Development Studies Program (DSP) at BU launched a five year long research program on March 28, 2006. The Program aims to make the pathways through which women's empowerment takes place and to learn from women's experiences of what makes change that produces more equity in their relationships with each other and with men. DSP will be the South Asian hub for this research initiative and will link up with a team of IDS researchers and communications practitioners with a network of southern academics and activists from the Interdisciplinary Women's Studies Nucleus (NEIM) at the University of Bahia in Brazil, the Social Research Centre at the American University in Cairo in Egypt and the Centre for Gender Studies and Advocacy (CEGENSA) at the University of Legon in Ghana, and with development partners, UNIFEM and CARE. The research program is funded by DFID under their Research Program Consortium (RPC) arrangement. The core team members for the inception phase (until October 2005) for the South Asian hub of this research program are Maheen Sultan (hub coordinator), Firdous Azim, and Simeen Mahmud with direct support from Naila Kabeer. A scoping workshop, which will bring together regional perspectives on the various themes of this research program, will take place towards the end of August this year.