– WCCIG launches three-year initiative for women-led businesses

Over the years, women entrepreneurs at the helm of businesses from diverse industries in Guyana have made significant progress toward breaking the proverbial glass ceiling and achieving greater equity and equality in business.

Cognisant of the need to educate, empower and encourage women by providing them with development opportunities to advance their businesses, the Women’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry (WCCIG) has been putting new efforts into introducing initiatives that will deliver essential training, resources and support.

Among the full range of programmes that the WCCIG has facilitated to establish spaces for women entrepreneurs to transform their businesses and build capacity for leadership, networking, advocacy and mentoring, the organization, on August 31, launched a three-year funded initiative dubbed ‘We3A Strengthening Women Entrepreneurs in Value Chains.’

The We3A initiative aims to provide women who own small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Central and South American countries with the techniques, tools and skills they need to take advantage of value chain activities that will allow them to successfully develop their businesses while they leverage digital technology, build resilience, grow their networks and overcome barriers. Currently, the initiative is carried out in Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and now, Guyana.

During a telephone interview with the Pepperpot Magazine, President of the WCCIG, Rowena Elliot, indicated that the initiative is a catalyst for development in Guyana, particularly as the country’s economy is transforming, because it provides a ‘window’ for women entrepreneurs to enhance their service or product-based businesses and contribute to society.

Funded by the Women’s Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) and IDB Lab, the innovation laboratory of the Inter-American Development Bank Group, in collaboration with Thunderbird School of Global Management (Arizona State University), the We3A programme is available to women-led businesses in Regions Two, Three, Four, Five, Six and Ten in Guyana. “The idea of the We3A project is to strengthen women-owned and women-led small and medium-sized businesses so that they can be incorporated into the value chains of businesses within the economy… A lot of persons might have an idea of a business, and what the DreamBuilder platform does is that it takes you from the idea phase of it and allows you to move forward on building your business,” Elliot said.

Elliot also revealed that the first cohort of 60 participants will start in September 2022. She stated that the WCCIG issued Expressions of Interest (EOI) for applications across various media channels in November 2021. While learning on the platform is self-paced, there are course facilitators who provide instruction and guidance to participants throughout the courses, which can take approximately six months. The second cohort is expected to have a total of 100 participants.

Moreover, the initiative consists of three key pillars: Aspire, Activate and Accelerate. By utilising the free online business training platform, DreamBuilder, women entrepreneurs will take 13 courses on topics that span planning, marketing, pricing, management, accounting and goal setting, to name a few.

They will learn to navigate evolving business environments by learning to access business plan development and other training, to strategically use materials and resources designed by Thunderbird School of Global Management to enhance value chain integration and adaptation to COVID-19 market conditions and build supportive networks and partnership opportunities across the national, regional and international landscape.

Therefore, to further invest in entrepreneurship training for women who lead businesses, the WCCIG will share the success of these women on various media channels and work toward strengthening multisector interventions to reduce risks that can hinder the process of making a business prosperous. In addition to this, the relationships established between the WCCIG and women entrepreneurs will play an integral role in equipping them to benefit from the oil and gas sector.

“We are learning and we are seeing the value of women in the economy and the value of women leading organisations and building their own businesses. The We3A initiative will create that independence for female entrepreneurs and a lot of times we have seen that it takes them out of dire situations, especially by creating a level of financial independence and financial responsibility,” Elliot said. “It also builds confidence in women in business because it will strengthen what they already have and give them tools to do more. The programme puts them at an advantage to gain business knowledge and different perspectives relevant to global markets.”

Established in June 2019 as a nonprofit charitable organisation by Lyndell Danzie-Black and Kerensa Gravesande-Bart, the Women’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry Guyana (WCCIG) actually strives to foster inclusive, collaborative environments to amplify the voices of women and nurture their economic independence through self-employment and business ownership, and access to its current programmes.

These educational programmes include seminars, workshops, regional and international fellowships, networking mixers, boot camps, community outreaches and leadership programmes, to name a few. Despite the pandemic, the WCCIG launched the annual Guyana Women and Girls’ Summit virtually in 2021 and it went on to successfully host the second event in 2022 with support from the organisation’s corporate sponsors.

As Guyana’s economy is projected to see tremendous growth over the next five years, the WCCIG is also dedicated to ensuring policies and legislative frameworks act as economic support mechanisms for women entrepreneurs to make their businesses viable as well as sustainable and the organisation continues to work toward achieving gender equity in the country.
For anyone desirous to contact or to learn more about the We3A Project, they can visit www.we3a.org