Project profile — Women's Economic Linkages and Employment Development

The expected outcomes for this project are: (1) increased employment of women; and (2) reduced gender-specific barriers to women's entrepreneurship and to women entering into and remaining in the workforce.

Results achieved as of March 2023 include: (1) increased employment of women in the health and childcare sectors within the target communities by 25% (130 out 523 unemployed women and female youth), and is on track to reach the target of 50%; (2) 29 women graduates out of 213 joined the workforce. Of these, more than half found employment as Medical Office Assistants at hospitals and private clinics, in the Early Child Care Development (ECCD) sector and in the Health Support Workers (HSW) program; (3) seven out of ten women started home-based nurseries, which demonstrates that these women obtained new skills and gained the confidence to run a business; (4) reduced gender-specific barriers to women's entrepreneurship and to women entering into and remaining in the workforce; (5) provided education sessions, awareness-raising campaigns and community-level activities, which reached 2,223 people directly and approximately 3.9 million people indirectly; (6) implemented three piloted childcare strategies to help reduce gender-specific barriers to women’s entry in the workforce. This includes an ECCD training program, a nursery in Irbid’s Vocational Training Center (VTC), and a nursery in Istishari Hospital, which helped improve childcare services in Jordan; (7) conducted a survey at Istishari Hospital, where all respondents reported that having childcare services available in the workplace increased the option for flexible working hours. Also increased awareness on policies related to childcare and women's rights and alleviated some of the women’s financial burdens; (8) established two nurseries in partnership with the National Council for Family Affairs, one within the Irbid VTC and one in a private hospital, benefiting 56 women and seven men and enrolling a total of 78 children; and (9) 79 women benefited from the Training for employment in childcare strategy by completing the ECCD training program.