This paper presents the results of a meta-analysis examining the overall impact of women’s empowerment projects evaluated as part of Oxfam GB’s Effectiveness Reviews. Results show a positive and significant impact on the Women’s Empowerment Index and mixed results with its individual indicators. We found a statistically significant effect on opinions on women’s economic role and their ability to participate and have influence in the community. We did not find evidence of overall changes in power within the household nor with the share of household income. The meta-analysis also found statistically significant overall effects where the individual studies were too under-powered to detect impact. This paper provides an example of how using meta-analysis in the presence of a robust organizational global evaluation framework can enable evidence-based learning, organizational accountability and better programme implementation.

This is an accepted manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in the Journal of Development Effectiveness on 27/09/2017, available here online.