Women must be central in poverty fight – Norway ambassador
Launch. Ms Susan Eckey, the Norwegian ambassador to Uganda speaks during the launch of the report in Kampala last week. COURTESY PHOTO
What you need to know:
- The project, which reached 5,133 women in 67 groups, equipped them with entrepreneurship and business management skills that will form a foundation for building sustainable businesses.
Kampala. Women must be the main vehicles for expansion of production, increasing household incomes and alleviating poverty, according to Ms Susan Eckey, the Norwegian ambassador to Uganda.
Speaking at the launch of the Strengthening Women Entrepreneurs Programme in Kampala last week, Ms Eckey said interventions to empower women must be premised on the need to direct business development services to women entrepreneurs in disadvantaged rural communities.
“Strengthening Women Entrepreneurs Programme [is] an opportunity to enhance women participation and contribution towards the development agenda by nurturing the entrepreneurial spirit,” she said highlighting that the project was conducted in parts of northern and eastern Uganda that had been affected by war.
The three-year project funded the Norwegian government and implemented by Enterprise Uganda, sought to empower 5,000 rural and semi-rural women in greater north to become the main vehicles for enhancing economic growth.
The project, which was conducted between 2013 and 2016, according to the report, has already impacted women incomes that have increased by about 80 per cent. Women savings have also improved by 84.5 per cent.
Ms Mary Odongo, the Enterprise Uganda director finance and administration, said women entrepreneurs have made a significant contribution to Uganda’s social and economic development amid challenges key among them low access to capital and lack of business and technical knowledge and social pressures.
Therefore, she said, the project offered practical training and business advisory services focusing on mind-set change, skills development and exposure.
According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics national labour force and child activities report, three out of every five unproductive persons are women. Urban areas, at 70 per cent, have the most unproductive women compared to 42 per cent in rural areas. Ms Rosemary Mutyabule, the Enterprise Uganda director business advisory services, said it is possible for women, even those in rural areas, to enjoy economic emancipation through adopting an entrepreneurial mindset.
“The increase in household incomes, savings and investments as a result of gender-sensitive entrepreneurship, shows the capacity of women to transform their lives and those of their households,” she said.
Sustainable businesses
The project, which reached 5,133 women in 67 groups, equipped them with entrepreneurship and business management skills that will form a foundation for building sustainable businesses.
