Women’s Economic Empowerment in Jalisco

Credit Dzilam Méndez 4.jpg — Women’s Economic
Empowerment in Jalisco

Evaluating the Co-Meta Initiative and Collective Impact

In the state of Jalisco, Mexico, men’s rate of economic participation is 78 per cent, while the rate for women is only 45 per cent. This stark difference represents a 33 per cent gender gap in economic participation in the labour force. Because of historical, social and cultural barriers, the economic prospects for women remain quite low. ProSociedad launched the Co-Meta initiative to address this structural inequality. Co-Meta mobilizes a network of local economic and social actors who support women’s economic empowerment. The network connects business leaders from across Jalisco to act as mentors and instructors with marginalized women in the region.

This Reach Alliance research project, in collaboration with ITESO Universidad and ProSociedad, seeks to generate new and actionable knowledge focused on strengthening the Co-Meta Initiative’s delivery and framework. The initiative is modelled after the idea of collective impact — an intervention approach in which actors from different backgrounds join together to pursue a common goal. Researchers expand on the collective impact framework and suggest that a strong and effective program requires: a common agenda, mutually reinforcing activities, a “backbone” function, continuous communication, a shared measurement system, training, organizational trust, capacity building and funding, an equity and community lens and systems change.

We interviewed network actors and program implementers to glean useful insights into how Co-Meta operates and to identify opportunities for improvement. Our evaluation of Co-Meta uses each of the collective impact elements to organize insights and recommendations resulting from our research. Key recommendations for Co-Meta to improve program delivery and increase its impact focus on effective communication, baseline training, offboarding and monitoring and evaluation.

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