CONTRIBUTION OF INTEGRATED WOMEN EMPOWERMENT PROGRAM (IWEP) ON THE LIVELIHOOD OF RURAL WOMEN IN SOUTH NATIONS, NATIONALITIES AND PEOPLES’ REGION. THE CASE OF CHEHA WOREDA

Abstract

Women empowerment is an essential precondition for the elimination of world poverty and the upholding of human rights. Integrated Women Empowerment Program (IWEP) was designed to empower women in their day to day life in the project area. The women in the project area participate in farm work prepare family food, engage in petty trading and supply fabricated goods such as oil, salt, and sugar to the family. The purpose of this study is to identify the contribution of Integrated Women Empowerment Program for the livelihood of Rural Women in Cheha Woreda. The program was implemented in Cheha Woreda from 2008-2012. The program integrated the former separated empowerment programs of women empowerment dimensions aspects such as literacy, income generating activities and skill training for entrepreneurship. It was a new approach of empowering the poor rural women. The study was conducted using comparative study to identify the status of project beneficiary women in relation with the integrated empowerment components. A total of 83 respondents were used for the study. They were selected using stratified random sampling from four kebeles of Cheha Woreda. The quantitative data was collected through mix items questionnaire and the qualitative data’s through interview and group discussions. The collected data was organized and analyzed using descriptive statistics. The findings of the study indicated that integrating women empowerment grogram was a good approach to empower the poor rural women. The study reveals that the beneficiaries of the project, the poor rural women, had shown improvement in literacy, engagement in income generating activities and in decision making ability. When the Literacy program was given with livelihood components to empower rural women, rural women become empowered within a short period of time.