New grant to help business women in Ethiopia

We are delighted to have been awarded a 3.8 million NOK grant from Norad, The Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation.

This grant is particularly exciting for us as this is the first time Ripple Effect has partnered with Norad. The grant will be supporting a new project in Kutaber District of northern Ethiopia, taking our work to a new region and working in a predominantly Muslim community. We are excited to learn how we adapt our tools and training to support new groups.

“Here at Ripple Effect Ethiopia, we are excited about this project for a number of reasons. This is our first grant from NORAD and it will be our first project in the Amhara region on Northern Ethiopia. We will be working with 30 Self Help groups, with all members being female. We will aim at transforming the most vulnerable women and their families into rural entrepreneurs.” - Jokon Braun, Programme Funding Manager, Ethiopia

The project, Developing Business Women, will support women in creating successful farming businesses and giving them access to financial services. The project will start this year and continue until December 2020. The training will focus on:

We will work with families to assess the workload of women and ensure roles are shared equally between all members of the family. These techniques will help women gain better access to business opportunities and economic activities.

Women will be trained in sustainable agriculture techniques as well as value addition e.g. turning tomatoes into sauce. This will help them to grow a wide variety of produce and to get a better price for it at market. Women led producer groups will be set up so farmers can combine their produce and sell in bulk, giving them access to different markets with higher prices.

Village Savings and Loans Associations will be created so women are able to access funds to develop their businesses and invest their savings in new ventures. We will also help them to link to formal financial institutions such as banks.