Study title

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The Individual Survey for Evaluation of Armenia Women's Empowerment Project, 2015 data were collected by Oxfam for an Effectiveness Review of the 'Women's economic empowerment in rural communities of Vayots Dzor region' project in the 2015/16 financial year. It should be noted that this project was implemented more than two years earlier, from April 2011 to March 2013. The project aimed to support women to achieve greater empowerment. Activities included (1) establishing four cooperatives (three with 100 percent women and one with 50 percent women), (2) constructing four community greenhouses (500 sq. metre coverage each), (3) establishing three cold-storages for agricultural crops, (4) promoting innovative agro-technology practices on water management, (5) providing technical agricultural support during the vegetable production cycle, (6) offering training on business management, marketing, agricultural technology, the financial sector and gender, (7) linking cooperatives with a non-profit micro-finance institute providing zero-interest loans and (8) supporting cooperatives to market products by organising two harvest market days, increasing awareness of market prices via mobile SMS text to participants and supporting the cooperative with packaging and promotions. Data collection took place in November 2015 in Vayots Dzor region. The intervention group consisted of women that had been supported by the project (either as a participant or as the wife of a participant). The comparison group consisted of women in neighbouring communities that had similar characteristics to the intervention group in 2010, but who had not participated in the project and had never been involved in any Oxfam project.Main Topics: Women's empowerment, women's economic empowerment, agriculture, farming cooperatives, impact evaluation, Armenia