In the first input of the afternoon, Maja Rüegg, Advisor on Market System Development HELVETAS Swiss intercooperation, covered the topic of M4P and Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE). She explained that already in the last f2f in 2011 M4P and Gender was an important topic. Since then many things have happened: in January 2012 there was a discussion paper published, which was perceived as very important. In March 2012 an e-discussion within SDC’s private sector development dgroup was started and an e+i networks public seminar and internal workshop organised. In June 2012 a first Draft of Women’s Economic Empowerment guidelines was shared with partners and stakeholders to get feedbacks. Between November 2012 and May 2013 the guideline was revised and published.
The WEE guidelines were tested between February and April 2013 with the objective of narrowing down the list of questions, reflect on key success factors and identify gaps. Two projects (RLDP Tanzania and Samriddhi Bangladesh) were selected to test the guidelines with of two advisors from HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation Headoffice. A synthesis report [PDF] was written with the suggestion to include the prioritized key success factors as guiding structure for the WEE guideline.
The subsequent discussion, following the presentation, has shown that many participants have not yet worked with the WEE guidelines but the majority perceives the guideline as essential, especially for the inception phase of a project to incorporate the gender situation fully in the project planning. There are still needs to be fulfilled to encourage the application of the guidelines such as collecting feedback on conflicht of intrest, simplification of the guideline, provision of case studies, information of focal point to ensure the application. There are also still open questions: how to handle with all the different existing tool? How to ensure real operationalization? How to track partner organisations? How to distribute the knowledge within the organisations?
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Trouble viewing? Try fullscreen mode or download the PDF here: M4P and WEE [PDF]
Peter Beez, SDC focal point e+i, presented on M4P and Financial Sector Development with the objective to look at financial components of e+i and rural development projects. Jane Gisin, intern SDC, mentioned in her part the key M4P principles (facilitation role and strengthening/deepening of market development) and highlighted the areas for smart subsidies in financial inclusion. Peter Beez continued explaining the Do’s and Don’ts regarding promotion of access to financial services in e+i projects and concluded with the key message NOT to provide direct delivery of financial services but to facilitate change of systems and involve professionals to Financial Sector Development projects (or components).
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Trouble viewing? Try fullscreen mode or download the PDF here: Financial Component in SDC Projects[PDF]
