THE CHALLENGE

Over 75% of women in Ivory Coast live in poverty, struggling to meet their basic daily needs. Ivorian women face multiple social and economic barriers that make it hard for them to break the cycle of poverty. Women earn 59% less than their male counterparts and, for the most part, are engaged in extremely low-paid work, often agricultural, to ensure that their families have enough food to eat.

50% of Ivorian women have never been to school and this inevitably holds them back, preventing them from obtaining safe, decent employment. Yet women have huge entrepreneurial potential to generate income, to create social value and jobs: 60% of Ivory Coast entrepreneurs are women, one of the highest rate in the world.

Women need opportunities, for education and training, to unleash their entrepreneurial potential, to create employment, generate revenues, and break the cycle of poverty.  

The SOLUTIONS WE'RE PROPOSING

W4 Field partner Empow’Her works to provide women from poor communities in Ivory Coast with the education and training they need to set up income-generating activities. Through a combination of training, capacity-building and coaching (to help the women develop their confidence, their decision-making, and leadership capacities), Empow’Her helps vulnerable women acquire the knowledge and skills to set up livelihoods, earn revenues, and lift themselves and their families out of poverty. The program also helps women to amplify their voices and enhance their decision-making power in their local communities.

Empow’Her aims to launch a “hub” in Ivory Coast: a center dedicated to women’s education and training, where women can mobilize resources, access a support network, and benefit from the services necessary to set up sustainable, entrepreneurial livelihoods. The hub will help women from poor communities, including women who have had very limited formal education.   

THE IMPACT OF GIVING

Your support will offer numerous women the opportunity of education and training and the chance to build better lives as they create their own economic solutions to lift themselves and their families out of poverty. 

Join us as we work to achieve the following goals: 

-       Enable vulnerable women, from the poorest communities, to develop their entrepreneurial potential;

-       Enable the women to generate sustainable income, from a rewarding enterprise, to provide for themselves and their families;

-       Improve the status of women in their local communities as women become economically active and empowered and amplify their voices;

-       Help women to emerge as role models for other women, and for girls, in the local community, promoting greater gender equality and highlighting the potential of women and girls. 

WHY FUND US?

It’s time to invest in women’s potential!

“LEADAFRICAINES decided to partner with Empow’Her to help women transition from the daily struggle of life in poverty and unstable, low-paid work in the informal sector, to unleashing their potential and setting up their own income-generating activities as successful entrepreneurs”.

 
Georgette Soukou, President of the organization LEADAFRICAINES