The evaluation of the Black Soybean Women Empowerment Program

The evaluation of the Black Soybean Women Empowerment Program in Six districts of Yogyakarta and East Java was aimed to :

• Assess and evaluate Women Empowerment Program participants perception on the program.
• Assess and evaluate participants ‘involvement towards the program.
• Assess and evaluate the relationship of the stakeholders and its impact towards the program.
• Assess and evaluate the program’s impact to the participants and surrounding community, as the beneficiaries.
• Assess participants needs and ideas for future program implementation.

Women empowerment concept that underlies the program means:

• To give women opportunity to speak out their mind and ideas, expressing themselves in various ways.
• To strengthen women’s groups as model.
• Creating income generating activities for the women that is based on local potential and resources.

The women empowerment program is implemented by local NGOs, namely Spektra and Sanggar Padmaya. Padmaya, based in Yogyakarta, started in 2006 in Bantul, and then expanded to Ngawi, Madiun, Nganjuk and Pacitan. Spektra – based in Surabaya – has been operating in Trenggalek, Nganjuk and Madiun since 2008. This evaluation was conducted in a participatory manner, involving the beneficiaries, non beneficiaries, community leaders, village administration officials and organizations that have a cooperation with Unilever in the area of the program and using various data collection techniques, such as: a) document study; 2) focused group discussions; c) rating; d) timeline; e) direct interviews or phone interviews; and f) triangulation workshop. The collection of field information was conducted from the 28th to 30th July 2010 and the triangulation workshop was held on the 5th August 2010.