Strategies to Engage the Public Sector to Advance Women’s Economic Empowerment: Experiences from WIN 2.0

In international development, visions for programs often look great on paper, with specific activities, targets, and budgets. But when these plans meet the reality of underfunded, complex government entities, they can quickly fall apart. To create lasting impact, initiatives must move beyond abstract goals and ground themselves in the practical realities of both the beneficiaries and the public sector.

In Mozambique, the Women IN Business (WIN) program—a market systems development initiative implemented by TechnoServe and funded by the Embassy of Sweden in Mozambique— did exactly that. By partnering with the Ministry of Agriculture, Environment and Fisheries (Ministério da Agricultura, Ambiente e Pescas – MAAP) and a strong coalition of NGO partners, WIN found a way to align the pressing needs of rural women farmers with existing government priorities. Through these strategic partnerships, WIN worked closely with public and NGO partners to revise and embed gender-responsive content directly into the government’s own extension and advisory training manuals, ensuring these vital tools met the practical needs of rural women. Integrating these materials into existing government systems created a pathway to reach nearly one million farmers, far beyond what any single program could achieve on its own. This coalition’s additional support to the Ministério da Agricultura, Ambiente e Pescas (MAAP) to update its Gender Strategy further anchored this long-term commitment to rural women in Mozambique.

Here we provide practical advice for practitioners on how to engage the public sector to advance initiatives focused on Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE). We will take you through how to effectively engage with government entities, build resilient partnerships, and navigate the shifting priorities during political transitions.

Ground the approach in beneficiary and government priorities

Visions for programs should inspire and connect to long-term goals. When collaborating with government entities, often dealing with funding constraints, keeping visions as grounded as possible is necessary for success. The WIN team explains:

Our vision…it was more like a standard proposal with specific activities, budget and targets. The plan wasn’t something loose… it was grounded in a log frame with indicators so that we could measure what is actually going on.

When WIN approached MAAP with a vision for how the program could support rural women’s economic empowerment, they needed to be very clear about what the parameters were and how this would contribute to MAAP’s strategic goals.

We needed something that felt real, attainable… it had to be something practical, needed, and that we can measure.

While it was important to understand the government’s goals it was equally important to understand women’s experiences and what challenges they face. WIN took steps to ensure that the plan was centered on the needs of rural women farmers.

We went to rural areas and conducted interviews and focus group discussions with dozens of women in Nampula and Cabo Delgado. It appeared that rural women, especially small farmers, had many problems getting information on agricultural practices, access to market, market prices and how to face climate change with limited access to extension services.

Through these consultations with women farmers, WIN identified their critical need for better access to agricultural information, especially to adapt to climate change. This insight provided a strategic entry point for partnership with MAAP. MAAP had already budgeted to update its agricultural training manuals and was focused on climate-smart agriculture solutions. Instead of requesting a new program or budget, WIN decided to propose a way to make this existing, funded government priority more responsive to the needs of women farmers, creating a clear and compelling case for collaboration.

After some discussion we realized we could address this pain point, helping the Ministry to prepare and improve training materials to reach farmers, especially women… we proposed the new topics, they accepted, and we worked to develop the first steps together.

Improving the relevance and accessibility of agricultural information could help women farmers access knowledge they need to improve production, quality and adapt to climate-related risks. However, aligning these priorities was only the first step; bringing them to life required bringing together the right partners to drive the work forward.

Building an Effective Partnership Ecosystem

Navigating a complex public entity is never a solo effort; it requires a strategic mix of key individuals and organizational partners. WIN needed to build a partnership ecosystem that could deliver.

To ensure a successful partnership with MAAP, WIN explored the best entry point to work with the Ministry. WIN decided to partner with the Supporting the Policy Environment for Economic Development (SPEED) program, which was funded by USAID Mozambique and focused on improving the business environment in the country. It operated, among other ways, through policy reforms and had already initiated early-stage discussions to update the Gender Strategy with MAAP’s IFAD funded PROCAVA program. PROCAVA is one of MAAP’s main programs, which helps reduce poverty in rural communities and improve food security; it provides human, financial, and technical resources, among others, to support the execution of MAAP’s activity plans in alignment with its mandate.

WIN identified a government partnership manager, who was part of PROCAVA, with deep public sector experience to liaise with the government. This manager acted as a broker and translator between government officials, the WIN team, and NGO partners.

The liaison should know how the government works, they know how decisions are made, and at the same time the government recognizes them as part of the team. They also understand the challenges faced by NGOs. They know how things work on both sides.

Having this insider advantage through its government partnership manager allowed WIN to manage expectations and communication with MAAP to keep the activity on track.

Our liaison was the balance point… she maintained operational equilibrium so we could get the information and inputs from both sides to co-create the manuals.

WIN also worked with a senior staff member in MAAP who served as the government’s focal point for gender and safeguarding issues. Her seniority provided the institutional access and authority necessary to engage actors across different parts of the Ministry and keep activities moving. Without this level of influence, co-producing and piloting the extension and advisory training manuals would have been unfeasible.

WIN’s partnership strategy also proved instrumental in both expanding rural women’s access to agricultural training and securing a renewed commitment from MAAP to invest in women through its updated Gender Strategy. The coalition’s strength came from a powerful synergy between WIN, SPEED, PROCAVA, and the National Directorate of Extension Services (DNAE), which together combined complementary expertise, resources, and influence to achieve these shared goals.

WIN brought deep expertise on the needs of rural women, including women with lower literacy levels. SPEED helped open doors within government, drawing on its gender strategy expertise and long-standing relationship with MAAP. PROCAVA brought critical financing and an existing pathway to reach farmers through its national training activities, with its own targets for women’s economic participation closely aligned with the initiative. Finally, the DNAE brought the technical expertise and government ownership needed to move the work forward. By co-producing the training manuals with WIN and supporting the pilot, DNAE also created a direct pathway to reach smallholder farmers through the national extension system. These relationships became even more critical after the election restructuring, providing the institutional weight needed to survive the transition and scale.

Mitigating risks during political transitions

Change in administration can significantly alter the course of a project. WIN also shares reflections on how they – alongside their partners – were able to keep the momentum, even after a national election triggered a significant government restructuring.

Our strategy was designed for the agriculture sector, but after the election, the Ministry merged with Environment and Fisheries. We had to quickly develop a combined strategy for all three sectors. Because the new ministry was still fragmented, we often had to act as the glue between departments, facilitating communication just to move forward.

While engaging with new government staff, WIN worked hard to identify new influential actors who would be motivated to continue the work they had invested in to support farmers, especially women. In practice, this meant helping different government actors stay connected while institutional responsibilities were changing, ensuring that information continued to flow between counterparts, and maintaining momentum while the new structure was being established.

When you know who is in charge or who has decision making power, this will clear a path to everything that you want.

The experience reinforced why partnership strategies need to account for political cycles from the beginning. Election periods can change institutional structures, decision-making relationships, and priorities. Maintaining multiple government relationships, aligning with longer-term government strategic plans, and working through institutional partners such as DNAE helped to ensure this work to support rural women would succeed.

As WIN’s experience illustrates, partnering with the public sector is rarely a straightforward journey. As you design and navigate your own government partnerships, keep these core principles in mind:

• Align with existing priorities instead of pitching new ones. Don’t ask busy ministries to fund or launch entirely new initiatives. Instead, find out what they have already budgeted for and show them how integrating a gender-focused lens will help them meet their existing goals.
• Invest in a dedicated “translator.” Having a liaison who understands the culture and power dynamics within NGOs and government agencies is vital. They act as the operational bridge, keeping communication flowing when bureaucratic delays inevitably happen.
• Diversify partnerships to survive political cycles: Shifts in government leadership and structures could quickly derail your momentum. To mitigate these risks, build broad relationships across multiple departments and anchor your activities in institutional plans rather than relying on a single champion.
• Co-create and embed directly into existing systems: Scale can be achieved by making the government’s current tools better, not necessarily by creating parallel ones. Work alongside public partners to build practical, user-centered designed resources that can easily be delivered through their established channels.