Why HER.
Globally, women and girls are less educated, have higher rates of poverty and have fewer economic opportunities.
Global Give Back Circle exists to reverse these statistics.
Why Young Women in Africa
Too many young women in Kenya still face major barriers to education and paid work.
- Nearly half of women ages 20 to 35 are not engaged in paid work
- Women earn 18% less than men in the same roles
- Rural and arid regions face some of the steepest barriers
Why Focus on Barriers
Universal
Constraints
Gender-based discrimination in the workforce, restricted access to financial capital, and the heavy burden of unpaid caregiving and domestic labor.
Urban
Challenges
High educational costs (fees/materials), overcrowded or unsafe schools, and labor markets biased against hiring women for salaried roles.
Rural & Arid Challenges
Geographic isolation, extreme scarcity of jobs, and a mismatch between available vocational training and actual market demands.
The "Spectrum" of Exclusion
Economic barriers are not uniform; they compound as women move from resource-rich urban centers to resource-scarce rural environments.
Why Focus on Barriers
We support women and girls in urban and rural areas in Africa, where barriers to education and economic participation take different forms but share common foundations. Economic exclusion does not affect all young women in the same way; barriers intensify along a spectrum, from urban to rural settings and from resource-rich to resource-scarce environments. Across contexts, gender-based discrimination in the workforce limits access to employment and career advancement, while restricted access to capital and financial services curtails entrepreneurial activity. In urban areas, these constraints are compounded by high school fees, unsafe learning environments, overcrowded classrooms, and limited access to learning materials and technology, alongside labor markets marked by employer bias and scarce salaried work for women.
In rural and arid regions, barriers are shaped more heavily by geographic isolation and limited local labor markets, where education and training pathways are often misaligned with market needs, employment opportunities are few, and access to capital, information, and networks needed for workforce entry remains constrained. Across settings, caregiving responsibilities and domestic labor reduce the time and flexibility necessary to prioritize education, training, and paid work.
Why Women’s Economic
Participation Matters
When women participate fully in the economy, the benefits extend beyond individual income.
- Leads to better health and education for their families and strengthens entire communities.
- More resilient communities
- Effects carry across generations
The program focuses on “learning by doing,” working directly with young women to understand how to build pathways to dignified and fulfilling work.
The initiative simultaneously addresses the practical gap (lack of opportunities) and the evidence gap (lack of research) through direct support and grounded evidence.
Why Women’s Economic
Participation Matters
Research consistently shows that advancing women’s economic participation strengthens households, communities, and entire economies. When women earn income, they gain greater decision-making power, improved health outcomes, and increased engagement in social and political life. Their families also benefit through improved health and education outcomes, and the effects reverberate across generations.
Despite this evidence, most research on women’s economic empowerment has been conducted in wealthy or Western contexts. Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly rural and low-resource settings, remains underrepresented, even as economic development accelerates and gender equity policies expand. This gap limits our ability to design interventions that reflect the complexity of the contexts where barriers are most severe.
To our knowledge, research at the scale of the Economic Empowerment 4 HER program has not been conducted previously. Our work therefore addresses both a practical and an evidence gap. By combining implementation with learning, and by working alongside young women themselves, the program contributes to a more holistic and in-depth understanding of how pathways to dignified and fulfilling work can be constructed in contexts where such pathways have long been absent.
Read more in our Evidence Section
Advancing gender equity takes all of us.
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