Empowering African Female-led enterprises be more innovative and sustainable is key to economic recovery.

Women and girls have been at the center of development and community sustainability for ages, from being business owners, community leaders, to leading towards social development through civil societies and non-profit causes.

What has been a clear case also is that COVID-19 pandemic has hit women harder. Women have been affected not only because of the disease itself, but because they work in jobs that are less secure. For countries like New Zealand in 2020 of the 11,000 jobs lost 10,000 jobs belonged to women and this is because most women are in the service industry or community engaging activity for their livelihood, this is a case of a developed country, what does that mean to a developing country?

It can not be ignored that over 50% of the SMEs in Africa are women and most of these women-Owned-Enterprises are social enterprises or businesses that focus on community impact that support vulnerable groups in their communities.

2020 has shown us both the disproportionate burden of inequality on girls and women in all areas, the widen gap between the classes across the globe and the widen gap in financial and digital inclusion is as vivid as it has never been before. Investing in empowering women -led enterprises ( from businesses, social enterprises and CSOs) is not just right, it’s the key to economic and social recovery of African societies.

Women in Social Entrepreneurship and CSOs

Women and girls have been uniquely empowered by social entrepreneurship and have also transformed and impacted systems causing shifting and reshaping of existing dynamics.

According to Ashoka’s 2018 Global Impact Study , its female Fellows work within systems and are more likely to spread their idea locally, inspiring replication by other groups or institutions within their country of residency.

“Women social entrepreneurs have, time and time again, made a deep impact in their work through a form of impact called “scaling deep” — overhauling unfair and unjust systems, sparking collaborative social movements, and reshaping dominant expectations, norms, and stigmas.” — World Economic Forum

What is fascinating is that according to Multiple reports, social entrepreneurship sector is still dominated by men and women social entrepreneurs have experienced being discriminated against based on their appearance, being not listened to nor given decision-making power in group situations, and that fundraising and networking were easier for their male colleagues.

Now for any efforts that are being made to increase inclusivity, these challenges surely derail the efforts. Hence there is a need to empower women social entrepreneurs and women-led CSOs/NGOs.

One of a reason given as to why male-led social enterprises succeed or get more accepted is because of the ability to produce results that can be measured more on impact based on the number of people reached and the amount of wealth accrued.

The challenges is women-led organizations/social enterprises seem to be left behind is that assessments made in these ignore projects that affect laws and policies, and influence mindsets, cultures, and systems the sort of impacts often led by women social entrepreneurs.

“A man who heads a nonprofit is considered heroic or enlightened, whereas I’ve been patronised numerous times as the charity worker.” — Kristine Pearson, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Lifeline Energy

Women in NGOs and CSOs

From time to time, Women NGOs have demonstrated the ability to shift the existing environments especially when equipped. For example in Tanzania, The enactment of the Land Act of 1999 is considered to be the most significant achievement of the activities of civil organizations. Women groups and women CSOs proved to be the power behind the achievement, to quote the African Study Monographs report

“ Citizens’ struggle for participation in the policy process paid off in this piece of legislation. This was a challenge to the myth established under the single party regime that only the party/government were capable of initiating policy. From this interaction between state machinery and civic society organizations, women groups witnessed a number of successes. Women’s efforts led to a number of adjustments to the Bill which otherwise would have not. In fact the GLTF was more pleased with changes which appeared in the 1998 Land Bill than most other participants in the issue. In GLTF ( Gender Land Task Force) opinion they had a cause to celebrate. Women MPs also celebrated on the day the bills were passed, and echoed the view of GLTF. To them, putting gender on the agenda of the Land Bill debate was a significant achievement. They also saw that they were successful in making the government feel the pressure of civil organizations for the first time in many years, keeping it from rushing the bill to parliament as was expected”

The challenges like getting the opportunities and ability to fundraise and run their CSOs sustainably hinders a lot of well-thought and impactful women-led CSOs and NGOs especially those in rural and semi-urban areas of the region.

The epitome of any relationship is acknowledgement but for a long time acknowledgement of these women-led impactful ventures have not be clearly indicated because of lack of systems and structures that hinder clear communication and clear impact assessment.

There is a unique need for capacity building, innovation and technology adoption for all of these enterprises for the region to experience the full impact of the role they play.

Women in Business ( SMEs and Startups)

Women make up at least 40% of the workforce in more than 80 countries, this is according to the analysis of labor force statistics from 114 nations with data from 2010 to 2016 conducted by the PEW Research Center. The report identified, across all of these countries, the median female share of the workforce is 45.4%. The good news is, according to the report, The five countries with the highest female shares are all in sub-Saharan Africa. In Zimbabwe, Malawi, the Gambia, Liberia, and Tanzania, women account for at least 50% of the workforce. The report further explained, in all of the sub-Saharan countries with data available, at least 40% of the labor force is female. The report shows the significance of the informal sector on the women-led economy in Africa.

Most women in Sub-Saharan Africa are predominantly employed in informal employment, relative to men. According to ILO in most countries for which data disaggregated by sex are available, the share of women in informal employment in non-agricultural activities outnumbers that of men. In Sub Saharan Africa most of this employment is still in the informal sector, 74 percent of women’s employment (non-agricultural) is informal, in contrast with 61 percent for men. Women also still faces a lot of challenges, female vulnerable employment (typically unpaid family work) is also considerably higher than the rate for males, at 84.3 percent compared with 70.1 percent for males in 2014 in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Women entrepreneurs account for up to a third of all businesses operating in the formal economy worldwide according to ILO. Majority of women-led enterprises in growing and transitioning economies are very small and micro-enterprises. The majority though the productive efficiency of women is higher than 50 percent, and that of men is underutilized by 22 percent of women still faces a challenge on attaining key leadership and strategic positions in bigger firms because of different social, historical and economic issues. In Sub Saharan Africa traditional customs and social beliefs hinder the chances of women establishing successful ventures.

Discrimination in property and inheritance, access to formal financial institutions and overwhelming household responsibilities are among issues identified to hinder the growth of women-led businesses in the continent. The growth of the digital economy ( eg social media platforms, tech-businesses ) and the innovation ecosystem in Africa (Tanzania) has created an opportunity for new youth-led businesses to be established. The number of women involved is still very low and SheFound is looking to bridge that gap.

Africa, which is the only region in the world where more women than men choose to become entrepreneurs, has the total number of almost a billion people, 50.4% of which are female.

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2016/17 Women’s Report released found women’s entrepreneurial activity globally was up 10 per cent, closing the gender gap by five per cent since 2014. Sub-Saharan Africa leads the way, with its female entrepreneurship rates the highest globally. 25.9 percent of the female adult population is engaged in early-stage entrepreneurial activity in the region.

Sub-Saharan Africa does however also have the highest discontinuance rate — at 8.4 per cent. Around 56 per cent of women entrepreneurs in the region cite either unprofitability or lack of finances as a reason for closing down their business. What can be done about this?

Socio-demographic data on female entrepreneurs in Africa is becoming increasingly available. The study by Roland Berger analyzed figures from 19 countries from 2012 to 2017 and relied on a machine learning model including algorithms on education, the conditions for starting a business and the fertility rate. As a result the countries were sorted into four categories: “The Struggling” (Ethiopia, Mali, etc.), “The Striving” (Kenya, Tanzania, etc.), “The Emergent” (Nigeria, South Africa, etc.) and “The Traditional” (Algeria, Egypt, etc.). Female entrepreneurs contributed between USD 250 billion and USD 300 billion to African economic growth in 2016, which is equivalent to about 13% of the continent’s GDP. Yet “The Emergent” contributes by far the highest amount (62%), while “The Traditional” is little more than zero. You increase the economy size and per capita for each individual.

Empowering female-led businesses is not just something that speaks to the SDGs and other global agendas ( If you think that should stop you), it’s the secret sauce to economic empowerment of the whole Continent, a whole over 1.2 billion people. It’s the change of almost over 200 million USD in GDP for the continent.

What needs to be done to effectively use this key to unlock economic prosperity:

• Capacity building of women-led enterprises ( both profitable and non-profitable) in areas of organizational development, building organizational structures, sustainability and business development, finance management and fundraising.
• Capacity building of the women and girls leading these enterprises on personal development, innovation leadership and being a thought leader.
• Financial support for women-led enterprises.
• Making information on funding, opportunities and more easily available for women and girls through easily accessible channels.
• Empowering women-led enterprises with innovation and digital adaption.
• Empowering women-led enterprises with technology access and in-kind support to adapt the technology tools they need.
• Encouraging partnerships between and forming partnerships with women-led enterprises and other players within their particular sectors or ecosystems.

Stay tuned with more coming on business, technology and development and the future, follow me on Twitter @vanessazbliss

About me: Vanessa is an entrepreneur, a tech and business anthropologist, writer, speaker and impact catalyst working in the innovation and technology entrepreneurship space in Africa. She is a founder of itravelar and SheFound and host at The Bliss Show.