History

WORTH builds on Pact's award-winning women's empowerment project in Nepal funded by USAID. The project, which was implemented between 1998 and 2001, demonstrated that large numbers of poor women have the capacity to quickly move themselves from being illiterate to being literate, income producing, and socially active members of their communities. In three short years:

• The number of literate women increased from 39,000 to 125,000
• Savings increased by over $1 million, from $720,000 to $1,800,000
• The number of women in business grew from 19,000 to 86,000
• Annual incomes from women's businesses increased from $1.2 million to over $10 million
• Family spending for family well being increased an average of 5%
• Women increased their decision-making role concerning family planning, marriage of their children, the buying and selling of property, and sending their daughters to school
• Spending on the education of women's daughters and sons increased

The model for WORTH was first piloted in Nepal under a four-year, USAID-funded grant entitled the Women's Empowerment Program (WEP), which ran from 1998 to September 2001. A second phase of WEP was funded by the World Bank Development Marketplace. This grant went directly to a newly localized Pact organization, Samjauta Nepal.