Empowering mothers improves early childhood development: Nine ways to promote women's agency

Evidence shows that when women have more decision-making power, their young children thrive. On International Women’s Day, we’re pleased to share nine ways to #AccelerateAction to empower women. Here are just three of the nine:

💡 Encourage men to share childcare and family responsibilities.

💡 Prevent and respond to gender-based violence and offer women mental health support.

💡 Prevent teen pregnancy through better education and involving the community.

We know that effective action comes from a deep understanding of the reality of women’s lives and the practices and policies that shape them.

To gain that understanding, we, together with our partners, conducted participatory, community-level research in four . Our valued community partners in this research were TAHEA Mwanza, Sawa Wanawake Tanzania (SAWA), Women Against AIDS in Kilimanjaro (KIWAKKUKI), and Thubutu Africa Initiatives (TAI). We also are grateful for support from the Tanzania ECD Network (TECDEN).

We invite you to read the briefing – and all nine recommendations – here.

The actual research report, by authors Lorraine Kiswaga and Francis Lyimo, is here.