Women Agripreneurs Programme is now Open for applications.
Applications are open for a development programme for women entrepreneurs in agribusiness.
Entrepreneurship continues to empower people to sustain their livelihoods. However, women entrepreneurs still require investment to transform their livelihoods and to ensure strengthened gender equality across the agricultural value chain. From farm to fork, women’s empowerment is essential and the transformation of the agricultural sector as a gender-inclusive space is a critical place to start.
The context within which women farmers operate is dynamic and complex with multiple stakeholders and role-players impacting the business environment. Farmers alike face challenges like lack of financial support, appropriate training and business skills, social barriers and poor or absent infrastructure. Women farmers, however, face these same challenges and more, such as a lack of networks and peer support, and cultural and social barriers in the form of gender norms.
Comprehensive support is critical to ensure that women farmers are equipped to run agricultural enterprises that are resilient, adaptive to change and competitive. The Embassy of France in South Africa will once again be partnering with the Entrepreneurship Development Academy (EDA) at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) to develop a tailor-made programme to develop, support and empower women farmers in South Africa.
Through this customised programme, the EDA and the Embassy of France in South Africa hope to contribute to the development and strengthening of the South African farming community, the agricultural sector and South African women’s emancipation and economic empowerment by aiding women entrepreneurs to effectively combat the challenges and barriers they face.
Thirty-five women will be recruited to begin an intensive three-month programme titled, Women Agripreneurs Programme, which will be divided into three thematic areas. The thematic areas will cover self and leadership development as well as entrepreneurial and managerial competencies.
Coaching sessions will run concurrently with the training programme to support the women entrepreneurs to apply the academic business management concepts, as well as enhance their personal development journeys.
This intensive programme is scheduled to be delivered online in a blended format comprising of a combination of asynchronous and synchronous lessons. The blended format aims to facilitate the inclusion of participants in the rural outskirts of South Africa as well as women juggling multiple roles.
As with many of the EDA’s programmes, a robust monitoring and evaluation process will be undertaken to ensure mutual goals are met, to determine ongoing programme impact and to ensure ongoing learning while implementing the programme.
The programme is scheduled to start in March 2022. The closing date for applications is the 28th of February 2022. View the application criteria and complete the online application form.
