Pact WEP Program Wins World Bank Development Award

Pact's Women's Empowerment Program (WEP) in Nepal won its second World Bank Development Marketplace award January 10th, competing against 2400 other applicants from 122 countries. The 34 winners will share approximately $4 million in start-up funds to transform their ideas into projects that have the potential to eventually scale up and attract significant donor support. "The power of the literacy-led village banking WEP model is the contagion it unleashes when rural women learn to help themselves. Over 600 groups formed spontaneously when they saw their neighbor WEP women leaning to read, start small businesses and manage their own banks," said Pact President Sarah Newhall.

With the cash grant, Pact will be able to build on this contagion to tackle HIV/AIDS, which is reaching epidemic proportions in Nepal, particularly among the poor. "Combating HIV/AIDS: A Literacy and Economic Approach" will use an appreciative approach to enable women in WEP economic groups to continue to discover their own strengths, resources, and those of their communities. The project will promote women's ownership and control of the AIDS challenge through an action-oriented curriculum that focuses on behavior change by addressing attitudes, beliefs, skills, and the barriers that presently prevent women from doing what they know is in their best interest. At the same time women will be given opportunities to develop and carry out strategies to meet the HIV/AIDS challenge in their communities.

"It is a great testament to the spirit of Nepali women, whose drive to survive has propelled them to become readers, bankers and entrepreneurs and now fighters against HIV/AIDS," said Marcia Odell, director of Pact's Women's Empowerment Program.

Pact is an international development nonprofit headquartered in Washington, D.C. that focuses on contributing to the growth of civil societies through strengthening the community-focused nonprofit sector worldwide. It maintains field offices in Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe), Asia (Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal) and Latin America (Brazil, Peru).