Strengthening Women's Economic Empowerment through Business Development

THE PROBLEM

The program seeks to address poverty and gender inequality by improving the livelihoods of women living in the last mile. In Indonesia, 10.64% of the population lives below the national poverty line and in the targeted programmatic locations of East Java the figure is as high as 12% (USD 0.85/day) (BPS, 2017). Women remain far from equal in many aspects of life in regards to economic empowerment, livelihood and educational opportunities. The last mile communities Kopernik works with have few employment opportunities, especially women who have few options to develop or grow their businesses. Yet women play an important role in their families, and have demonstrated that they invest more in their families, as women reinvest 90% of their income in health, nutrition, and education of their families (United Nations). Women however frequently face job restrictions, are forbidden from working in certain factory jobs, and in some cases cannot work without permission from their husbands.

THE SOLUTION

Our ‘wonder women’ are entrepreneurs at heart and often establish and execute other businesses using the skills they learn through the program. They also inspire others through what they achieved in earning money to support their families, gaining new business skills, running successful businesses, and continually gaining confidence in their ability to succeed as micro-social-entrepreneurs. However, being entrepreneurial doesn’t always guarantee access to the right tools, resources and markets to grow their businesses. 

Therefore, this program supports our female entrepreneurs through business development services. Currently, these women face a number of challenges such as a lack of access to sales channels for their products, lack of information on the market’s needs, limited access to financing, and limited understanding of quality and government standards. Leveraging the already establish capacity to run a successful business - gained through the Wonder Women technology sales businesses - we will now offer the extra training required to diversify commercial products, improve their business models and connect to vendors. This business development program leverages their full set of business skills and experience while giving access to safe and equitable employment opportunities to others in the community.

THE EXPECTED IMPACT

The program's expected impact is for the participants of the ‘Wonder Women’ program to become successful micro-entrepreneurs. These women will develop business and leadership skills, reach broader markets and further strengthen their networks with financial institutions, government, and buyers. The participants will in addition boost their income through improved business models and product quality.