This report provides an overview of the findings of evaluations of programmes aiming to create jobs for women, improve their working conditions, and address unpaid work in low income countries. Most organisations that have programmes covering these issues work under the umbrella of women’s empowerment in general.
Programmes aiming to create employment possibilities for women often put the onus on women to become entrepreneurs or to increase their skill level through education and training to make them more employable, instead of focusing on the creation of long-term jobs for women. Microcredit, business development and technical and vocational education and training (TVET) are standard components of women’s economic empowerment programmes. However, there is an acute lack of rigorous evaluations of these types of programmes for women.
There appear to be no evaluations of programmes to address women’s unpaid work. Only one study, which looked at projects providing childcare facilities for women, was found. In addition, it was difficult to find evaluations that segregated the target group(s) by gender. In order to account for the general dearth of programme evaluations, this report also includes some thematic evaluations.
