Supporting Women Entrepreneurs Across the Indian Ocean Rim through 4 projects supported by Africa RISE

The Indian Ocean Rim is host to a vibrant economy of women entrepreneurs, whose numbers have been increasing steadily over the last few years. In addition, the southwestern Indian Ocean is a region of great potential given the assets of the six territories that comprise it. Nevertheless, women entrepreneurs still face obstacles in gaining access to finance and markets, and available digital technologies.

 

Entrepreneurial activities are necessary requirements for the empowerment of women. This is particularly true of island environments with a limited market development scope. EFTICOI was established in 2011 in Mauritius to support women entrepreneurs in overcoming the obstacles they face. EFTICOI brings together women-led associations in Mauritius, Reunion, Rodrigues, Seychelles, Mayotte, Madagascar and South Africa (Durban). It aims to increase collaboration between the Indian Ocean islands and within the African continent.

 

Africa RISE was approached by EFTICOI to support four specific initiatives:

1.         Further development of a digital platform for business networking across the region (the WOWANTED platform);

2.         Development of a strategy for women-led sustainable tourism projects in the region;

3.         Expansion of previous work on handicraft and agribusiness value creation;

4.         Development of a training and coaching programme for women-led businesses across the region (– Seychelles/ Reunion/ Mauritius/ Rodrigues/ Mayotte/ Madagascar)

 

The objective of this Africa RISE assignment was to provide the EFTICOI team with technical support to convert the projects referred to above into firm proposals, base financial documents and pitching documents that could be submitted to apply for financial and technical assistance. Once the proposals and pitching documents have been developed, the group will be using these resources to apply for Team Europe (EU and European bilateral donors) funding through existing Team Europe funding instruments, initiatives, and facilities.  

 

Project 1: WOWANTED

 

WOWANTED, based in Mauritius, is a virtual web platform dedicated to women’s entrepreneurship. It provides the following services:

 

·             Women's networking;

·             A database of women with specific expertise (digital, finance, economy, strategy, etc.);

·             Highlighting business opportunities led by women to create a space that brings together the skills of women entrepreneurs in the Indian Ocean, Africa and Asia using Mauritius as a central point between Africa and Asia.

·             Search for investors, investment projects and/or partnerships for women;

·             Connections and professional information from the region.

 

The project responds to an opportunity in the Indian Ocean and African market to boost and facilitate the visibility of projects led by women. It is an interesting opportunity to consolidate an economic zone that could consist of facilitated connections between women entrepreneurs of the Indian Ocean islands and Africa as well.

 

Project 2: Spice Route

 

Madagascar is one of the world's leading spice exporting countries, particularly known for its vanilla and pepper. In addition, a parallel step to the project would be to organise an annual culinary and spice festival of the Indian Ocean to enhance the value of the sector and give visibility to small producers, particularly women who support this economy.

 

The long term objective is to promote the development of sustainable tourism and finally to help people discover the local way of life in Madagascar. As this project will be replicable in the other islands and in the countries that wish to set it up, in addition to encouraging the spice industry, it can also contribute to the cohesion of the islands. There is therefore an international dimension to this project.   

 

Project 3: Integrated Farm

 

The concept is to establish an Integrated Farm for the Empowerment of vulnerable groups while safeguarding biodiversity.

 

This integrated farm project in Mauritius started in 2019 in the centre of the island with a first phase financed by CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) funds. The current proposal with Africa RISE is to invest in the second phase of this integrated farm project which is intended to serve as a pilot project in the Indian Ocean in order to be able to replicate this model in Rodrigues, the Seychelles, Madagascar among others. The objective of the second phase is to support new farm facilities but also implement more technical training on production and what can be improved in the facilities. Further training is useful for everything that is production processing (fruits, plants, and fibre recycling).

 

This project aims to highlight the value of women in the market for healthy and organic products, but also to implement a concept that interacts with agriculture, livestock, waste recycling and everything that has an ecological value.  

 

Project 4: Training & Coaching for Women in the Indian Ocean

 

The fourth project has a coaching-mentoring component that is transversal to all sectors, projects and all areas, whatever the project or its scope. The idea is to provide technical training with a concrete aspect to allow those women entrepreneurs to be competitive on the market. This will allow women entrepreneurs to access tools that will help them in the development and sustainability of their project.

 

Entrepreneurial opportunities are necessary for women to achieve a certain autonomy and more particularly in island environments which are often far from growth markets and which ultimately suffer from isolation. Thus, these women entrepreneurs from the islands can boost their capacity to develop their business and go beyond the borders. Indeed, these projects could also be used as pilot projects and be implemented in other regions or countries in the long term.

 

These projects are expected to generate new business and enhance economic development of women-led projects in the Indian Ocean Basin. Ultimately, these projects will contribute to the achievement of gender equality through enabling women’s increased participation in the labour force and in the marketplace and improve opportunities for women’s entrepreneurship. Commenting on the projects, Marianne Orsini, the  head of EFTICOI who is currently supporting operations for the different projects said: “Gender equality and the empowerment of women in the Indian Ocean region is key. These are projects that are essential to support women’s entrepreneurship and encourage them to achieve their full potential and contribute to the economic development of their countries and even beyond...”