This paper introduces the tools for a developmental evaluation of the status of women and for their empowerment in the Middle East. This paper has two objectives around knowledge creation and practice. One, it is an attempt to enable key insights into women's empowerment largely missed by traditional approaches. Two, it seeks to improve practice to be more responsive to and generative of gender inclusion and equality. With accelerated global change and more complex challenges and particularly in the Middle East, it will be important to capture those forms of women's participation that will have bearing on development and progress within the region, as a whole, and the region's capacities for collaborative practice and engagement with the other hemisphere in creating pathways to positive global change.
Developmental evaluation, women's empowerment, women's rights, gender, civil society, Middle East