IEU Evaluation Specialist Dr. Martin Prowse contributed to a session of the Jobs, Innovation, and Value Chains in the Context of Climate Transition Conference organized by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). The event was held on 23 June 2022 at 9 AM CEST and focused on Women’s Empowerment for Rural Transformation.

The session brought together three presentations that highlighted a synthesis of existing evidence on the types of interventions that improve outcomes indicators on women’s empowerment. The presentations were followed by a panel discussion that sought to identify guiding principles for project/program design to improve women’s empowerment.

More specifically, Dr. Prowse’s presentation summarised the approach and preliminary findings of the IEU's ongoing Evidence Gap Map on the effectiveness of interventions promoting women's empowerment in developing countries. The EGM mapped out the existing studies on interventions targeting women's empowerment outcomes. Building on the EGM, the IEU will conduct a systematic review of the effectiveness of life skills training interventions. These are a sub-set of capacity building interventions which provide training to enhance life skills, which are defined as the abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life. The systematic review will assess the effectiveness of these interventions in promoting women's empowerment, with a particular focus on self and social empowerment. 

You can find out more about the evidence review here.