THE ROLE OF INTEGRATED WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT PROGRAM IN ADDRESSING THE NEEDS OF WOMEN THE CASE OF VISION NEW LIFE DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION

Abstract

Integrated Women Empowerment Program (IWEP) aims to develop, test and implement a comprehensive approach to empower poor women and their households in selected areas of all regions of Ethiopia and thereby contribute towards poverty reduction. IWEP is being implemented in co-operation with the Federal Ministry of Education and national and regional partners within the nine regional states and two city administrations in Ethiopia. The general objective of this study was to assess the roles played by the IWEP in addressing the needs of women through implementing the program activities. The study has used both qualitative and quantitative research methods. The primary respondents of the research consists of 42 purposely selected women beneficiaries of the program. Besides, data were collected from 14 community facilitator, 2 supervisors and 3 concerned government sector representatives. The data were collected through questioner, interview and focus group discussion. The data were analyzed using descriptive texts and descriptive statistics (percentage). The results indicated that the Integrated Women Empowerment Program has delivered three services which are Functional Adult Literacy (FAL), skill training and entrepreneurship support by using different methods of implementation and contributed for women beneficiaries in the operational area. However there is a need on the part of the organization to strengthen its partnership with the government, and broaden its area towards educating women for productive and sustainable progress. Besides, the program of IWEP has to also closely follow up and monitor whether the implementing partner is in alignment with the programs approach rather than following the organizational ideologies.