UN Women and Office of the State Minister for Reconciliation and Civic Equality of Georgia partner to build entrepreneurship skills of conflict-affected women
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UN Women, in cooperation with its partners, regularly supports capacity-building of conflict-affected women and implements various initiatives for this purpose.
Most recently, 17 conflict-affected women participated in a practical entrepreneurship course - How to Start Up and Develop a Business – under a joint initiative between UN Women, the Office of the State Minister for Reconciliation and Civic Equality of Georgia, the administration of the governor of Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti Region and the Academy of the Ministry of Finance.
The course, attended by women residing in different villages adjacent to the Administrative Boundary Line in Zugdidi Municipality, aimed to enhance the women’s theoretical knowledge on entrepreneurship and to build their practical skills for running a business. According to the participants’ evaluations, the course was productive and now will allow them to apply the acquired knowledge in practice.
Course participant Irina Korshia, who lives in Zugdidi and has a workshop where she produces accessories, remarked: “Before attending the course, we did not know how to prepare a presentation or a business plan, or what nuances need to be taken into consideration. I did not have any knowledge in this area, and it had been hard for me to cope. Now I have become more self-confident that I can do it. I learned how to build a team and what specific steps I need to take. This knowledge will greatly help me develop my business.” Now Irina is starting to make handbags and plans to employ other local women as well.
The practical course on entrepreneurship consisted of six meetings and interactive lectures, practical assignments and presentations on various topics. It covered such how-to issues as generating new business ideas, conducting a market analysis and division per areas, planning for products that meet minimum sustainability requirements, business modelling and developing a commercialization strategy. The participants were awarded respective certificates after completing the course.
UN Women plans to follow up with the course participants, engage in social mobilization work and support them in accessing grants from various grant-giving organizations.
The initiative and its follow-up activities are funded by the project “A Joint Action for Women’s Economic Empowerment”, implemented by UN Women with the financial support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway.