Women’s empowerment and entrepreneurship in Papua New Guinea

AUTHOR(S)
Nicole Penman
Development

There is inconsistent evidence for one of the most utilised development initiative approaches for women’s empowerment – women’s entrepreneurial development and microfinance (WED) programs. Thus, the aim of this thesis is to explore which factors are contributing to these inconsistencies and how a psychosocial lens may support a broader yet more consistent view of WED. Increasingly, there is a commitment to the economic empowerment of women in low- and middle-income countries from development agencies, governments, and researchers alike. These efforts are made in light of the substantial evidence that when women are empowered, whole communities benefit, especially children. Thus, funding and resources have been poured into projects aimed at achieving better outcomes for women. Despite WED programs being extensively employed by non- government (NGO) and government agencies, there is some evidence and growing concern that WED programs may have overstated or even detrimental outcomes for women. There is a need for greater research into the effectiveness of such training programs, key components, and psychosocial outcomes for women. Based on the limited representation of social science approaches to women’s empowerment through WED programs, this thesis explores how a psychosocial approach to training and evaluation of such programs may lead to greater consistency and impact.

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Research Type(s)
Thesis – Published
August 7, 2025
Published in
2025
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