WOCAN has created the first-of-its-kind social benefit standard, the W+ Standard, designed to measure the positive impact projects can provide to women and women’s groups in six key areas: Time, Health, Income and Assets, Food Security, Knowledge and Education and Leadership. The measured benefits are turned into W+ Units where each W+ Unit represents the social and economic value of women. (http://www.wplus.org/w-projects)
Purchasing these social assets allows buyers to invest in driving positive, measured social change for women and economic wins for local communities, because profits from the sales of the W+ Units return to the women in project communities, benefiting their families and communities.
The first W+ project was completed in 2014, where women in rural villages of Nepal replaced their smoky wood burning stoves with those fueled by clean-burning biogas, relieving them of the need to spend hours each day collecting fuel wood from the forest. This change saved the Nepalese women over two hours every day. This time saved became time that the women could use to increase their income, take on leadership roles in the community, learn new skills, grow additional crops, care for children and the elderly, improve their health, support their community and benefit from rare leisure time
These W+ Units are investments in improving the lives of women and the people they support.
Please visit http://www.wplus.org/w-projects to learn more and to buy W+ Units.