Reaching the Unreached: Scale-Up Empowerment Study

Abstract

The Reaching the Unreached — Scale-Up (RtU-S) project was launched in 2018 and completed in 2021. It was an extension of the Reaching the Unreached project (RtU) and sought to expand the success of the initial project in providing hard-to-reach women and girls with education and economic opportunities. RtU-S continued its activities in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan and began new work in Sri Lanka. RtU-S was made possible with support from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia. This study explores women’s and girls’ empowerment from the start of the project (the baseline) to its completion (the endline). It uses the Measuring Empowerment Index framework developed by COL to conceptualise and measure empowerment in the context of the project (Carr, 2016). The data were drawn from the baseline and endline surveys that had been created to capture change over time in the project and analysed through index scores on various empowerment concepts.