This Post-Program Sustainability Assessment came together with the efforts of the CARE Yemen team in cooperation with the Regional Applied Economic Empowerment Hub through consultant Antoinette Alhaj-Stolk. The vision and commitment from Suha Basharen (CARE Yemen, Gender Specialist), Nicola Padamada (CARE Yemen, Program Quality), Caitlin Shannon (CARE USA ILKA), and Hiba Tibi (Manager Regional Hub) where crucial for the establishment of this assignment. The dedication from the CARE Yemen MEAL team made the data collection and analysis possible under difficult circumstances. We thank all staff and participants from CARE Yemen for sharing their viewpoints and contribute to more learning around supporting women’s economic activities in fragile settings.

Introduction

Rebuilding livelihoods is of key importance in fragile settings that experienced intense (man-made or natural) shocks causing distribution of household’s capacities to thrive. As CARE has defined its objective to contribute to the reduction of gender inequality and create equal opportunities for both men and women, it is a natural aspect of their work to integrate Women’s Economic Justice (WEJ) also in locations marked by long-term fragility. CARE does not only want to rebuild livelihoods, but it also wants to contribute to building a more inclusive economic system, where both men and women can benefit from and contribute to economic growth. Working in such fragile settings however, dominated by ongoing violence, destruction and the prioritization of humanitarian aid, requires a conscious adjustment of our vision and approach for WEJ. Several teams and programs, among them CARE Yemen and CARE Northeast Syria, have been piloting and learning about supporting WEJ in fragile settings. It is crucial for organizational growth and learning that these pioneering efforts are documented and further analysed.

This has been the objective of the forthcoming publication Women Economic Justice Review in Fragile Settings (by the Regional Applied Economic Empowerment Hub).

To generate additional data and evidence about the medium-term impact (1- to 3-year) of women’s economic empowerment programming in a fragile context like Yemen, a Post-Program Sustainability Assessment was undertaken. This assessment focussed on four closed projects implemented by CARE Yemen with a clear youth & women’s economic empowerment component. Building on CARE’s WEJ framework and the understanding of the project’s goals, the following objectives were set for the PostProgram Sustainability (PPS) Assessment.

? To observe the sustainability of four WEE/WEJ projects at the level of outputs, outcomes and impact, focusing on the unique project contributions to women’s economic empowerment and the impact areas of agency, relations and structure.

? To assess enabling and disabling factors (in project design and external environment) around the how and why of post project impact and empowerment results.

The conclusions and recommendations from this assessment are presented in this report after discussing the report’s findings. In addition, the findings were used in the Women Economic Justice review published in November 2022.

Source: CARE