Yesterday, 30th May 2024 the Graça Machel Trust’s Women Creating Wealth programme in collaboration with Stanbic Biashara Incubator, hosted a Women, Leadership and Entrepreneurship Masterclass for women entrepreneurs, in the spirit of fostering women’s economic and social advancement.
Ms. Fauzia Malik,the CEO of Cool Blue talking at the fireside chat with Women Creating Wealth Tanzania Country Lead, Ms. Anabahati Mlay.
Kicking off the session in Dar es Salaam Tanzania, was a fireside chat with Ms. Fauzia Malik who is the CEO of Cool Blue moderated by the Women Creating Wealth (WCW) Country Lead Ms. Anabahati Mlay. By telling her own story, Ms. Malik shared the power of mindset for women in leadership, believing in the ability to develop skills and intelligence through effort, helps women entrepreneurs overcome gender biases and stereotypes that can undermine their confidence. “By building resilience and self-belief enables us to pursue and excel in entrepreneurship and as a result, we’re able to build sustainable businesses that create wealth” she said.
Ms. Malik emphasised how the ability to grow and learn fosters a visionary approach to women in leadership and how they can thus inspire their teams, drive strategic changes, and create a positive organisational culture. She also encouraged women entrepreneurs to embrace challenges and learn from failures as part of calculated risks, which are necessary for business growth.
Ms Korkor Cudjoe, the Graça Machel Trust’s Senior Entrepreneurship Manager.
Joining Ms. Malik was the Graça Machel Trust’s Senior Entrepreneurship Manager, Ms Korkor Cudjoe and Stanbic Head of People and Culture Ms. Rabina Masanja. Ms Cudjoe shared about how WCW is designed to build women entrepreneurs’ confidence, skills, and networks to scale their businesses and transition from income generation to wealth creation through the provision of essential skills, tools, mindset, and business development support services through technical support.
Ms. Rabina Masanja, Stanbic Head of People and Culture.
Ms Rabina Masanja shared how she was fortunate to use the breastfeeding products from one of the WCW programme participants’ business, which helped her with increase milk production an her baby was happy! She used that as a prime example of how investing in women entrepreneurs brings unique perspectives and solutions to business challenges, creating a space for unique innovation.
The feedback from the session participants was overwhelmingly positive, with women entrepreneurs accepting the challenges given by the panellists. This included a change of lifestyle; reading books and journaling as part of self-care, using organising tools that will help them with prioritisation and time management.
Part of our mission at GMT is to partner with like-minded allies to achieve systemic change, so that Africa is continent that is truly equitable and prosperous for all. We deeply grateful for the organisational partner, individual partners and entrepreneurs who came to learn and grow together.
The Trust supports and mobilises civil society networks on issues of ending child marriage, ending violence against children, ending female genital mutilation and promoting children’s 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 Children’s Rights and Development Programme aims at promoting the Global Strategy for women, children and adolescents’ 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 Trust’s 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 mother’s health and social economic conditions, the early years of a child’s life form a fundamental foundation that determines whether a child will survive and thrive optimally.