Women IN Business (WIN)
Improving inclusive economic growth in Mozambique through female entrepreneurship
The WIN program helps women-led businesses to grow their incomes through better access to products, inputs and services, addressing gender inequality in commercial business.
More than three quarters of economically active Mozambicans are involved in small and informal businesses, 60% of whom are women. Despite their equal importance with male entrepreneurs, Mozambican women entrepreneurs:
- have smaller businesses and employ fewer people
- have higher demands at home (i.e. caring for the family)
- face discrimination and unequal access to networks and information
A longstanding culture of female entrepreneurship has the potential to drive more inclusive economic growth in Mozambique.
The WIN program is financed by The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and implemented in partnership with TechnoServe.
The five-year program began in 2018 with a plan to grow and evolve in Mozambique through the end of 2022 with the help our team of experienced professionals.
Women IN Business Team 2023
Women IN Business Program Partners
Approach
WIN is a change facilitator.
WIN’s role is to identify opportunities and barriers for women and find business partners with the incentive and ability to break down those barriers. This is known as a market systems approach, or “M4P” (Making Markets work for the Poor).
We work in partnership with permanent market players – such as private sector companies, associations, service providers and regulators. Our method is to carefully select partners to test new ways of working, before inviting other market players to replicate their success.
This approach allows us to find sustainable, lasting, market-based solutions for women.
Examples of intervention areas include:
ACCESS TO MANAGEMENT TOOLS AND INFORMATION
Improved business management has been shown to lead to higher incomes, but many women entrepreneurs do not have access to tools and training. WIN is working with traditional (national professional training authority) and new training providers (content producers through social media) to help entrepreneurs integrate better business practices and soft skills.
ACCESS TO FINANCIAL SERVICES
Financial services are necessary for any growing business. WIN increases access to financial services for women by helping financial institutions to create tailored solutions for women as customers and sales agents (e.g digital savings products, digital micro-loans, more inclusive mobile money/agency banking models) and to improve their financial education through campaigns and embedded services.
ACCESS TO QUALITY, CONVENIENT PRODUCTS
To sell high volumes, a retailer needs good products. But in Mozambique, poor information flows and weak, fragmented transport systems, along with reduced mobility, make women retailers less efficient. Lastly, distributors do not always have a strategy to target the informal segment, where most women micro-entrepreneurs operate. WIN works with distributors to better target this segment as well as include more women in their last mile distribution model.
RULES AND SOCIAL NORMS THROUGH MEDIA
There are many influences that govern the rules and norms of micro-enterprises. WIN has selected media as a channel through which to transform at scale how women are presented and perceived, hoping to have a scale impact on social and household-level expectations that frame what women can achieve. Besides, WIN aims to use media as a channel to educate women in entrepreneurship as well as to inspire them to launch, grow and diversify their businesses.
ACCESS TO EQUIPMENT
Women often face challenges in accessing productive equipment to grow their businesses because of lack of information or capital. WIN increases access to value-added equipment to women by working with companies to improve last mile distribution models and marketing, especially in the green energy sector (e.g., with solar home systems and improved cooking stoves).
