Women’s Economic Empowerment Paves Way for Sustainable Progress

An old cliché adage echoes, ‘what a man can do, a woman can do better.’ As we celebrate International Women’s Day, empowering women economically is a big step towards a sustainable future.

Areas such as business and career spaces like engineering were seen as male-dominated avenues. STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) were also believed to be a man’s playground.

However, as society advances, women have grasped empowerment and explored these spaces too. We are now seeing women owning businesses, opening up organizations, venturing into engineering and related careers. Also, they are now sitting at tables where decisions are made.

This was a rare phenomenon in the past. Even though there has been great progress, there still seems to be a barrier towards gender equality and equity.

Empowering women economically is among the best practices that seem to be ongoing. The government and civil society groups alike have taken the mantle to instill skills and knowledge in young women so that they may hack into personal economic growth.

To curb the challenging stereotype that bars women from some spaces, civil societies have been offering capacity building to young girls. This is to help them have basic knowledge of entrepreneurship and also how to tap into opportunities.

Such spaces have also created networking opportunities for woman entrepreneurs. It is through these workshops, conferences, and networking events that they get the opportunity to share experiences and ideas.

The government, on the other hand, is pushing the needle through programs such as the Uwezo Fund, which enables women to access finances to promote businesses and enterprises at the constituency level.

Additionally, there is also the Women Enterprise Fund which provides accessible and affordable credit to support women start and/or expand their businesses.

In line with the 2024 United Nations’ theme for International Women’s Day ‘Invest in Women: Accelerate progress’ with a focus on addressing economic disempowerment, there stands a need to advocate for inclusion and challenge stereotypes.

Civil society organizations have been in the forefront to push governments to own up and push for funding for women-led projects. Their focus is on ensuring that even as women jump into these spaces that were not advantaged to have prior, they can get opportunities and support that they need.

Legal reforms, on the other hand, have been a hindrance to some of these endeavors. The legal processes included when looking for funds or looking to register a business have demotivated some of the women entrepreneurs.

Seemingly, there still needs to be a framework on how to create awareness on women all across the geolocations. Women in rural areas who have no access to the internet may not be aware of some of the opportunities or legal processes around their ventures.

While the government is creating these opportunities, they also need to improve on the infrastructure so as to ensure everyone is served equally and the information is disbursed to both those in urban and rural areas.

Tools such as the Maputo Protocol, which recognizes the need for women’s participation in peacebuilding processes and elimination of all forms of violence against women, play a major role in ensuring that women can take up roles and opportunities without the fear of external factors.

When young women are empowered and mentored, economic growth wafts across society. Happy International Women’s Day.