Embedding Gender Equality at Scale: CR Delivers Phase 2 of Women4Growth

At ChewingRice, we are proud to have delivered Phase 2 of the Women4Growth (W4G) Programme, an initiative commissioned by Swedfund International to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment across its portfolio companies.

The CR facilitation team, Lisa Armstrong (left) Florence Mateta (left) and Giulia Beecroft (right) with W4G Nairobi, Kenya.

Building on foundations laid since 2014, the programme reached more than 200 women across ten investee companies, five sectors and six countries. As delivery partners, our role was to translate ambition into action, designing and facilitating learning experiences that embed gender equality into organisational culture, leadership and business practice.

A defining feature of Phase 2 was the increased focus on intersectionality. Programme design and delivery reflected the diverse realities of participants across geography, culture, role, and lived experience, ensuring inclusion extended beyond gender alone and strengthening relevance across contexts. 

Throughout Phase 2 our core team worked on designing, delivering, facilitating and coordinating the programme which included multimedia content development. We also collaborated with Natasha Ezekiel, of Rise Sustainability on post-delivery reporting, monitoring and evaluation. 

From individual empowerment to organisational transformation

Women4Growth is built on the principle that lasting change occurs when individual empowerment is combined with active engagement from leadership.

Throughout Phase 2, we created safe, inclusive spaces where women could speak openly, build confidence and develop practical strategies, while also engaging decision-makers to ensure change translated into policies, systems and behaviours.

Tangible outcomes and long-term impact

Across the eight companies evaluated to date, participation in Women4Growth led to the initiation of concrete gender actions with the potential to impact tens of thousands of employees. These actions focused on:

• Women’s career progression and leadership pathways

• Sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment (SEAH)

• Mental health and wellbeing

• Feminine health, including menopause in the workplace

• Communication practices and equal pay

Nearly one-third of these initiatives directly supported women’s career advancement, strengthening leadership pipelines and talent retention.

Beyond formal actions, companies reported lasting cultural shifts,

100% of the evaluated companies saw: 

• Increased confidence and visibility for participants.

• A general perception that workplace culture had become more inclusive.

• Stronger cross-functional collaboration.

In several cases, Women4Growth also catalysed gender-smart innovation and saw the implementation of improvements to products and services through a gender-inclusion lens.

Key achievements delivered by ChewingRice

Phase 2 of W4G represented a shift in both scale and sophistication of the Women4Growth Programme. Key contributions by ChewingRice included:

• Digital and hybrid facilitation: The transition of the programme from only in-person workshops to a fully digital model, enabling continuity during the pandemic enabling the programme’s first multinational deliveries. Later the hybrid model allowed us to engage with organisations more flexibly, targeting in-person interactions for the greatest impact. 

• Geographical expansion: Extending delivery into new regions, including the first Women4Growth facilitation in Asia.

• New CR-designed modules: Developing three multimedia learning journeys, including tailored organisational pathways and modules on gender-smart product and service design.

• Engaging men as allies: Introducing mixed-gender workshops that actively involve men in gender equality efforts and organisational change.

• Sustained learning infrastructure: To reinforce learning and sustain momentum, we complemented live facilitation with digital engagement, including the W4G Intranet, Enrichment Centre and Newsletter. These tools support peer learning, accountability and continued action long after formal sessions conclude.

• External outcomes: Supporting the development of gender-smart products, services and community wellbeing programmes, extending impact beyond the workplace and into markets and communities. 

These additions to the programme were all focussed on enabling companies to move beyond awareness-raising towards embedded, long-term change.