WEEP is an abbreviation for the Women Economic Empowerment Project in Lebanon. The project is initiated in 2000 by the CRTD for a period of 6 years, and with the support of the British Embassy in Beirut and the Global Fund for Women and it covers the whole of Lebanon as well as Egypt and Morocco.

The overall PURPOSE of the project is providing support to women and development NGOs in enhancing their organizational development and achieving long-term financial sustainability. It attempts at initiating a sustainable change in gender relations through empowering women and building their capacities to form or maintain their own grassroots organizations.

The specific OBJECTIVES of the project are:

• Supporting the women and grassroots NGOs in improving their skills in terms of macro and micro analysis, planning, monitoring and internal organizational development.
• Supporting skills in gender and development, gender mainstreaming, gender analysis and participatory methods.
• Promoting learning on economic literacy, economic rights and economic empowerment for women within targeted NGOs.
• Encouraging the development of transparent and accountable organizational culture vis-à-vis the constituency, stakeholders and donors in development NGOs.

The project COMPONENT program area is:

In accordance with its purpose and objectives, the project is made up of three COMPONENT program areas, namely:

• Economic literacy training (“Linking Economic Literacy and Awareness Raising for Women’s Empowerment” Component)

The project ACTIVITIES are:

The project ACTIVITIES involve trainings for women and development NGOs in Lebanon, Egypt and Morocco on the following areas:

• Gender and development
• Women and leadership
• Economic literacy and women’s work
• Financial sustainability
• Marketing and accountancy skills for women NGOs and women coops
• Gender, youth and development
• Participatory development
• Economic opportunities for women
• Organizational support, setting up of local women’s groups

Among the BENEFICIARIES of the project are:

• Women in informal groups and organizations
• Local women and/or community organizations
• Women producers organized in coops or production units
• Housewives (i.e. women with no formal employment)
• Fisherfolks
• Young women (either students or with no formal employment)
• Women school teachers
• Illiterate women
• School dropouts
• Young women graduates from vocational training courses (most of whom still unemployed)

The project expects to produce IMPACT on at least 3 different levels:

• At the level of intermediary women and grassroots NGOs in terms of supporting them to improve their ability to develop and manage more efficient and sustainable programs which will contribute to a positive transformation in the existing relations of gender.
• At the level of women in the community through empowering the community women by means of encouraging their active participation and implementation of initiatives designed for improving the situation of women within and beyond their household.
• At the policy formulation and advocacy level by providing insight to the beneficiary women and NGOs in terms of viewing their situation within the wider framework of policy-making in the country.

What has the WEEP Project achieved so far?

The project produced a number of outputs during the period under review. At the level of the project beneficiaries, the main achievements and outputs of the project may be summarized as follows:

• Newly formed women groups at the community level
• Accrued knowledge base through training and building capacities
• Emergence and establishment of new economic initiatives for women
• Emergence of new women leaders at local levels
• Involvement of women beneficiaries in local elections Women’s active participation in project implementation and future planning