The Ethiopian Women’s Development Initiatives Project Traditionally, women in Ethiopia have been consigned to strict societal roles, based on cooking, raising children, and a muted voice in decisions affecting them. Most women have accepted tradition without question, subjecting themselves and their daughters to genital mutilation, early marriage, milk tooth extraction, and domestic abuse. Even a woman earning income is often thought to reflect poorly on her husband.  Breaching convention, the Ethiopian government saw that economically empowered women would benefit national prosperity. In March 2001, it joined the World Bank, Italian Cooperation, and other donors to implement the Ethiopian Women’s Development Initiatives Project (WDIP) to provide economic and social opportunities for Ethiopian women.
WDIP was the first microeconomic grant project for the World Bank Africa Region, as well as a new kind of project for the government, which implemented it on both federal and regional levels. The project is designed around two main components: First, the Grassroots Initiative Fund provides a financing window for women’s entrepreneurial groups; second, Capacity Building will strengthen the skills of women and community-based organizations. When WDIP began, it focused on large groups, with a minimum of 20 women. Starting a business with groups this large proved difficult, and program implementation became a problem. The Bank and the government began looking for solutions. An Eastern model Bangladesh and India had already had some success in micro-financing small entrepreneurial women groups, so project principals traveled there to see what could be learned. Observing the Asian models, WDIP officials immediately saw the major problem with the Ethiopian groups: the successful Asian groups were smaller and thus more manageable. With this in mind, WDIP’s guidelines were changed to reduce the number required to start a group from twenty to ten A supporting framework  The group structures of the project do not require women to work everyday, and thus conform more to their lifestyles. The groups often support each other in ways that allow them to earn income and still perform their household duties.
After forming and selecting their businesses, the women save 5 to 10 percent of their funding costs. They then present themselves and their financial contribution to their local Regional Coordinating Unit (RCU) for more support. The RCU coordinates, monitors, and hires intermediaries to teach the women effective business operation skills. The groups also provide women the expertise needed to start their own businesses, which increases the community value and social standing of many women. Most of the women’s groups choose business projects that already make up a part of their daily activities—for example, businesses focused on cattle, dairy products, spices, and home-woven garments. According to the project task team leader Endashaw Tadesse, “the most successful groups are those which are engaged in agriculture-related activities, particularly cattle fattening and dairy.” Spreading benefits and information  So far, WDIP has benefited 11,300 women, in 621 operating groups and over 60,000 direct family members. Some of these projects are even registering with the government to become legal entities, making their business secure and sustainable.
In addition, WDIP’s Information Communication and Communication (IEC) component aims to increase awareness of the harm in some of the traditional practices, such as genital mutilation, and providing them legal support when necessary. Some of the women then go back to their communities to teach others. Spreading this information will be crucial to change attitudes towards these practices and empower the women of Ethiopia. |
RSS