The W+ Standard TM

Accelerating Investment in Women

The RationaleIn much of the world, women comprise the majority of farmers and natural resource managers, yet are often excluded from decision-making and do not have an equal access to resources.

Strengthening women’s empowerment will provide environmental, social and economic benefits for climate change adaptation and mitigation, resilience and food security.

Governments, development agencies, philanthropists and investors are increasingly funding women’s empowerment/ gender equality. However, what is

lacking is a robust means of measuring these outcomes in a way that can be simply communicated.

Women Organizing for Change in Agriculture & NRM (WOCAN), a leader in women’s empowerment in agriculture and natural resource management recognized the need and developed the W+ Standard to measure the impact of women’s empowerment and accelerate investments in women- particularly women’s groups - to address persistent gaps in their access to resources and capital and scale up solutions to climate change, food security and poverty.

The W+ Standard is a unique certification label that endorses projects that create increased social and economic benefits for women participating in economic development or environment projects, including those that provide renewable energy technologies, time and labor saving devices, forest and agriculture activities, and employment opportunities.

The W+ is an innovative framework to quantify and monetize the social capital created by women, to recognize and reward their contributions to sustainable environments and communities.

The W+ provides metrics to measure, quantify and verify outcomes within existing and new projects in 6 domains

Introducing the W+ Standard

Benefits of Applying the W+ StandardW+ produces quantified women-benefit units that contribute towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Climate Financing or Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) targets

W+ enables governments, companies, philanthropists and investors to achieve transparency and effectiveness using a results-based framework to ensure progress towards women’s empowerment that is measured in units.

Purchase of the W+ units provide a credible and efficient way for public and private sector entities to achieve their women’s empowerment/ gender targets.

Companies can use the W+ label to indicate their commitment to women’s empowerment to consumers of their products.

W+ provides an opportunities to go beyond ‘do no harm’ and be part of significant positive changes in the lives of women.

Benefits to Women’s Groups

Two types of benefits for women: those from the project activities required for W+ Standard and direct payments .

Through direct payments to women in project communities the W+ Standard can catalyze new actions to reduce poverty, drudgery and food insecurity, improved health and education and provide channels for women’s leadership in the community

By certifying projects that are environment and women- friendly, the W+ Standard has the potential to attract more attention and investments into the development of affordable women friendly technologies (time and energy-saving) and the creation of ‘green’ jobs and enterprises.

How it works

Development of Project

Design Document

Baseline

survey Measurem

ent of Results

Verification

Issuance of units

Direct paymen

ts to women1

2

3

6

5

4

7Consultation

s with women

Stakeholders

Existing or new projects should assess how the W+ can be integrated into their project. Any type of economic development or environment project is potentially applicable: forest, renewable energy, clean water, agriculture, etc.

Outcomes are monitored and measured as per the Methods indicators

Outcomes are verified by independent W+ accredited auditors.

Projects must develop a plan to implement women’s empowerment activities and measure progress in at least one of the six domains

Baseline surveys are conducted using the W+ Methods specific to selected domains.

Projects that have obtained satisfactory results will be issued W+ certificates for a specific number of units to achieve goals for women’s empowerment.

The W+ will also provide a new revenue stream to women and their groups through direct payment mechanisms required by the Standard.

These units can also be purchased by individuals and corporations to demonstrate their support for women’s empowerment.

W+ Governing BodyW+ Advisory Council provides objective input on strategy, marketing and connections to networks. Council members are associated with the following organizations:

W+ Standard Committee is an independent body that is a subset of the Advisory Council, composed of specialists to provide expertise, guidance and decisions on standard revisions, methodology approval, rule changes and appeals.

The W+ Standard’s membership application to ISEAL Alliance is under review. The ISEAL Alliance is the global membership association for sustainability standards.

Clients and Partners

• Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Netherlands

• Terra Global Capital, USA• Verified Carbon Standard

(VCS), USA• Social Auditors Network

(SAN), UK• World Bank, USA• Det Norske Veritas (DNV),

Norway

• Hilton Worldwide, Singapore• South Pole Group,

Switzerland• Swedish Cooperative Centre

and Vi Agroforestry, Kenya• Defensive Portfolio

Management (DPM), USA• Nedbank Capital, South

Africa

Getting Involved

To Apply the W+ Standard • WOCAN’s W+ Team can provide technical services to • Assess feasibility of W+ application• Development of the project Design Document (PDD)• Assist in implementation • Measure results

To Support Women’s Empowerment:• Purchase W+ Units at www.wplus.org/w-projects and through W+ unit

sellers • Invest in a future projects by purchasing advance W+ units, or invest in a

fund that to provides capital for such projects. • Partner with WOCAN to support the development of the W+ Standard

and provide seed funding through tax deductible contributions to WOCAN

For more information visit www.wplus.org or contact wplus@wocan.org

W+ Applications as of December 2015

Biogas Digester Program in Nepal – measured and

verified increase in women’s discretionary time of 2.26 hours/day for 2400

women

Biogas Digester Program in Indonesia Developed

for HIVOS – measured increase in women’s

discretionary time of 1.1 hours/day for 4550 women

Improved Cook stove project in Honduras for

HIVOS- measured increase in women’s discretionary time

Aquaculture supply chain in Indonesia for OXFAM GB ,WWF and

companies

More applications planned for agriculture, agro

forestry, water and food related projects in Africa

and Asia.

Version 1.1 January 2016Cover Photo: © ASHDEN/Martin

Wright