ACCESS! for Africa Business Women in International Trade Paper Presented at the ATPC Meeting Addis Ababa, April 21-21, 2009

Content  Implementing Partners - CAWEE and SIDO  Situation of Women Exporters in the Two Countries  The Role ACCESS! Program Played in Addressing the Needs of Women Exporters  Overview of the ACCESS! Program  Product Development & Market Promotion  Award Event  Complementary Initiatives  ACCESS! Initiative Outcomes/Achievements

C A W E E  CAWEE is an indigenous NGO established in June 2004 to promote women entrepreneurs  CAWEE believes that “ Empowering Women Economically is Key to Development”  The mission of CAWEE is to promote women entrepreneurs with a special focus to women exporters  The vision of CAWEE is to have globally competitive core women entrepreneurs class  To promote its activities, CAWEE works very closely with different partners & stakeholders – both Governmental and non governmental

S I D O  To facilitate the development and strengthening of SMEs - skills upgrading, linkage to potential suppliers of working tools, products and market promotion  To facilitate the development of basic infrastructures for SME’s - working premises, utilities, technology development centers, Incubators, etc  To provide guided technical trainings through Training Cum Production Centers  Facilitates appropriate technology development and transfer  Offering financial services to SMEs 

Situation of Women Exporters Sample surveys on situation analysis in Ethiopia and Tanzania, conducted in 2004 by CIDA, indicated that women exporters face diverse problems & challenges : > Lack of access to market information > Lack of knowledge in international market > Lack of access to export financing > Lack of access to advisory services ( e.g mentoring) > Lack of capacity to develop export plan > Lack of capacity to find joint venture partners > Lack of capacity in using the internet for international business

 ACCESS! was a very timely program to address some of the problems women exporters face  The intervention was made based on survey results and it was demand driven  The careful preparations made before the launch of the program ( preparation of the training manual, selection of country focal points & trainers, training of trainers) was the key to the success of the intervention  The professional guidance, proper follow-up of the executing agencies (International Trade Centre-ITC and Trade Facilitation Office, Canada-TFOC) played a vital role Role ACCESS! Played

Overview of ACCESS! Program  ACCESS! program targets actual, potential/emerging women exporters  The initiative provides:. An exporter training program, for women exporting their products and services. A mentorship element to complement the exporter training,. A web-portal, facilitating women's access to relevant export information tools & services as well as networking opportunities. An award program to encourage best performers & to profile role models

Overview Cont.  The ACCESS! 1 st phase was operational for 18 months ( June 2005-December 2006)  Training package, covering 22 modules was prepared  National ACCESS! trainers were trained in Dar Es Salaam- Tanzania (3 women & 2 men in Ethiopia ;3 women and 4 men in Tanzania)  The Pro-invest support ACCESS! Regional program, covering 3 countries – Ethiopia, Tanzania & Uganda complemented ( August 2007-February 2008)  ACCESS! Trade in Services, covering 3 countries – Ethiopia, Nigeria & South Africa continued ( November September 2008)

Trainings Trainings Conducted in International Trade in the two countries had following results:  For women exporting their products, 12 trainings took place, 282 entrepreneurs trained - 25 % were men & 26 ACCESS! potential trainers trained in both countries  For women in trade in services in Ethiopia, 2 training done, 44 entrepreneurs were trained of which 11 were men  There is a long waiting list ready for up-coming trainings, both producers and service providers  Feedbacks from trainees, stakeholders and external evaluation reports have confirmed that ACCESS! trainings were very relevant in filling a big gap which was never properly addressed and given due attention as women are mostly not included in general training programs

Mentoring  Mentoring tool kits were developed, for both existing and potential exporters  81 companies both existing and potential exporters were mentored in the two countries  In Ethiopia 12 companies that are in trade in services were mentored  One to one Mentoring complementing the ACCESS! training proved to be very effective

 With major support given from Trade Facilitation Office, Canada the portal was created (  The profiles of 87 ACCESS! Trainees from the two countries are featured  Many of the trainees visit the portal regularly and few managed to develop their own web sites Web-portal

Product Development & Market Promotion Focused on the hand-loom sub-sector: - Six companies, all owned & managed by women, went through a product development process for 10 months - Product samples were continuously tested in the Canadian market, based on the feedback, the products were further developed to meet the export standard - The companies developed professional marketing materials for export promotion - The 6 companies, that went through the product development & market promotions processes, participated in an international trade show in Canada & were able to meet potential buyers & establish sells contacts - The companies cost shared in all the activity areas

Award Event Award Event Award events were organized to celebrate success & encourage women exporters: - Based on their export performance, 4 companies were awarded in Tanzania and 6 companies were awarded by the President of Ethiopia - The event was very instrumental in encouraging the companies awarded and also encouraging others to follow their foot steps - The awarded companies started to serve as role models to others - The event motivated workers of the awarded companies

Complementary Initiatives -Ethiopia  The US Embassy, Addis Ababa, supporting the Women Entrepreneurs Group (WEG): - Capacity building activities - Providing support in facilitating export market - in May 2007 five US buyers came to Addis, with great impact resulted in, some companies exporting to the US - Guarantee Fund of 4.3 million USD allocated targeting women entrepreneurs  The GTZ working on capacity building of Ethiopian Women Exporters Association  The ILO working on capacity building of women entrepreneurs & their associations  The UNDP/Regional Gender Program promoting African women entrepreneurs role models by documenting profiles  The Spanish Government, through its NEPAD fund, supporting women entrepreneurs

Complementary Initiatives-Tanzania  The UNIDO program on Food processing started in 1993 whereby over 7,000 women (1% men) were trained of which 3000 have started their own businesses  The UNIDO Regional programme on Development of Women and Youth in Agri Business covering countries of Malawi, Eritrea, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Tanzania  The UN-International Fund for Agriculture Development project focusing on rural entrepreneurship development  The ILO working on capacity building of women entrepreneurs & their associations  Creation of Tanzania Women Chamber of Commerce-TWCC to to empower women entrepreneurs with SIDO’s initiative

ACCESS! Initiative Outcomes/ Achievements ACCESS! Initiative Outcomes/ Achievements The ACCESS! Program was very instrumental in:  Building institutional capacities like – CAWEE,SIDO, TWCC and capacities of other Stakeholders/Partners  Developing national human resource, in training trainers in international trade  Developing company capacities in international trade, with a very special focus designed to women exporters  The Regional programs were good grounds for experience sharing,networking and exposures