Economic Empowerment of Rural Women 

ObjectivesFund scope

Implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the United Nations entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) and the World Food Programme (WFP), the Joint Programme Accelerating Progress Towards Rural Women’s Economic Empowerment (JP RWEE) is forged from a unique UN partnership to tackles the barriers facing rural women. A holistic approach is applied encompassing social, economic and political domains of empowerment to create the enabling environment necessary for rural women’s economic empowerment.

JP RWEE draws on the complementary knowledge and gender expertise of four agencies: technical knowledge and policy assistance of FAO in food security, nutrition and climate-smart agriculture; experience of IFAD in co-financing rural investment programmes and addressing gender inequalities at the household, organization and community levels; WFP technical knowledge, experience and innovations in delivering food security and nutrition programming along the humanitarian-development-peace nexus, and the technical knowledge, expertise and partnerships of UN Women with global, regional and national mechanisms for gender equality and women’s empowerment.

The overarching goal of the programme is to secure rural women’s livelihoods, rights and resilience in the context of sustainable development, Agenda 2030 and the SDGs. The programme has four interrelated outcome areas:

• Improved food security and nutrition
• Increased income, decent work and economic autonomy
• Enhanced participation and leadership in rural life and institutions
• More gender-responsive policy environment.

The first phase of the programme was implemented in Ethiopia, Guatemala, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Nepal, Niger and Rwanda from 2014 to 2021, reaching 79,626 rural women and men (64,447 women and 15,382 men) and 407,667 household members. The second phase of the programme is now being implemented in Nepal, Niger, Tanzania, Tunisia and the Pacific Islands (Fiji, Kiribati, Solomon Islands, Tonga) from 2022 to 2027, with a view to further scale up to additional countries.

GovernanceGovernance arrangements

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International Steering Committee

Oversees the activities of the Fund and decides on its strategic direction; oversees the allocation of funds and sets priorities regarding implementation modalities, results-based reporting, and donor visibility. The Committee is composed of senior officials from participating UN organizations, representatives of each contributing donor to the RWEE Fund and representatives from national governments involved in the programme.

Technical Advisory Committee 

Provides technical support to steering committees and Participating UN Organizations. It is comprised of technical/advisor level representatives of FAO, IFAD, UN Women and WFP and contributes to ensuring harmonization of programme approaches and implementation.

National Steering Committee

Exists in all programme countries and are co-chaired by designated government officials and the leading stakeholder organization. Members include a representative from all participating entities, a representative from the ministries of agriculture/rural development, gender/women’s affairs, economy and finance, community/local development, youth and environment, and from main donors.

Global Secretariat

A Global Secretariat is hosted by WFP and is responsible for the overall coordination of the programme, the implementation of M&E systems, the consolidation of narrative reports, communications, knowledge management and resource mobilization.

National Steering Committee

Exists in all programme countries and are co-chaired by designated government officials and the leading stakeholder organization. Members include a representative from all participating entities, a representative from the ministries of agriculture/rural development and other ministries as determined at country level (e.g. gender/women’s affairs).  The committee oversees the allocation of ISC approved funds and ensures that the programme is line with national priorities.

Programme Management Unit

At country level, a Programme Management Unit (PMU) is hosted by the lead agency and staffed by a National Coordinator and MEAL Coordinator. The PMU is responsible for overall programme coordination and implementation at country level, ensuring strong coordination mechanisms are in place and that synergies are built between the agencies.

Administrative Agent

Participating Organizations receive funds through the Administrative Agent, the Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office. The Administrative Agent is responsible for the receipt, administration and management of contributions from donors, disbursement of funds to Participating Organizations, and dissemination of progress reports to donors.

Projects

Economic Empowerment of Rural Women

Economic Empowerment of Rural Women is currently supporting count_projects ongoing projectscount_globalInterregional and count_countries country-specific. This table shows the most recently approved ongoing projects.

All project financial information can be found in the Financials section, including delivery analysis by organization, theme and project; project financial status by country and by theme.

Economic Empowerment of Rural Women

ContactsPoints of contact

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