Our Women’s Economic Empowerment strategy is based on the premise that much of economic policymaking, if it attends to women’s needs at all, tends to focus on changing women to fit into existing economic systems and structures, rather than seeking to change those systems and structures to better address women’s needs.

So how can we shift economic systems and structures to better meet women’s needs? Our grantmaking approach emphasizes strengthening the field of actors working to improve macro-level policymaking¹ to better respond to women’s needs and aspirations (what we refer to as WEE-Macro) in East and West Africa. This entails promoting fiscal, labor, and social policies that directly impact women’s everyday lives, including access to quality and affordable childcare, recognizing the value of unpaid work, and ensuring social protection for informal workers.

Strengthening the WEE-Macro field begins with funding organizations that are already working in these spaces. It also means encouraging other organizations and funders to enter the space — whether they come from a human rights lens or an economic development lens. And ultimately, it means sharing learning and increasing collaboration across these diverse domains.

Rather than supporting one type of organization or one perspective working on WEE-Macro, we support a range of different stakeholders, adopting what some might call “a field” or “an ecosystem” building approach.

“Taking that field level view,” as former Program Director Ruth Levine explained in her blog, Strength in Numbers: Taking a Field Level View, “program staff know that no one organization, no matter how impressive, will be able to make big change happen and stick. A whole constellation of organizations, both ones that are peers and ones that have different roles, are needed.”

  • A field is made up of many different players
  • Don’t let perfect be the enemy of the good

It will take communication, engagement, collaboration, shared learning, and ultimately having a multiplicity of voices at the table to encourage policymakers to start adopting and implementing macro-level economic policy that responds to women’s needs and aspirations. And we’re not there yet. We’re not even close. But we’re moving in the right direction.

Read the full article about lessons in women economic empowerment by Sarah Iqbal and Althea D. Anderson at Hewlett Foundation.