Photo: Pexel picha stock by Andrea Piacquadio
Achieving gender equality, women’s empowerment and youth participation is integral for economic growth on the African continent. Research has shown that money in the hands of women goes a long way to addressing poverty and inequality. According to theĀ World Bank, more women than men are more likely to invest in their families and communities, leading to poverty alleviation.
The challenge, however, is that most women-owned businesses remain survivalist; they create an income and depend on the owner to be actively involved full-time but do not create long-term wealth. Additionally, they face unique challenges when it comes to accessing investment to scale their businesses as well as accessing markets. Therefore, they require support that helps them navigate these challenges to evolve their businesses from income generation to wealth creation.
This is why The GraƧa Machel Trust (GMT) is excited to announce its partnership with Mastercard Foundation to help women-owned and led Small, Medium, and Micro Enterprises (WSMMEs) grow and scale while creating employment opportunities for African youth. The Women Creating Wealth – Intergenerational Edition (WCW-l) will address the existing challenges that hinder the growth of WSMMEs, as well as the individual and ecosystem levels. As a result, the two organizations hope to accelerate and sustain the creation of meaningful employment for young people while helping women entrepreneurs build long-lasting businesses.
Through this three-year partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, GMT hopes to support at least 3,500 businesses and enable women and youth in Kenya, Malawi, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zambia, to become agents of change, build their own futures and contribute significantly to the success and development of Africa.
The support from Mastercard Foundation is timely, as GMT continues to make strides in its mission of transformative impact on Africa’s economies by empowering women entrepreneurs and building a gender-responsive enterprise development system. With this funding, GMT will provide women entrepreneurs in targeted sectors with the right tools, resources, and environment for their businesses to increase their incomes and create wealth, leading to more meaningful work opportunities for thousands of African youth on the continent. The commitment made by the Foundation to advance gender-responsive programming andĀ researchĀ has seen positive results in contributing to gender equality and youth participation, performance and opportunities and also addressing some of the challenges.
“At the GraƧa Machel Trust, we believe that women entrepreneurs have the power to transform African economies and create meaningful work opportunities for the youth. Through our Women Creating Wealth Intergenerational Initiative, we have committed ourselves to provide women with personal, leadership and entrepreneurship capacity-building and access to a supportive community. We are confident that with the right support, these women can grow their enterprises while providing jobs and skills transfer so that the next generation of women entrepreneurs starts off more knowledgeable, empowered, resilient and with a much bigger vision of what they can accomplish” –Ā Melizsa Mugyenyi- CEO, GraƧa Machel Trust.Ā
The Trust supports and mobilises civil society networks on issues of ending child marriage, ending violence against children, ending female genital mutilation and promoting childrenās rights, to carry out advocacy and action across Africa. Special focus is placed on Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia where child marriage continues to be a problem largely driven by poverty, gender inequality, harmful traditional practices, conflict, low levels of literacy, limited opportunities for girls and weak or non-existent protective and preventive legal frameworks.
Education is a fundamental right for all children, which is also a vehicle for social, economic and political transformation in communities, countries and the African continent at large. Recent studies indicate a lack of progress in some of the critical commitments aimed at improving education quality, access, retention and achievement, particularly for girls. In most African countries, girls may face barriers to learning, especially when they reach post-primary levels of education. By implementing multi-dimensional approaches to education which includes core education, personal development, life skills and economic competencies, the Trust partners with funding partners, governments, civil societies and the private sector to improve education access.
The Nutrition and Reproductive, Maternal, New-born, Child and Adolescent Health and Nutrition, (RMNCAH+N) of the Childrenās Rights and Development Programme aims at promoting the Global Strategy for women, children and adolescentsā health within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda. The strategy emphasises on the importance of effective country leadership as a common factor across countries making progress in improving the health of women, children and adolescents.
Through its Early Childhood Development (ECD) plan, The Trust will seek to put into action the new science and evidence Report that was presented by Lancet Series on Good and early development – the right of every child. This will be achieved by mobilising like-minded partners to contribute in the new science and evidence to reach all young children with ECD. The Trustās goal is to be a catalyst for doing things differently, in particular, to rid fragmentation and lack of coordination across ECD sectors. In response to evidence showing the importance of political will in turning the tide against the current poor access and quality of ECD. Even before conception, starting with a motherās health and social economic conditions, the early years of a childās life form a fundamental foundation that determines whether a child will survive and thrive optimally.