Empowering women to end poverty: The Women’s Voices and Leadership project

Plan international Ethiopia and Canada and the Women Organizations /WO/ collective, through the support of global affairs Canada (GAC) has launched a five year initiative (arch 2019 to march 2024) focused on Women voice and leadership.
The project is part of a global initiative launched by GAC under the feminist international assistance policy (FIAP) which has an explicit focus on strengthening and supporting women’s organizations (WOs) and movements that advance women’s rights, gender equality, and the empowerment of women and girls, while also supporting evidence-based advocacy and program delivery for gender equality.
The project will reach over 100 WOs across four regions of Ethiopia (Amhara, Addis Ababa, Oromia, and southern Nations, Nationalities and peoples’ Region (SNNPR)).
The initiative aims to support WOs with the capacity, resources, and opportunity to realize their mission and vision, address their organizational challenges, promote efficiencies in programming, and create a platform for coordinated advocacy and networking.
The ultimate outcome of WVL-Ethiopia is increased achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. In order to achieve its ultimate objective, WVL-Ethiopia aims to improve management and sustainability of women’s organizations advancing gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in Ethiopia. Moreover, it aims to enhance performance of programming and advocacy of women’s organizations advancing gender equality and Increase effectiveness of national and sub-national women’s platforms. It further aims to recognize the restrictive funding environment forced by WOs and evidence that WOs are key drivers of delivering women’s human right and gender justice.
Global affairs Canada launched the initiative as part of Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy which is founded on the premise that gender equality is one of the most effective ways to eradicate poverty.
Plan International Ethiopia and Plan International Canada partnered with Global Affairs Canada on this innovative and feminist program to specifically lead the WVL-Ethiopia project in partnership with four women organizations (WOs).