UNDP/Japan Women in Development Fund

About the Fund

JWIDF History

Liberia: "Women's Economic Empowerment in Liberia"

At inception, priority areas of support were selected in line with Japan's Women in Development (WID) Initiative*, which aimed at empowering women at a grassroots level to secure sustainable livelihoods and improved access to productive and social services, i.e. credits and enterprise development, vocational training, education, and health services. The WID Initiative was later replaced by the Gender and Development (GAD) Initiative in 2005.

In response to the Millennium Declaration and the establishment of the Millennium Development Goals, JWIDF shifted its priority to funding innovative initiatives that generate greater policy impact. Projects were encouraged to address the gender dimensions of emerging development challenges such as trade, macroeconomic frameworks, HIV/AIDS, and ICT, and to build on strategic partnership and policy dialogues that advocate for gender responsive policies and programmes. Conscious efforts were taken to bridge the grassroots level and the upstream policy level, to allow women’s knowledge and experience feed into policy making processes.

JWIDF knowledge and experience remain relevant and contribute to the implementation of UNDP’s Gender Equality Strategy 2008-2011.

JWIDF Strategic Interventions

Vietnam: "Literacy and Vocational Education for Ethnic Minority Girls and Women"

JWIDF projects have been carefully selected and implemented in the aim to generate multiple impacts: good practices are oftentimes replicated or scaled up while knowledge and experiences generated out of such projects are disseminated widely among development policy makers and practitioners. In doing so, there are four key approaches that define effective and sustainable interventions: innovations, partnerships, dialogue and capacity development.

A. Innovations

B. Partnerships

C. Dialogue

D. Capacity Development

How to seek JWIDF Support

Independent contribution of the Government of Japan to the JWIDF funding ceased in 2002, however, project proposals that support national capacities in promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment remain accessible through the Japan-UNDP Partnership Fund. Please send project concept notes to the JWIDF Programme Manager, Chikako Kodama, UNDP Gender Team, who works in close partnership with the Partnership Bureau.

For specific project ideas and entry points, please refer to Section VI. Achieving Results-Gender Equality and the Focus Areas of the Gender Equality Strategy 2008-2011. The emphasis on innovations, partnerships, dialogue, and capacity development remain unchanged.

Please contact: Chikako Kodama (chikako.kodama@undp.org) for more details.

For detailed funding approval process of the Japan-UNDP Partnership Fund, please see here (internal UNDP intranet site).

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