UNDP Maldives in collaboration with the Ministry of Economic Empowerment and Local Government Authority has successfully conducted the Women’s Development Committee (WDC) Economic Empowerment training programme.

This training programme is designed to assist WDCs to explore pathways for economic empowerment, as well as to empower WDCs to fulfil their mandate of facilitating women’s economic empowerment in their respective communities. A comprehensive training curriculum was developed specifically this program, which comprises of 14 modules that cover legal and technical requisites for developing and sustaining businesses. A total of 12 trainers from UNDP, Local Government Authority and Ministry of Economic Development were trained through a training of trainers’ programme prior to the pilot programmes.

The pilot programmes were conducted in three geographical areas (Dhaalu, Kaafu and Shaviyani Atoll) covering 26 islands/cities. Each programme was conducted over three days. The host islands selected for the pilot programmes were Dhaalu Kudahuvadhoo, Male’ City, and Shaviyani Funadhoo. A total of 65 WDC members and women councilors participated and completed the training programme.

UNDP aims to use the learnings and findings from the pilot programmes to refine the training curriculum and begin a series of women’s economic empowerment training programmes across the country in 2023.