A link to the full visual brief is here.

The Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), a trade union founded in 1972, represents 2.9 million informal women workers—from farm workers to street vendors and artisans. SEWA has also formed ~153 women collective enterprises (WCEs) to enhance livelihoods, 60% of which are active. These WCEs face various challenges in core functions, such as, branding, compliance, HR, etc. To address this, SEWA designed an institutional innovation for its context, the Women’s Enterprise Support System (WESS).

From 2020-2025, Imago Global Grassroots conducted an adaptive evaluation to understand the design and functioning of the WESS, including its role in the financial sustainability of SEWA’s WCEs, and the lives of its women members. This project was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  This visual brief presents our findings and results.