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Who stops the survey, who closes access to data, whose report is published with the Index
Make a donation Index Results RegisterEach power will be set out in writing before data collection begins and will take effect on the day its document is signed.
The Women’s Life-Cycle Economy Index (WLCE Index) builds its independence from those who fund it and from its own leadership. The methodology is being developed and the pilot prepared: the powers described below will be set out in governing documents before data collection begins.
Those responsible for ethics inside the program will be able to stop the survey in a country when participants are at risk, and the stop will take effect at once, with no sign-off from the leadership. Only the external independent ethics committee, whose decisions the leadership does not review, will be able to lift it.
Those responsible for data governance will decide every request for access to personal data (anything that can be linked to a specific woman) under rules that apply to everyone equally. They will be able to refuse anyone, including the founder and funders. A refusal is final, even for the organization’s leadership.
An external statistical auditor, independent of the Index team, will check the statistical soundness of each edition, including how far a country’s position depends on the calculation. The Index will be published only together with the auditor’s report; how the auditor’s comments are handled will be set in advance.
Who will hold each power, and who is responsible for the research itself.
Names will appear in the Index Results Register within seven days of appointment.
those responsible for ethics inside the program will stop it; only the external independent ethics committee will be able to lift the stop
a national ethics review will examine the study in every country where collection takes place
the Data Access Committee will review every researcher request for participant-level data under approved rules; each decision will set the aim, the dataset, the period and the conditions of access
the Data Protection Officer will monitor compliance and will take no instructions from the leadership in carrying out these tasks; participants will be able to contact the officer about their own data
an external statistical auditor independent of the Index team; the Index will be published together with the report
the program’s research team develops the methodology; the governing documents will set out who approves the protocol, the questionnaire and the calculation rules, who accepts changes to the formula, and who is responsible for releasing and correcting the Index
The money goes to the research infrastructure: collecting answers, protecting data, analysis and publication. For each fiscal year from 2027, after the year closes, the Reports page shows how the money is spent: program, administrative and fundraising costs.
The research can be supported through a donation, a grant or a designated contribution. A funding agreement defines the work supported, its budget, timeline, outputs and reporting, and financial support gives a right to exactly that reporting. Research decisions are made under the research protocol and the powers set in writing: no funder, partner or member of the organization gains a right to influence them.
how the Index is designed and calculated
which women are asked and how they are selected
how, where and by whom answers are gathered
how the data is processed and what it shows
what is published, when and in what form
what a country scores and which range of positions it falls into
the organization’s stance and the content of its briefs for decision-makers
the requirements of the Equal Consideration Standard, an organization’s status, and the decision to take on or decline a case
A funder receives aggregated results; the answers of individual participants stay inside the secure research environment.
Womafreesm spreads donations across the six areas of its work. To fund one project or a single area of work, choose major support: it is arranged by agreement.
Transparency
The formula is published before data collection, and every change to it comes out as a new version.
The pilot’s protocol and a preliminary formula will be published before the pilot. After the pilot, the program will fix version 1 before the first global wave. Every later change, including the correction of errors, will come out as a new version with a date and an explanation of why. The version history will make it possible to check which rules applied to each edition and when they changed.
A country’s position can depend on methodological decisions, such as the weights of the measures and the way they are combined.
Before each edition the external auditor will recalculate the Index under calculation variants described in advance and show how each country’s position changes. For countries admitted to the comparison, the Index will publish a range of possible positions with an explanation of how it is calculated; the uncertainty that comes from the random selection of participants is published separately. The European Commission runs a similar check of the Global Innovation Index every year. How the range is calculated in the WLCE Index is described on the page for researchers.
Assessing conformity with the Standard and helping with implementation will be kept apart.
The Equal Consideration Standard is the practical standard of Womafreesm for designing and auditing decisions that affect women’s lives; the Standard is being developed, and its page explains it in full. It carries the same rule as the Index: whoever assesses an organization does not help it fix things. The rules for appointing assessors, for the work of consultants and for managing conflicts of interest will be set as the Standard’s procedures are developed.
Womafreesm is open to women of different political views. Any attempt to subordinate Womafreesm to a party, state, corporate, religious or donor agenda is grounds for ending a partnership. Such attempts include pressure on the methodology, demands to change or hide findings, and interference with access to data.
Nonpartisan Policy
The Index Results Register is public and is updated on every change of status, at least once a quarter.
The register shows the status of the program’s key milestones: preparing the methodology, approving documents, appointments, the pilot and publications. Each entry has a date and a link to supporting material where it is available.
The three powers above are the program’s adopted design, not yet signed documents.
2026 goes to the architecture and the governing documents. The plan is to choose the external ethics committee and the auditor during 2027, before data collection begins. The governing documents will also set who appoints the external ethics committee and the statistical auditor, for what term, and how each can be replaced. Each power will take effect on the day its document is signed, and the date of each signing will appear in the Index Results Register.
The Doing Business experience shows how much the quality of an international comparison depends on protecting research decisions, on written procedures and on managing conflicts of interest.
On 16 September 2021 the World Bank discontinued Doing Business. An independent investigation found that data for several countries had been altered under pressure from senior management, that some rules were never written down, and that the Bank’s advisory arm was paid by the same governments the index rated. Back in 2013 an expert panel had already warned the Bank that small data edits move the ranking.
The WLCE Index draws verifiable commitments from this: separate assessment from consulting, put the independent powers in writing, release the Index only with the external auditor’s report, and fix version 1 of the formula before the first global wave.
No. Methodology, sampling, data collection, analysis, conclusions, publications and country scores will be governed by the research protocol and the powers to be set in writing, not by the funding agreement. A funder receives the reporting the agreement provides for, and aggregated results.
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