Learning About Women's Empowerment in the Context of Development Projects: Do the Figures Tell us Enough?

In this article, we consider three projects implemented by Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation:
a project in Nepal focusing on capacity building (vocational skills training); a project in Bangladesh focusing on income generation; and a project in Kosovo working on agency – enhancing the voice of citizens in local governance. The article examines how donor requirements for demonstrating evidence-based results challenge project management in different ways, how facts and figures are generated, how experience is translated into reports, and how qualitative methods are used for evaluations.