Leadership and Entrepreneurship Development Programme

 

The problem and importance of the intervention

Women’s economic empowerment and participating in leadership is a prerequisite for sustainable development and pro-poor growth. Achieving women’s empowerment requires sound public policies, a holistic at the design stage of policy and programming. Women must have more equitable access to assets and services; infrastructure programmes should be designed to benefit the poor, both men and women, and employment opportunities must be improved while increasing recognition of women’s vast unpaid work.
Women empowerment is the capacity of women to participate in, contribute to and benefit from growth processes in ways which recognize the value of their contributions, respect their dignity and make it possible to negotiate a fairer distribution of the benefits of growth. Moreover, it increases women’s access to economic resources and opportunities including in decision making, jobs, financial services, property and other productive assets, skills development and market information.
Involving women in leadership and entrepreneurship development Programme is not a simple task but rather challenging by lower levels of literacy, lower levels of access to and control over resources, lower levels of access to networks and people who can assist and support, and greater vulnerability to sexual exploitation and abuse at the community level, if not the household level.
Social, economic, cultural and political factors have a significant influence on women’s ability to participate in the economy and leadership. These include: access to family planning and other healthcare services; social protection coverage; girls’ completion of a quality post-primary education; improving literacy rates of adult women; and, increasing women’s influence in governance
structures and political decision-making. Many of these dimensions are mutually dependent and reinforcing. Cultural barriers, including discriminatory practices and attitudes, also need to be actively identified and tackled.

As a development programming, it is critically important for us to understand the context in Addis Ababa or the country at large, and to support women and efforts that governments have in place to address gender equality and empowerment in central and line at local and community levels.
In the intervention efforts, women’s participation in the labor market and leadership can be increased by addressing the constraints and barriers women face accessing work, including public employment programmes, and by providing well focused vocational and other capacity building trainings. Social protection measures can also enhance the productivity and participation of poor women in the labor market by reducing their vulnerability to Livelihood risks and economic shocks.

Strategic objective

Inspire and equip women to reach their highest potentials to ensure their active participation in decision-makings, and benefit the outcomes therein

Immediate Objectives

• Enhance the leadership and entrepreneurship capacity of 500 women through training and mentoring and experience sharing programs
• Create 50 model entrepreneurs in the SPM period
• Enhance the capacity of CBOs like Idirs, Anti AIDS Clubs and other actors to enable them provide spaces for women leadership
• Create linkage and partnership with the line government structures, Management Institutes, universities and research centers to provide additional capacity enhancement programs to the target women
• Promote Gender mainstreaming across all sectors through awareness creation, education and community discussions

Selected Interventions

• Packages of Training and Mentoring Programmes
• Discussion Forums and Community Dialogue Programmes
• Community Mobilization and Awareness Creation Programmes
• Partnership, Networking and Referral Linkages
• Provision of start-up capitals, necessary equipment’s and logistics to entrepreneur women
• Promotion of Gender Mainstreaming

Direct beneficiaries

• Destitute women

Intervention Strategies

• Providing BDS and IGA with startup capital
• Leadership training and experience sharing
• Community mobilization through sensitization workshops
• Awareness and Media Engagement