gaps that we, who operate at the grassroot often experience. So a good connector should take all that into consideration.
BY Luke Smith
ON February 24, 2022 08:46 PM
It was a great thing to know that GWOs are making efforts on breaking down our barriers that is held by different sociopolitical and religious differences. My sister wants to learn more about feminism, because she grew up in a family where toxic masculinity is most prominent. I’ll definitely support her by helping her find the a good group that’s focused on women empowerment.