Women's Empowerment & Socioeconomic Development

Situation
Immediately after independence from the Soviet Union, Tajikistan fell into a violent civil war. The five year war left an estimated 100,000 dead, and 1.2 million people as refugees.

In the Karateginskaya community, more than 200 people were killed during the civil war, and most homes and buildings in the area were destroyed. Women who lost their husbands had to survive with no breadwinner; they needed to feed themselves and their children, but had no job and no marketable skills.

This post-conflict community faced severe poverty and was still a potential flashpoint for conflict.

What We Did
The Women's Empowerment & Socioeconomic Development (WESED) Project, funded by a grant from the World Bank, improved the livelihoods of women heads-of-households (e.g. the primary earners in their households) through community mobilization, jobs skills and business training and access to credit.

Counterpart International mobilized the Karateginskaya community to start a women's association to address the community's social and economic needs, providing extensive technical assistance and mentoring in association development, social enterprise creation and provision of credit services.

Through the initiative of the women's association, a women's center was opened to provide members with daycare, health education, discussions on conflict resolution, fundraising information and organizational development training.

Impacts

• The women's association established with Counterpart's assistance grew to a $15,000 loan portfolio that disbursed credit to 78 women small-scale retail and agribusiness owners at a 100% repayment rate. The association's loan fund is the only functioning credit institution in the community today.
• Bunivoni Navovar (Women Innovators) was established and registered as an NGO in September 2003, and it still exists today.
• The Women’s Center was created to serve as a community resource center that is addressing priority needs as determined by its members. The center contains a resource library and is equipped with computers, and provides the community members with demand-driven services (e.g., daycare) and trainings on a variety of topics including family rights and responsibilities; basic healthcare and nutrition and conflict resolution.
• Water Users Committees were formed, resulting in access to clean potable water for the larger community of 12,000.
• A social enterprise bakery Sladko-Ezhka, owned by Bunivoni Navovar , was launched to serve as a means of job and financial sustainability for the organization and the women’s center. Nine women were hired, along with a master baker.
• The community now has its own health clinic, built by a local businessman and informal community leader following a social partnership roundtable with Counterpart and Bunivoni Navovar .