Monitoring & Evaluation Framework & Plan

Background The Institute for Economic Empowerment of Women has been educating women business owners in Afghanistan and Rwanda for the past 16 years through our PEACE THROUGH BUSINESS (PTB) program. More than 1,000 women have graduated from this program. And while we've seen success in terms of the number of direct beneficiaries (graduates), we have not invested efforts into assessing the longer-term impact of this program on these women's businesses. We have asked the graduates to self-report on a number of quantitative and qualitative aspects of their business, but we have not had a systematic way of collecting or verifying data to assess the impact of our program. Objective To develop and implement a M&E strategy that will allow us to systematically collect and analyze data to assess the impact of our PTB program on women business owners, their businesses, and their local economy.

Landscape Analysis

Overview The Institute for Economic Empowerment of Women has been educating women business owners in Afghanistan and Rwanda for the past 16 years through our PEACE THROUGH BUSINESS (PTB) program . There are three primary components to the program: (1) Classroom learning (using curriculum developed in partnership with Northwood University), (2) Mentorship with an American business woman or man, and (3) Leadership Development (additional US-based classroom learning + hands on business experience for the top performers of each cohort. Nearly 1,000 women have graduated from this program over the past 16 years. Objective We would like to gain a better understanding of how our PTB program compares to other business training programs for women around the world in terms of content, length, cost, etc. This will allow us to develop clarity on our competitive advantages/unique niche, ensure our program follows best practices, and know how to market our program to students and donors.