Ethiopian returnee migrant workers are trained on business skills through FAIRWAY Programme to support their reintegration

As part of the COVID-19 response intended for affected migrant workers including returnees, FAIRWAY in Ethiopia is supporting 500 returnee migrant workers in enhancing business/entrepreneurship skills to facilitate their reintegration within the country. Until now, 287 returnee migrant workers are enrolled in business skills training in Amhara, Oromia and Addis Ababa regions. Among the returnees enrolled in the training, 98% are women returned from various Arab countries. In this relation, ILO/FAIRWAY is collaborating with Digital Opportunity Trust-Ethiopia (DOT-E), an NGO pioneered in providing innovative business skills and business development support services particularly to the youths in Ethiopia.


During the week of 25-29 July 2022, two groups of returnees are participating in personally motivating training module named Start Up, similar to ILO's Start Your Business (SYB) module. The training sessions are being organized in Adama Polytechnic College, Adama City, Oromia Region. Among the two groups, one group is consisting of 32 returnee migrant workers (62% women) while the other group include 30 returnee migrant workers (95% women) from the different corners of Adama city. Majority of the migrant workers are returnees from the different countries of Arab region after the outbreak of COVID-19 and were involved in domestic work. Among the participants, 5 returnee women workers are actively participating in the training sessions even accompanying their children below the age of three including two infants.


This Start Up training started from 25 July and ending on 29 July is the second module of the business skills training package. Before this, those participants have completed Reach Up training module and that was also of five-days duration. The last module of the training, named Scale Up, will be provided once the trainees establish and run their businesses and reach to the stage of expansion. Those three training modules are the localized version of the ILOs' Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) modules focused on promoting small and medium enterprises (SMEs).


Beside those three different modules of business skills, the women returnee migrant workers will be also benefitting from the Women Empowerment training module intended to motivate and capacitate women to come out and take lead in their own socio-economic affairs.