<< Background >>Women and girls, everywhere, must have equal rights and opportunity, and be able to live free of violence and discrimination. Women’s equality and empowerment is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but also integral to all dimensions of inclusive and sustainable development. In short, all the SDGs depend on the achievement of Goal 5. Gender equality by 2030 requires urgent action as by now, no country in the world is on track to achieve this goal, despite significant progress in advancing women’s and girls’ rights over the years. Moreover, the health and socio-economic consequences of the COVID-19 crisis are disproportionately affecting women and girls. To address this, the EU put forward an ambitious Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025 and Gender Action Plan III to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment through all external action of the European Union. 2020 should have been a celebratory year for accelerating gender equality globally. Instead, COVID-19 has dramatically reversed the progress made over recent decades and has impacted women disproportionately – from loss of jobs to rise in violence against women and unpaid care work. As stressed by the abovementioned plan, gender equality must be at the heart of post-pandemic recovery. The EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility provides that gender equality should be taken into account and promoted throughout the preparation and implementation of national recovery and resilience plans. Partner’s organisations in the VOICES’ project, believe that post-pandemic recovery needs women at the centre, participating in public and private spheres and driving changes that serve both society and the planet. Building a gender-equal world is possible! And VOICES aims to build gender-responsive results to boost the understanding of gender roles and inequalities, encourage equal participation and contribute to close the gender gaps.<< Objectives >>VOICES' objectives are: *to raise awareness on gender roles and inequalities, as a means to identify and implement strategies that encourage equal participation and bridge the gender divide; *to improve professionals' competences in promoting gender equality and women's empowerment; *to challenge gender-biased stereotypes related to women's participation in the public and private spheres of their lives; *to boost women's willingness and capacity to take an active role within their diverse living contexts; * to promote effective lifelong learning and continuing professional development opportunities for women and the professionals who work with them (in adult education, public services, or civil society organisations) targeting gender equality and women's empowerment towards active citizenship and equal social and civic participation; *to create networking opportunities for professionals that enable continuous knowledge exchange within a community of practice focused on fostering women's participation and empowerment.<< Implementation >>Microlearning, digital storytelling, and real-world learning approaches will be applied for the development of the three project results to foster professionals' and women's capacity for action upon gender gaps, and overcome any gender-related constraints to equal women's participation in public and private life. Participatory methodologies will be valued for the development of all projects' results: 16 associated partners (2 per partner country) will take part in the local learning networks, providing inputs and feedback to all project results, and helping to identify and establish contact with the project targets; 80 women (10 per partner country, and at least 5 of them facing any education, social, and/or geographical obstacles) and 64 professionals (8 per partner country) directly working with women to foster their equal participation and empowerment will participate in the piloting phase; over 185 participants in the 8 multiplier events, representing a range of local stakeholders will become aware of the available resources, and help to disseminate and increase results' use besides the project lifetime.<< Results >>The project will produce the following results: 1.VOICES competences roadmap and resources for Local Learning Networks - a competences roadmap and a set of guiding resources will be developed to improving the competences of professionals on gender equality and women’s empowerment; these professionals will take part in the VOICES Local Learning Networks, created in each participated country to combine their expertise and join efforts for empowering women for equal participation and driving change, through working in local cooperation partnership. 2.VOICES thematic MOOCs - a set of thematic MOOCs will be developed using microlearning principles, storytelling methodology, and real-world learning, to raise awareness on key areas of women’s empowerment, in line with the Gender Action Plan III, including a) Ending gender-based violence; b) Sexual and reproductive health and rights; c) Economic and social rights and empowerment; d) Equal participation and leadership; e) Women, peace and security; f) Green and digital transformations. 3.VOICES digital learning hub - a digital learning hub, where the previous project results along with additional interactive activities and learning resources will be integrated into a toolkit for professionals and interactive thematic MOOCs for women, will be developed to facilitate, attract, encourage and offer every professional and woman lifelong learning opportunities.