Note from the Editorial Committee

Abstract

In June 2009, the United Nations Women’s Fund (then UNIFEM, now UN Women), organized a meeting at the FAO Headquarters in Rome to develop guidance for advancing women’s empowerment and rights through local development, building on the experiences of development actors around the world working on these issues. One of the areas identified for follow-up was to systematically bring together research and action on how local development initiatives can actually encourage the expression of women’s transformative agency and their empowerment and also contribute to human development. The present issue of Universitas Forum is the result of a project designed as a contribution to meeting these needs.