Women’s Empowerment and Capacity-Building Programmes

Engaging African women in rural areas through continuous distance education and computer-assisted technologies

Achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 (Gender equality and empowering women) is a top priority and work agenda, since development cannot be achieved or sustained without the full and genuine involvement of women.  

The Egyptian Agency of Partnership for Development (EAPD) attaches special importance to women’s empowerment in Africa since it believes in women’s crucial role in developing African societies. In this regard, the Agency organized training courses for women, in collaboration with various distinguished centres and institutions. As a general rule, women must represent 20 percent of the participants in the Agency's programme, and the Agency is seeking to increase this percentage during the current fiscal year. Accordingly, EAPD is collaborating with the Egyptian National Council for Women to design and deliver a training courses tailored to women from the continent on various issues, such as ‘The Empowerment of African Rural Women in Vocational Education or Small Business’. 

These one-month training courses are implemented annually, with 30–40 participants. Participants are selected by their governments or national institutions working on women’s issues and through a full coordination with Egyptian embassies in these countries. Through an effective learning process to raise their capacities and enrich their entrepreneurship knowledge, the training aims to inspire and empower African women in rural areas who wish to create their own businesses. 

Around 30-40 candidates participate each year in this training course, implemented by the National Council for Women in Egypt, and with the collaboration with different partners from the private sector and technical experts. 

The objectives were met by working closely with various key providers of small business training programmes in Egypt, who agreed to share their experiences, lessons and views, which allowed the participants to fully review their courses on marketing, management, content, delivery, etc. 

The participants were trained to implement various techniques to identify their current strengths and weaknesses. This enabled them to efficiently review their small business plans with a clear understanding of the major issues emerging from the current research, and through practical experience. 

In addition to the peer-learning exchanges, the training course was highly successful with the increase of trainees’ capacities. The training strived to enable them to settle effectively and efficiently into their work responsibilities. The trainees completed the training programme with high levels of motivation and full engagement. 

To ensure the sustainability of this initiative, selected participants in the country should hold a position that allows them to disseminate knowledge, such as extension officer or instructor at a relevant institution. In some cases, graduates participate in the selection of new candidates because this can help strengthen the relationship between former and new participants, allowing the latter to become leaders in their countries. 

The training has set off a chain reaction by generating qualified trainers who will pass on the knowledge and skills they acquired during the course to their peers, subordinates and co-workers in various developing countries. The trainees will use the new knowledge gained to effectively contribute to their respective organizations and countries.  

The programme is regularly updated to effectively adapt to the changing working environment, and can be easily implemented through other development agencies in other developing countries.