1. What is the cause of the fragility?

First and foremost, the responsibility to protect requires that any

humanitarian intervention does not endanger women or make them
targets. Implementing any program without a firm understanding of the
cultural norms and potential effects of actions has the capacity to result
in greater insecurity for women. While this concept is mostly used in
relation to human security, it also includes the protection of economic,
social and cultural rights.

When examining context, the first step is to understand if the instability

and lack of empowerment is due to insecurity (war and conflict) or due
to cultural factors (entrenched attitudes and societal structures) as each
situation will require a different response.

Paradoxically, highly unstable environments that have suffered massive

war or conflict may offer more opportunities for advancing women’s
economic empowerment than seemingly more stable situations, where
disempowerment is culturally entrenched. The moment when
institutions are being rebuilt offers a great opportunity to integrate
greater women’s participation. In conflict affected countries, however,
there is also greater risk of sexual violence toward women due to
displacement, economic insecurity and marred social networks.

In a study drawing on the World Bank’s “Moving Out of Poverty” data

set, researchers found that women who live in communities directly
affected by violent political conflict had higher levels of empowerment
measures than women in communities that did not experience conflict.
In fact, the study demonstrated that many women helped their
households cope by expanding and intensifying their economic activities
during periods of violence.

2. What institutional and societal changes need to

be made?

We have learned a lot about improving economic access for women

through shifting from a gender approach, where we are merely targeting
women in our programs, to an empowerment approach, where women
are included and made part of the process.

An integrated approach requires the analysis of structural changes that

must occur in the rest of society. What rights do women lack? Where are
the barriers that are locking them out of the economic system? This is
where good advocacy work comes into play, by asking the question:
What needs to change in society for women to be empowered?

Often, the necessary institutional changes are not what one would
expect. For example, women in DRC can’t get a bank account because
they need to show title to land, something that women are not allowed to
possess in DRC. For this reason, the World Bank supported a program to
develop a new family code to improve the business climate for women.
The new code would no longer require the permission of a married
woman’s husband in order for her to have financial access. To
accomplish this, however, the project needed extensive support from
government leaders and the larger community. Thus, they actively
supported workshops for the Ministry of Women that were designed to
advocate how the new family code economically benefits multiple actors
like senators, private sector organizations, civil society and
parliamentary duties.

3. How should men be involved?

Likewise, it’s not enough just to target and train women. In most
societies where women are not economically valued, the problem has
very little to do with women and much more to do with men, specifically
how they view and treat women. To successfully empower women, it’s
essential to have a household approach that educates both men and
women on how to make household financial decisions, on the value of a
woman in her community and society, and on the economic potential
that women have for their households and communities. Thus, training,
advocacy campaigns and other interventions should be geared toward
both women and their families.

Moreover, if a women’s empowerment program doesn’t take men into

account in situations of conflict or violence, the intervention can cause
more harm than good and might even attract more violence to women.
For instance, microcredit programs are often criticized for their capacity
to backfire on the women they were aimed to empower. When
microcredit loans were offered in rural parts of conflict-torn Kyrgyzstan,
researchers found that some men were depressed and channeled this
frustration into greater domestic violence and the suppression and
discrimination of women at home.

While the program did provide women with greater financial access, this
intervention ultimately failed because it never considered the context in
which it was applied. Emerging research suggests that programs that
also engage men can combat the observed increase in domestic violence
as women become more financially independent.

4. Can developing an alternative structure bring

about change in society?

R. Buckminster Fuller once said, “You never change things by fighting

the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes
the existing model obsolete.”

Often the most efficient way to change structures is through working

directly with the government. But some governments and institutions
will be resistant to change or slow to progress. While keeping protection
in mind, creating alternative structures can enable more widespread
public acceptance, even without government and societal buy in.

Take for example Aga Khan Foundation’s work in Pakistan, where

women traditionally are not allowed to engage in commercial activities.
There, AKF is creating a substitute structure that circumvents the
barriers to participation. During the two years of the intervention, 500
shops opened within 29 project-supported women’s markets. These
shops inspired other women entrepreneurs, who joined to together to
open over 100 non project markets with an additional 350 shops. The
result was greater confidence in decision making and higher incomes for
women and strong buy in from local male authorities and community
leaders who have become champions of women-run businesses.
So, there actually is an answer to the question, “How do we teach our
women to be empowered when even the little they have is taken from
them by their husbands?”

It’s not as simple as teaching women to be empowered. The solution

must involve a multidimensional approach that targets the individual,
community — including men — and the existing institutions, as part of
the solution. In more difficult situations, empowerment and change
might require a more creative response, but even in the most difficult of
contexts, progress can be made toward women’s economic
empowerment.