4 Ways USAID is Promoting Women’s Empowerment in Kenya & Egypt
Key announcements from USAID Acting Administrator’s trip
Women can prosper in the workplace and succeed as entrepreneurs when they break down the legal and social barriers to full participation in the economy, USAID Acting Administrator John Barsa said at a roundtable discussion in Kenya.
“When women are economically empowered, they re-invest in themselves, their families and communities. These investments grow and multiply to spur economic growth and build stability,” he said.
The theme of women’s empowerment was a common thread on Barsa’s October trip to Egypt and Kenya, which included an event with women entrepreneurs and business leaders in Nairobi to discuss the White House-led Women’s Global Development and Prosperity (W-GDP) Initiative. USAID manages the W-GDP Fund, which invests in innovative programs that advance W-GDP’s three core pillars: women prospering in the workforce, women succeeding as entrepreneurs, and women enabled in the economy.
Here are four key announcements Barsa made on USAID’s efforts to empower women in the two countries, including three women’s W-GDP programs and one program in Egypt.
1. Increasing Kenyan Women’s Access to Finance
The new W-GDP Investing in Kenyan Women activity is a $3 million investment that will take a dual approach to increase access to finance. On one hand, the W-GDP funded program will train women entrepreneurs who may lack the collateral needed to access finance, or who have new or difficult-to-finance businesses. On the other hand, the program will collaborate with local financial institutions to develop new credit products that address persistent gender gaps in financial services. Through this program, the W-GDP Fund will catalyze $30 million in commercial investment for women entrepreneurs.
2. Connecting Kenyan Women to the Internet
The W-GDP Fund is investing $5 million in the W-GDP Microsoft Women’s Digital Inclusion Partnership, which will catalyze a $10 million investment from Microsoft. This global effort will support Microsoft’s Airband Initiative, which will substantially increase the number of women with internet coverage by investing in local ICT companies serving rural areas in five countries, including Kenya.
3. Training Kenyan Women to Run Their Own Businesses
The W-GDP Fund is excited to begin a new partnership with United Parcel Service (UPS) to help Kenyan women launch, fund, and scale their own businesses. Our $1.4 million investment in the W-GDP Partnership to Train Kenyan Women Entrepreneurs activity will identify the knowledge gaps that most impact women entrepreneurs in Kenya, and provide one-on-one support to help them access growth opportunities — such as through e-commerce.
Kenyan women business leaders like Rebecca Miano exemplify the goal of the White House-led W-GDP Initiative. Miano, whom Barsa met in Nairobi, is the managing director and CEO of electric utility KenGen, an Engendering Utilities partner under W-GDP. Since Miano became CEO in 2017, KenGen has hired more than 200 women, and promoted 300 female employees. One of the utility’s main objectives is to build a workforce that is 30 percent female by 2025.
“What I want the world to know about Kenyan businesswomen and entrepreneurs — and also leaders like me — is that we are capable,” Miano said. “We are resilient. And we are willing to carry forth all the other women with us so that we can develop. We have shown we can do it, and that our leadership skills in our various disciplines are not gender based.”
4. Empowering Egyptian Women to Join the Workforce
USAID committed nearly $23 million in additional funding to support inclusive economic governance and women’s empowerment in Egypt. Through the Women’s Economic and Social Empowerment program, USAID, the Egyptian Government, and the private sector will work to increase women’s participation in the formal economy, expand women’s financial inclusion, and reduce the socio-economic impacts of violence against women.
