Supporting Women’s Economic Empowerment: Scope for Sida’s Engagement

Women’s economic empowerment is one of the most important factorcontributing to equality between women and men. A specific focuson women is necessary given that women are a majority among economicallydisadvantaged groups. For this reason Swedish developmentcooperation prioritises support for women’s economic empowerment, aspart of its overall development programming.This thematic overview aims to generate a structured debate anddialogue on the subject of women’s economic empowerment. Its objectiveis to define the scope of operational programming in the contextof Sweden’s engagement with partner governments and institutions.Gendered power structures and social norms lock both women andmen in positions that limit their productivity and ability to make choicesto improve their situation. However, for the purpose of this paper wediscuss the economic empowerment of women, while stressing the needto work with men – as partners to women or sometimes due to theirown disadvantage.