Women Entrepreneurship Development and Economic Empowerment
The ILO Women’s Entrepreneurship Development and Economic Empowerment (WEDEE) Project works towards enhancing economic opportunities for women by supporting women who are starting, formalizing and growing their own enterprises and by mainstreaming gender equality into the ILO’s Decent Work Agenda on enterprise development. WEDEE is being implemented in East Africa in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, and has been instrumental in advancing economic development and access to opportunities for women by supporting the establishment and growth of more women-led businesses, enabling them not only to sustain their families, but also to contribute to job creation and economic growth.
Duration
1 January 2014 - 31 December 2015
Development partner(s)
Irish Aid
Contact
[email protected], +255 22 2196700
Additional details
The project strategy aims to concentrate its activities on helping micro and small women entrepreneurs access appropriate business development services (both financial and non-financial) and local and international markets, and supporting women entrepreneurs to engage further through stronger networks, notably women entrepreneurs’ associations. The project also overall aims to increase the knowledge and understanding of WED of ILO constituents and implementing partners, its links to men and society at large as well as to economic empowerment of women and gender equality.
Expected Deliverables
• Non-financial service providers’ capacity to provide business services to women entrepreneurs is strengthened and accredited.
• Financial service providers’ outreach to women entrepreneurs is increased.
• WED-EE partners’ capacity is strengthened to link women entrepreneurs to national and regional markets.
• Action plans on WED developed with constituents and other stakeholders, based on WED Assessments.
• WED-EE advocacy partners’ capacity strengthened to advocate and lobby for priority WED assessment recommendations.
• National sustainability action plans are developed for replication of select ILO-WED tools and approaches.
• ILO-WED tools enhanced with videos and audio to support trainers and their outreach.
• Policy briefs for advocacy, formalization and men’s involvement in WED initiatives are developed and shared with WED-EE constituents, partners and stakeholders.
Project Implementation
At the implementation level, the project collaborates with other relevant ILO and UN programmes in the countries, particularly the Youth Entrepreneurship Facility, Joint Programme on Gender Equality and UN Joint Programme on Population. Other partners include government institutions, social partners, non-governmental organizations, the private sector include Women Entrepreneurs Associations, financial institutions and non-financial business development service providers