This paper draws on the experiences, results, and lessons learned from the implementation of the Results-Based Initiatives (RBI) in Egypt, Kenya, Liberia, Mekong and Peru jointly by UN Women (then UNIFEM), the International Center for Research on Women and the World Bank.
The RBIs were a pioneering attempt to provide comprehensive, coherent, and rigorous evidence on effective interventions to foster the economic empowerment of women. The five small pilots with built-in impact evaluation were designed to identify what works best in promoting better outcomes for women as entrepreneurs, wage earners or farmers, under different country contexts. The RBI experiences provide many useful lessons for future pilots focusing on women’s economic empowerment.