include (1) a demand-driven fund that finances women’s group activities, such as handicraft production, the rearing of animals and poultry, and the organization of a daycare center; (2) capacity building and training for women’s groups and other project stakeholders on organization, facilitation, project design, appraisal, and monitoring and evaluation; and (3) information, education, and communication activities that enhance gender awareness (World Bank 2000a).

# _Measuring Empowerment in WDIP_

This exercise has two objectives: (1) to examine the general empowerment status of poor women in Ethiopia, and (2) to assess the impact WDIP may have on women’s empowerment. Communities are selected from the Amhara and Addis Ababa regions. The study uses a mixed-methods approach, applying qualitative techniques such as semistructured individual and key-informant interviews, and focus group discussions. Results from this qualitative enquiry were used to develop testable hypotheses and indicators, which then framed a quantitative survey. Data collected using a household survey instrument are currently under analysis.

Qualitative data were collected in communities where WDIP is present from both beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries. During the quantitative stage as well, data were collected for both the treatment and a control (non-WDIP beneficiaries) group. The sample communities are at different stages of implementing WDIP components.

The qualitative and quantitative instruments gather data on women’s assets, their opportunity structure, and degrees of empowerment in all three domains. Asset and degree of empowerment indicators mainly correspond to the local and intermediary level. Opportunity structure indicators also encompass the macro level.

Table 1 in annex 2 provides examples of indicators used in this study. To illustrate, in the state domain/political sub-domain, the degree of empowerment indicators include the ratio of women versus men represented in village and district councils as well as the question of how women are affected by the country’s judicial environment. This includes both how women are treated within the national judicial system and by the laws upheld in the traditional courts still operating in the country. Assets that may help women both increase their representation (and influence) in the district councils and get a fair treatment in the juridical system include previous participation in associations (social assets) or political parties (political assets) as well as their level of education (human asset) and self-confidence (psychological asset) and the extent of their awareness of their rights (human asset). Opportunity structure indicators refer to formal rules of the game such as the existence of laws that ensure women equal treatment within the judicial system and grant them representation in community groups and councils. With regard to informal rules, indicators gauge the extent to which formal legislature may contradict or be in tension with traditional practices, making (a) women less likely to obtain justice than men, and/or (b) less able to engage in political matters/public life.

In the market domain/labor sub-domain, one of the degrees of empowerment indicators is the extent to which women are able to choose their type of employment. Asset indicators capture women’s education and income levels, their possession of job-specific skills, and 18