When you drink a cup of coffee, you’re likely enjoying coffee beans that were grown and harvested by women farmers from rural areas. No matter the price you pay for your latte, relatively few dollars make it back to these women who are the providers of food, education and healthcare for their families and communities.
It’s challenging to determine how to best create measurable change in the lives of these women, so a group of women’s empowerment and financial experts have developed the W+ Standard, which measures how companies, governments and individuals can drive social and economic empowerment for women. The W+ Standard tracks women’s empowerment in six areas: time, income/assets, health, leadership, education/knowledge and food security. Establishing this standard of measurement made it possible to create W+ Units that investors can purchase to ensure progress in these areas.
These W+ Units are social assets–investments in improving the lives of women and the people they support.The W+ Unit represents the social and economic value of women. Purchasing these social assets allows investors to drive positive social change for women and economic wins for local communities, because profits from the sales of the W+ Units return to women and benefit their families and communities. And organizations can trust these investments, since they follow the W+ Standard that measures and verifies results on the ground.
W+ Units make it possible for companies, governments and individuals to make certified investments in women’s empowerment, and these investments yield measurable outcomes for women, the supply chain and the investor.
Find out more : http://www.wplus.org/about-wplus
