Promoting Women Entrepreneurs in Ethiopia
Maari Ross
Estonian Roundtable for Developmet Cooperation
Internship no. C300101603
Internship title: Exhibition and Incubation Center for Women Entrepreneurs
Ethiopia, Addis Ababa
Internship period: July 19 – October 18, 2009
Ethiopian Association of Women Exporters
Summary
GLEN participant Maari Ross worked during July-October 2009 in the capital of Ethiopia, Addis
Ababa in Ethiopian Women Exporters Association with the aim to promote Ethiopian products.
Ethiopian society is characterized by an overwhelming domination of men over women in most
political, economic and social aspects. There are various obstacles for women as entrepreneurs, such
as less access to credit, land, and international markets, it is more challenging for women to establish
effective informal networks with other business people and, finally, women also often lack education,
business skills and business development services. Due to these constraints, most women-run
businesses are micro enterprises, only few women are represented in the medium or large business
category.
The internship partner in the host country was Ethiopian Women Exporters Association, hereafter
EWEA. It was founded in January 2000 and currently has 36 members, all of them women-run
companies from 5 different sectors: flowers, coffee, textile, leather, and jewellery. EWEA has
established a computerized information center for export-oriented female entrepreneurs in Addis
Ababa and offers consulting, trainings and participation in international trade fairs. EWEA also
facilitates networking and experience sharing among Ethiopian businesswomen.
The internship tandem partners were a photographer and a graphic designer, and during the
internship they produced professional promotional materials for Ethiopian women entrepreneurs
who are members of the association. Interns visited individual members, proposed a design startegy
or took into account existing materials, then photographed products for both websites and printing
materials, designed flyers, postcards, product catalogues.
1. Background on Ethiopia
Ethiopia, one of the oldest countries in the world with a significant cultural heritage and beautiful
nature, has many things to offer for visitors and Ethiopians are friendly and open to foreigners,
which makes it an excellent destination for a 3-month stay and more.
One can say that life for foreigners is easier in Addis Ababa than elsewhere in Ethiopia. A
functioning real estate market makes it quite easy to rent a house or an apartment with all
conveniences, the only problem being the price, which is often unreasonably high for foreigners.
Getting around the city is easy once you get sense and a bit of orientation of the most important
places such as Mexico Square, Piazza, Bole Road and most importantly Kirkos, where the Ethiopian
Women Exporters Association office is currently situated. Streets of Addis Ababa either don´t have
names or are not really known by locals as they were only introduced recently, so a use of a big
landmark, such as a big hotel is fairly common. The most suitable means of transport are blue
minibuses, which run all over the city almost all day long. Addis Ababa is one of the safest capitals
in Africa and occasional pickpocketing is all that foreigners should be concerned about.
2. The Hosting Organisation: Ethiopian Association of Women Exporters
The Ethiopian Women Exporters' Association (hereafter EWEA) was founded in January 2000 to
promote the role of Ethiopian women in the overall economic development of the country.
EWEA's vision is to see successful Ethiopian women exporters’ in the international market
contributing significantly to the national economy and becoming role model to the next generation.
EWEA is an assocation on national level open for export-oriented female entrepreneurs from all
over Ethiopia. However, most EWEA member companies are based in or near Addis Ababa, with
the exception of one coffee grower and exporter and a few businesses in the Oromia region.
Currently EWEA has 36 members, all of them women-run companies from different sectors
(flowers, coffee, textile, leather, and jewellery).
Some of the EWEA member companies are already exporting, others are still getting ready for
international markets. The experience level ranges from start-ups to established enterprises, which
are for more than 20 years in the market. Their different growth stage is also reflected in the size of
the member companies: About 50% of them are in the mid range of 10-50 employees, approx. 25%
are micro enterprises with less than 10 employees and approx. 25% are larger companies with up to
500 employees.
EWEA has established a computerized information and resource center for export-oriented female
entrepreneurs in Addis Ababa and offers a broad range of demand-oriented services, including
individual consulting, relevant trainings and participation in international trade fairs. EWEA also
facilitates networking and experience sharing among Ethiopian businesswomen.
3. Process and Cooperation of the Internship – Smooth as Ethiopian Silk
Work was organised so that every week we held meetings of our contact person Ms. Workaferahu
who introduced us the weekly schedule – which members we were going to meet, where, and when.
On average we met about two member companies per week. At the first meeting the contact person
accompanied us and introduced us to the member company. Then we reviewed the products and
discussed the expectations of the member company regarding the photos and promotional materials.
After that we usually returned the next day and I took pictures of products, then handed them over
to my tandem partner Martina so she could continue design work. Finally we met the members to
show our work and get feedback, made modifications or additions if necessary and then gave the
materials over to the company and also copies of photos to our contact person in EWEA.
Althouth 2009 was the first year of GLEN and EWEA cooperation, the contact person Mrs.
Workaferahu Kidane is well experienced and is committed to making a good use of the time
volunteers spend in Ehtiopia. EWEA is a well established association with a good potential to
introduce the volunteers in women entrepreneurs issue, but also in general developement policy of
Ethiopia. EWEA’s business plan is to expand both its members base and the sectors in which they
operate, so there will be always enough of activities for volunteers to do. Last, but not least, the
member companies and people running them and working there are simply very interesting and the
interns will not be bored and they will have more than enough material to base the global education
activities on.
The cooperation within our tandem worked rather well. We had different skills, which
complemented each other, so we were quite clear on the division of work, i.e. whose tasks are
which. At the same time, some of our skills overlapped, so we were also able to consult and advise
each other regarding our work.
We had an unusual internship, as two interns joined us because their project was cancelled in
Yemen. Although a group of 4 volunteers was not intended at the beggining of the project and
sometimes it caused more hassle to travel around in a group of 4, we managed quite well and did not
have any major problems or misunerstandings.
4. Problems, Challenges and Solutions
For us the main challenge was that we could not carry out the originally proposed main activity of
the internship – to design, complete and promote a gallery for EWEA and its members.
Upon arriving we learned that EWEA was still waiting for rooms from the Ministry of Housing
and Minstry of Women Affiars and that was going to take longer time than expected. So all we
could do was to draft a rough plan for the gallery and advise on the size and type of rooms that
would be needed, as well as give suggestions regarding the interior design.
So the next step was to think about something that we could do and that would be useful to
Ethiopian women entrepreneurs.
When we told the board of EWEA that our tandem has experience in working as a professional
photographer and graphic designer, it became clear that there is an immense need for professional
promotional materials and the internship focus shifted to producing those. Our tasks now were to
visit individual members, photograph their products for both websites and print products, and then
design flyers, postcards, product catalogues and other promotional materials.
Another challenge was the time constraint – as the internship was limited to 3 months, we needed
to keep a blance between how much time we could devote to individual members. Some members
would have liked to keep us working for them for weeks, but then others would not have had an
opportunity to use our services. So we had to be quite strict and sometimes draw a line somewhere,
saying that we would produe only that amount of material, and were not able to fulfill all the
requests.
5. So.....What Was the Use of the Project?
We had a very active internship and all in all we felt that our skills were needed and the results
appreciated. The specific results of the internship were:
 We have drafted a detailed plan and suggestions for the interior design of the product
gallery/showroom and office for EWEA members. The plan has been submitted to the
Ethiopian Ministry of Housing and Ethiopian Ministry of Women Affairs from whom EWEA
hopes to get the rooms for the gallery.
 We have provided 15 members with product pictures for website and for printing
 We have provided 5 members with promotional catalogues
 We have helped create promotional materials (CDs with a photo gallery, product catalogue
and promotional postcards) for one member for a big home textile trade fair that she
attended in Paris
 We have designed new logo and graphic design for 3 members
 We have updated EWEA web page (www.ethwea.org) with news and updated individual
member profiles. It will be possible for future business EWEA partners to get more familiar
with services and products they provide and so their sale will be enhanced.
 We have organised an interview for the assocation board member in one of the biggest
Ethiopian newspapers, The Reporter, where she is speaking about the problems that women
entrepreneurs face in Ethiopia, as well as talks about the association and its activities. The
interview is available here: http://en.ethiopianreporter.com/content/view/1717/5/
6.
Conclusion
In conclusion, although the goal of the initially proposed internship – to design and promote
a gallery – was only partially achieved, the wider goal of the internship – to strengthen the
business skills of Ethiopian women entrepreneurs – was achieved.
Ethiopia as a country has made a rather strong impression on me. I kept a blog while living
in Ethiopia, which was visitid by more than 500 people according to Google Analytics.
After returning I have had a chance to give 4 interviews to radio, TV and the main daily
paper Postimees, and I published 2 articles in the Estonian media. This was part of my
planned global education activities. Also, a selection of the photos that I took in Ethiopia
were published in the book Handbook for Global Educators. In addition, I plan to open a
photo exhibition in April 2010 to introduce Ethiopian women entrepreneurs, their spirit
and, above all, their products to the general public.
I would like to thank GLEN for this opportunity, my tandem partners Martina, Adela and
Raphael for a lot of support and inspiration that they gave me, my tutor Nadia, and, above
all, Ms. Workaferahu Kidane for her warm welcome making us feel like at home in
Ethiopia.