Good practice

Zambia GEWEL — Girls' Education, Women's Empowerment and Livelihoods Programme

Zambia · Lusaka · See the Zambia profile

Zambia's GEWEL programme (World Bank/GoZ) delivers livelihood packages to poor rural women and school stipends to vulnerable girls. By end-2024: 139,351 women in 81 districts; 148,616 girls in secondary school across 65 districts. Phase 3 approved with $157 m.

139,351

Women reached with livelihood support (by end-2024)

Districts (livelihoods)

148,616

Girls supported in secondary school

Details

Maturity: Scaling
Promoter: Government of Zambia (Gender Division) / World Bank IDA
Period: 2017–2028
Keywords: education, livelihoods, social protection, rural women, girls

Context

Zambia's GEWEL (Girls' Education, Women's Empowerment and Livelihoods) programme, funded by the World Bank and Government of Zambia, delivers livelihood packages to poor rural women and secondary-school stipends to vulnerable girls.

Results

By the end of 2024 the programme had reached 139,351 women across 81 districts and supported 148,616 girls in secondary school across 65 districts, with a $157m Phase 3 approved.

Implementation

Implementation detail (cost, timeline, staffing, conditions for success) is not yet available for this practice.

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

C-NAPSE web research — accessed 2026-06-23
Government of Zambia (Gender Division) / World Bank IDA — accessed 2026-06-23
Zambia Gender Division — GEWEL project page — accessed 2026-06-23
World Bank grant press release (March 2024) — accessed 2026-06-23
ReliefWeb — GEWEL results summary — accessed 2026-06-23

Quality score: 96/100

How is this calculated?

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported

Top 4% in this catalogue (719 scored practices)

Scores cluster high, so position within the catalogue is often more telling than the number alone.

Evaluation

Evaluated by C-NAPSE

Score profile — the dimensions behind the score — how it's computed

Transferability / replicability2/3

World Bank IDA replicates the girls-stipend / women-livelihoods model across Sub-Saharan Africa (Tanzania, Ethiopia), making this two-component design demonstrably transferable.

Impact on gender equality1/1

Directly increased secondary school enrolment for 148,616 ultra-poor girls and provided income-generating assets to 139,351 rural women, yielding documented gender-equality gains.

Effectiveness1/1

Phase 2 exceeded both targets (139,351 vs 129,400 women; 148,616 vs 107,000 girls) and Phase 3 was approved with enlarged scope and funding.

Efficiency1/1

IDA concessional financing achieves large-scale gender impact at low cost-per-beneficiary in a low-income setting.

Evaluated outcomes1/1

World Bank independent evaluation reports and Zambia Gender Status Reports 2017–2019 document outcomes with disaggregated data across districts.

Sustainability1/1

All three components are institutionally embedded in Zambia's line ministries; the March 2024 Phase 3 grant confirms durable government and donor commitment.

Achievement / evidence1/1

Concretely measured outcomes: 139,351 women with livelihoods packages; 148,616 girls with school stipends; Phase 3 approved March 2024.

Gender-mainstreaming embedding1/1

Programme is fully anchored in national education and social-protection systems, with the Gender Division co-leading and owning implementation.

Curator validation1/1

C-NAPSE curator confirmed figures against World Bank March 2024 press release and Zambia Gender Division project page—two independent domains.

Cite this

Evidoria. Zambia GEWEL — Girls' Education, Women's Empowerment and Livelihoods Programme. Persistent ID: 3db06340-ea3d-45a9-8158-8e918e19ffff.

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