Therefore, Time is the domain that enables success in all other domains.  In many parts of the developing world, women spend many hours each day performing tasks such as gathering fuel wood or collecting water.  When the introduction of technology or new practices frees women from these physically demanding and time-consuming tasks, women have more time to care for their own health, earn cash income, cultivate gardens and new crops, improve their knowledge and education and participate in the enhancement of their communities.

This can be accomplished through the use of time-saving technologies and tools including; tractors, biogas digesters, improved cook stoves, water pumps and storage facilities.  The methodology will provide direction and guidance on survey techniques, culturally appropriate stakeholder engagement and appropriate degrees of certainty and detail.

By addressing “time poverty” through new technologies and practices, particularly through additional benefits (such as prevention of deforestation, improved air quality and health), the W+ Time method unlocks women’s potential.

Women’s contributions are often un-compensated, but when they are, women can powerfully affect the well-being of their families and communities. The Income & Assets method enables project developers to measure how a project increases income and assets that are accessible to or controlled by women. Examples of assets may be money, jewelry, land, trees, livestock, or equipment. Additionally, the provision of legal rights to women, including that of citizenship and the right to own land, can be essential to women’s empowerment.

As female education rises, fertility, population growth, and infant and child mortality fall and family health improves.

Increases in girls’ secondary school enrollment are associated with increases in women’s participation in the labor force and their contributions to household and national income.

Women’s increased earning capacity, in turn, has a positive effect on child nutrition.

Children — especially daughters — of educated mothers are more likely to be enrolled in school and to have higher levels of educational attainment.

Educated women are more politically active and better informed about their legal rights and how to exercise them.

Other skills include those of basic reading and writing, numeracy, business management, computer and GPS use, and communication. Local initiatives to share knowledge, skills and information, and invitations to participate in training and education opportunities and exposure visits to observe successful initiatives in other communities, especially those run by women, can provide strong incentives and positive examples.

The economic benefits of enhanced education and knowledge among women and girls are compelling and some businesses see these benefits as a path to creating market demand for their goods or services or developing a more effective workforce.  In addition to these business motivations, national and regional governments may realize great benefits through improved economic outputs and reduced social costs, as a result of the educational empowerment of women and girls.

However, legal changes are not always sufficient to overcome customs and to create lasting changes. Implementation of programs that improve women’s leadership can help close the gap between what laws proscribe and what actually occurs.

Closing the gap in well-being between males and females is as much a part of development as is reducing income poverty. “Greater gender equality also enhances economic efficiency and improves other development outcomes”. (International Monetary Fund. Empowering Women Is Smart Economics Finance & Development, March 2012, Vol. 49, No. 1).

This can be measured through evaluating increases in the representation and participation of women both quantitatively and qualitatively in governance bodies of community organizations (measuring how many women are in leadership roles and how many are active in discussions and decisions) or an increase in the effectiveness of women’s groups to advocate, manage funds, negotiate and network through leadership and entrepreneurship skill development and coaching.

Women in developing economies, particularly in indigenous communities, are the custodians of local plant knowledge, traditional methods and practices of crop and soil management. Supporting women in their role as food-producers is critical for long-term food security, improved nutrition and effective, sustainable resource stewardship.

Another approach is to measure and document improvements in tools or access to tools, food storage facilities, irrigation systems and post-harvest practices that result in improved crop yields and decreased post-harvest losses, leading to more availability of nutritious foods for women and their families.

In developing economies, women produce from half to far more than half of all food production, yet they receive a small fraction of aid resources directed to agricultural development.  Investments in projects ensuring that women have access to tools, resources, knowledge, facilities, and access to markets for their production, can have multiple positive benefits in women’s economic empowerment, nutrition and health, and resource stewardship.

If women are in poor health, due to poor nutrition, lack of access to health care, or the impacts of disease, their reduced work capacity will inevitably lead to multiple, cumulative, negative impacts to families, communities and to national economies.  Improving women’s health, and community health overall, can have a positive multiplier effect locally, and nationally.

Additional measurable improvements may include: infant and maternal mortality rates, rates of anemia amongst women, vaccination rates and local disease rates (respiratory, gastrointestinal, etc.). With the Health method, outcomes in health investments can be effectively measured, and changes over time can be tracked.