Girls Education and Women Empowerment and Livelihoods (GEWEL) Project

The GEWEL Project aims to support the Government of Zambia to increase access to livelihood support to women and access to secondary education to disadvantaged girls in selected districts. The Project has three Components namely (1) Supporting Women’s Livelihood (SWL) which is administered by the Ministry of Community Development and Social Services; (2) Keeping Girls in School (KGS) under the Ministry of General Education and Institutional Strengthening and (3) System Building (ISSB) under the Gender Division. Under component 1 the project has been implementing Social Cash Transfer (SCT) – giving regular cash stipends to the poorest families in Zambia who have someone that cannot work because of disability, age, or other reasons. For component 2 GEWEL has been paying secondary education costs for girls in SCT families, starting with 16 districts at first, then scaling up to 27 and currently is in 39 districts (out of a total of 116 districts in Zambia). The project has been paying tuition fees, exam fees, and formal boarding school fees for girls in boarding school. Finally, to advance component 3 Supporting Women’s Livelihoods (SWL) – helping women from SCT families to start small businesses to increase the incomes of their families. SWL helps women in working age, between 19-64 years old. Women receive support for the period of one year, including (a) the opportunity to participate in savings groups with other women; (b) a 21-day life and business skills training; (c) a productive grant equivalent to US$225.