Capacity Development for Women’s Economic Empowerment.

Capacity development to be provided by the GREAT Women Project is aimed at increasing the ability of individuals, organizations, institutions to perform their functions, fulfill their mandates and achieve their goals by integrating gender and women’s economic empowerment perspective in their inputs, strategies, processes, and systems. Gender and development and women’s economic empowerment become value-adding perspectives to the way national government agencies and local government units develop and implement policies and plans relative to MSME development and deliver programs and services to women in livelihoods and microenterprises.

Capacity development for NCRFW, national and local partners under the GREAT Women Project is in the form of technical assistance, training, coaching and mentoring, provision of tools and knowledge materials and linkaging with experts and specialists from government agencies, private sector or business support organizations, academe, among others. It also constitutes mainstreaming the cross-cutting themes of gender, economic governance, enterprise development and environment in the development planning process of national government agencies and local government units, i.e., policy-making, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

As the GREAT Women Project is a capacity development project, it will not provide microcredit, loan assistance or information on business development to women entrepreneurs. It is not a help desk for women victims of domestic violence or even of business fraud.

Rather, the Project develops the capacities of national and local partners to create or enhance policies, plans, programs and services for women entrepreneurs. As their capacities are developed, national government agencies and local government units become better able in assisting women needing business services, facilities and resources.