As we celebrate International Women’s Day #IWD2025, I am delighted to have the opportunity to celebrate the work and achievements of the Work and Opportunities for Women (WOW) programme, which comes to a close this month.
WOW has been working to advance women’s economic empowerment in supply chains for 7 years, and I have been lucky enough to be part of the fantastic delivery team for the last 4 years.
In that time, we have partnered with businesses, NGOs and governments, impacting almost 250,000 women in global supply chains in 12 countries including Malawi, Kenya, Bangladesh and Indonesia. We have done this by enhancing their access to higher-return jobs, improving their working conditions and increasing their financial independence.
WOW has transformed communities, shifting deep-rooted norms while improving livelihoods. Across tea plantations, garment factories and agricultural sectors, the programme has tackled long-standing inequalities that have limited women’s economic participation.
Through our partnerships with organisations including Twinings, Waitrose and the Ethical Tea Partnership, we have piloted innovative solutions on unpaid care, gender-based violence and harassment, and climate change. WOW has helped to ensure that women are not only participants in supply chains but decision-makers in industries that drive economic and environmental progress.
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Winny (pictured above) is 29 and married with two children. She has half an acre of land on which she grows tea and vegetables which she sells and uses at home. Climate change – droughts and hailstorms – have affected her crops and her income. Winny became involved in the WOW project delivered with Twinings and the Laura Young Foundation. She is part of their Farmers’ Voice Radio programme, through which she has received advice on diversifying her income-generating activities and taking steps to protect her crops. She is building more security into the life of her family and – as a champion for the radio series and the chair of a women’s group – she is gaining respect and influence at home and in her community. |
WOW has also influenced wider practices across global supply chains, working with business networks such as Better Cotton and the Fair Circularity Initiative. We have engaged with social compliance platforms like Sedex, enabling more than 89,000 companies to access gender-disaggregated data that will help them understand and address inequality.
The WOW Helpdesk has supported 42 FCDO programmes, shaping their design to integrate women’s economic empowerment and influencing international policy discussions. And WOW’s support to NGOs WIEGO, SEWA and Equimundo helped focus minds on issues of informal work, land tenure and engaging men and boys.
WOW has been a catalyst for transformation, advancing gender equality, economic empowerment, clean energy adoption and climate resilience across global supply chains. WOW operated amidst a hugely challenging external environment, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the earlier round of UK aid cuts which saw the programme essentially stop half-way through. But, by being flexible, adaptive and focussing on a narrower set of objectives, we were still able to keep progressing. The programme has generated a wealth of learning, along with practical tools and guidance for business. All of our valuable resources can be found here.
I encourage you to use and share these resources, because despite all the political turmoil and push back against women’s rights, we have the knowledge and skills to continue the vital work to tackle gender inequity and mitigate the risks of climate change in global supply chains.
