So say leaders of Anglican Women's Empowerment (AWE), whose mission continues to amplify women's voices and views at the United Nations (UN) and in the Anglican Communion. AWE is now raising funds to make the tool kit a reality by year-end.

"The budget tool kit will enable women from throughout the Anglican Communion, who are already working towards the eradication of poverty, to be the facilitators and liaison between women in need, the financing institutions, and the opportunities open to them," said the Rev. Dr. Maylin Biggadike, an ethicist, economist, and Episcopal priest.

Diane Eynon, director of Executive Education at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, agrees that the empowerment of women and "gender financing" is vital in the current global context.

"Seventy percent of the billion or so people who live in poverty are women and their children," she explained. "Women carry the
brunt of taking care of their families and now there is a real movement in the global community recognizing not only that there is a need to do this, but also what is the best way to eradicate poverty and instill economic growth so as to empower women."

The 52nd session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW), held February 25-March 7 at UN headquarters -- located near the Episcopal Church Center in New York City -- addressed this topic under the theme "Financing for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women." For the fifth consecutive year, AWE delegates, as representatives of the Anglican Communion Observer at the UN, participated.

Biggadike and Eynon, AWE members and co-developers of the tool kit, put together initiatives to help prepare the delegates for the
UN sessions from a faith-based context and allowed sharing of information that will be used to continue developing the budget tool.

These AWE-sponsored workshops and events were more specific to the Anglican understanding of gender equity and its relationship to human and social development, the organizers said. It was an opportunity to prepare the delegates to engage in discussions at the UN and create, analyze, and measure gender equity in budgets.

The delegates were also part of a facilitated, interactive World Café, where participants shared their insights, experiences, challenges, and short-and long-term goals related to the topic and focused on how to continue the efforts and dialogue around this issue once they return home.

In looking at the various tools that can be used in gender financing, Eynon said their focus included gender-responsive budgets, women's funds, and microfinancing.

Biggadike said the tool kit will be the "first faith-based, life-cycle approach to gender financing and budgeting."

"It encourages decision-making at the grassroots level, where communities of women assess their needs specific to their own culture and environments," she explained. "It will also provide the basic tools and knowledge women need to feel confident to seek a seat and voice at the decision-making table when resource allocation is determined."

"The whole question of economics is a major issue for women not only in the developing world but also in the so called developed world," said the Rev. Margaret Rose, the Episcopal Church's newly appointed director of Mission Leadership. "We need to open our eyes and have very acute vision about what is happening with budgets, economics, and what the choices of our government and parishes are."

Eynon said she and Biggadike are in the process of "building out the work" done in the workshop to reflect the concerns of the participants and how they might want to move forward with gender financing in their parts of the world and what kinds of "tools they will need."

"The availability of this tool kit is contingent upon our ability to finance the project," added Biggadike. "We have appealed to several sources for funding and should they come through, we hope to have a tool-kit ready for distribution by the end of the year."

Further information about AWE is online at www.episcopalchurch.org/women.