A Better Living, One Stitch at a Time
How one project in Morocco is empowering women through training in climate-resilient agriculture and handicrafts
In 2017, Jamila faced a choice. A 28-year-old unmarried woman living in a small village in the Ghassate region of Morocco, Jamila struggled every day to find work. To support her family, Jamila found occasional jobs as a rancher—grueling work in the High Atlas Mountains. Like her mother, Farah, she was willing suffer the extreme temperatures, the backbreaking physical toll, the unpredictable hours, but as a woman she faced frequent discrimination and was hired for only 3 or 4 days per month. She struggled to earn enough to subsist. “My family’s combined income was not enough,” she says. “I relied heavily on my brothers.”
When a representative from the Livelihoods Project visited her family home in 2017, he told Jamila that the project was offering free training courses in sewing and tailoring. As Jamila listened to him speak, her hands folded in her lap, she wondered if her calloused fingers could even handle a sewing needle. She had never sewn a stitch in her life. Still, Jamila was tired of scraping by, tired of depending on her brothers. What would it be like, she wondered, to earn her own keep, perhaps to someday have her own business?
She decided to enroll in the program, tackling it with the same determination and grit with which she approached every challenge in life. Today, she says, “I am the president of the Noor Chams Cooperative, the only women’s sewing cooperative in Ghassate.” With the help of the Livelihoods Project, Jamila became a skilled tailor. She was able to buy her own sewing machine and now runs a small business from her house, making bags, bedsheets, and clothing. Her household income has more than doubled, and her financial security lies in her own hands.
Since 2013, the Livelihoods Project has improved women’s economic opportunities in this region of Morocco. The project developers use the W+ Standard™ — the first women-specific framework measuring the outcomes of women’s empowerment — to quantify the project’s impact in two domains: Income & Assets, and Knowledge & Education. The rigorous methodology of the W+ Standard, combined with third-party validation by the Social Audit Network, makes it possible for the project developers to report precise improvements in the lives of women. Each 10% improvement generates one W+ unit, which can then be sold to mission-aligned buyers who want to be sure that their dollars are making real social impact.
By creating agricultural and handicraft cooperatives, the Livelihoods Project has helped women achieve a 67% increase in income and assets. Women in the handicraft cooperative achieved a 228% increase in knowledge on craft production. Many of the participants were young, single women, who gained valuable skills and lifelong income potential. Many also reported that the projects significantly improved their confidence and participation in decision-making.
By empowering these women, this project delivers impact on multiple Sustainable Development Goals. Not only have these outcomes advanced gender equality (SDG-5) within the household and the marketplace, they are also lowering poverty rates (SDG-1) by improving women’s lifelong earning potential. Research shows that more cash in the hands of women contributes not only to eliminating poverty, but also to better education, nutrition, and health outcomes for children and other members of the household.
Empower Co. is building a transparent, robust global voluntary market for women’s empowerment — one W+ unit at a time. In addition to supporting existing impact and helping to scale the project, the sale of W+ units generates a new stream of revenue for the women: Empower Co. requires that at least 25% of proceeds from these sales go directly back to the women and women’s groups involved, who have full discretion over these funds. As women like Khadija have shown, despite challenging circumstances, women in rural communities are incredibly resilient and innovative. Ensuring their labor is adequately and accurately valued is not only morally right, it is the path toward a more inclusive, sustainable, and prosperous future for all.
*All names have been changed to protect privacy.