Ethiopia-Netherlands Seed Partnership women-led business incubator
Women-led business incubator
Problem
Analysis conducted in 2022 uncovered a significant issue within Ethiopia’s seed sector, namely that women entrepreneurs lack the necessary operational skills and business knowledge to effectively run a business. They also have a limited financial as well as technical capacity. Moreover, there is a noticeable absence of support and resources specifically tailored to the needs of female entrepreneurs in the seed sector.
Solution
The Ethiopia-Netherlands Seed Partnership programme introduced a women-led business incubator programme as part of its private sector development component. The programme, designed to provide customised support to female entrepreneurs, included group training based on a tailor-made training manual, one-to-one coaching, technical advice, experience-sharing visits, and a pitching competition. The training topics were business model development, access to market, access to finance, internal capital utilisation, pitching skills, and being a more productive and successful businesswoman.
Impact
Five female entrepreneurs completed the incubator programme, leading to improvements in their business skills, such as business modelling, market access and pitching. The technical support provided resulted in better nursery management practices, a better seedling survival rate, and improved input utilisation and soil management. Moreover, the participants established networks, and diversified their businesses to other related areas, such as vermicompost preparation. The lessons learned were shared and implemented in other projects. The lessons included the importance of preparing training manuals in local languages; short and precise training sessions followed by coaching yields better results; and business skills development should be coupled with technical support.
Adis Ababa, Ethiopië
Team members
Timeframe
2023
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