About us
Eric Miller/Panos
Who are we?
Pathways of Women's Empowerment links academics, activists and practitioners working to advance women's empowerment locally, regionally and through global policy processes. Our network is organised around five research institutes, who will act as "hubs" for research and communications in their regions. The Consortium members are:
- BRAC University (Bangladesh) with partners in the South Asia region
- Centre for Gender Studies and Advocacy at the University of Ghana (Ghana) with partners in West Africa
- The Interdisciplinary Women's Studies Nucleus at the Federal University of Bahia (Brazil) with partners in Latin America
- Social Research Centre at the American University in Cairo (Egypt) with partners in the Middle East
- Institute of Development Studies (UK), who will host our research into 'global' policy spaces and play a coordinating role for the RPC as a whole
- UNIFEM at global, regional and national levels
What is our purpose?
Empowerment has often been regarded as a destination that can be reached through the development equivalent of a motorway: fast-track programmes which can be rolled out over any terrain. If instead we look at it as on-going process, a journey along meandering pathways full of twists and turns, sometimes doubling back or reaching dead-ends, then the focus is not on replicating the journey, but on understanding it so as to offer possibilities and give hints and warnings to other travellers. This perspective urges us to explore the everyday experiences of the women that development initiatives seek to empower, and to learn from them what helps and hinders them on this journey. The consortium will investigate what enables women, individually and collectively, to empower themselves, how they can sustain these changes, and how development agencies' policies support or hinder this process. We want to make women's pathways of change visible and to build on them to inspire a radical shift in policy and practice.
Funding
Pathways of Women's Empowerment is a five-year programme of work funded by the UK Department for International Development.
Partners: