Vital Voices

Eniola Mafe, Africa Program ManagerJune 13, 2012

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Vital Voices identifies, invests in and brings visibility to extraordinary women around the world by unleashing their leadership potential to transform lives and accelerate peace and prosperity in their communities.

They are the Vital Voices of our time.

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We seek to strengthen local partners, including businesswomens’ association, but ultimately our work seeks to benefit businesswomen and the communities in which they live and work.

Whom do serve?

Vital Voices in Africa

Key Regional Accomplishments Over $11.7million invested in African women

through VV initiatives since 2007 VV has provided leadership and capacity-

building training to approximately 800 direct participants.

Programs and grants have reached more than 50,000 women from 38 countries since 2007.

Factors that influence the success of women entrepreneurs in Africa:

Access to affordable capital Traditional gender roles and gender stereotypes Access to information Unequal opportunities to education Lack of infrastructure

Business environment poses unique challenges to women in Africa

Organize women

entrepreneurs

Leadership development

Training, education

Technical assistance

Business mentoring

Women business certification

Recognition and awards

Access to capital

Market linkages

Access to procurement opportunities

More jobs

Better pay

Stronger, more sustainable businesses

Stronger local human capital

More robust private sector

Interventions Outcomes & Impact

Let’s look at the kinds of interventions that Vital Voices and its partners believe will result in measureable outcomes and impact for our target beneficiaries.

Access to finance

Growth of women-led businesses

Stronger women business leaders

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These intervention areas drive out Current economic empowerment programs

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Entrepreneurship and Business Leadershipp Training Entrepreneurs in Handcrafts Africa Businesswomen’s Network (incl. Supplier Readiness Program) African Women’s Entrepreneurship Program (AWEP): Business

Growth training McLarty Global Fellows: Technical Assistance Program

Enabling Environment

SPARC—Strengthening Public Advocacy for Regional Competitiveness

Some techniques have proven successful:

1. Listen to the women2. Engage in research3. Build trusted relationships4. Develop cross -sector partnerships based on

collaboration5. Sustainable interventions that create lasting

impact 6. Treat partners as agents of their own

development not just beneficiaries

Thank you!

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