The project, supported by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Tanzania, offers a capacity building programme for women entrepreneurs in the Tanzanian agribusiness sector. Whereas most capacity building programmes focus on start-ups and starting entrepreneurs, this project intends to support promising established businesses - scale-ups - who similarly face constraints and hurdles but require specialised support and networks to reach their potential.

Through Waendeleze, a select group of 15 women entrepreneurs will receive specialized training and business development support for a period of one and a half years. The objective is to provide a training programme that is tailor-made to the needs of the entrepreneurs, that will therefore receive technical expertise, business skills training as much as coaching and personal development support.

One unique feature of the programme will be to equip the participants with linkages to the Dutch market and the possibility to establish business partnerships to access international markets.

The Project

Study and Programme Design

The design of the capacity building training has been based on an extensive and in-depth study on the needs and hurdles faced by women-led scale-ups in Tanzania. All training components have been specifically designed to tackle hurdles and tap into opportunities provided by the local business context.

Capacity Building

15 women-led enterprises have been selected and undergone a baseline business assessment that will make sure each enterprise receives exactly the training it needs in order to reach the next step, from technical training to access to business connections. The capacity building training will run until April 2022.

After-care

A specialized after-care component after the end of the programme will ensure that the selected businesses are empowered and connected to continue on their own learning and development path through peer learning and support,maintaining and utilising connections built during the program.

Partners

The project is implemented by Crosswise Works, Match Maker Associates and Lindam, and is funded by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency and the Netherlands Embassy to Tanzania