Challenge: The Womanity Foundation is a privately held philanthropic foundation dedicated to women’s empowerment as a means to reduce inequalities and foster progress. The foundation sought to enhance its mission on a local level through the empowerment of Arab-Israeli women.

Approach: APCO’s team inTel Aviv worked with Womanity to create a forum for female leaders within the Arab-Israeli community to work collaboratively on women’s empowerment issues. Partnerships were also cultivated that transcended political rivalries, egos and competitive barriers to strengthen Womanity’s relationships at the grassroots level of Arab-Israeli society.

Results: APCO engaged local political, business, government and NGO activists to determine the issues capable of driving meaningful engagement on women’s empowerment issues, and then identified and recruited more than 40 women leaders to join the strategic dialogue. Participants found areas of mutual interest, formed relationships and are interested in continuing their dialogue to develop future initiatives.