INTERVIEW: Ethiopian Entrepreneur Reflects on USAID’s Leading for Change Training
Tsige Girma
Based on the results of a rapid needs assessment, Policy LINK's team, which implements the Champions for Food Security (C4FS) Activity in Ethiopia, has been facilitating the Leading for Change training since November 2022. The training aims to develop the policy leadership competencies of policy system actors to enable them to contribute to and influence policymaking process through an inclusive and participatory process. The training course integrates policy with leadership and gender dimensions as well as continental and national agriculture and food security initiatives and policies. It also covers the status of national food security and nutrition in Ethiopia; leadership topics such as leading self and others and leading across boundaries; identification of systemic change areas; and the development of action plans to facilitate the proposed changes. Tsige Girma, a 60-year-old Animal Health Sciences graduate and entrepreneur, was among the first cohort benefiting from the L4C training. Excerpts from her interview with Alemitu Golda, Developmental Evaluation Lead for the C4FS Activity, on how it helped her business as well as the Amhara Women Entrepreneurs Association (AWEA) are presented below.
Who is Tsige Girma?
I am Tsige Grima, a graduate of Animal Health Sciences. I worked for the Ministry of Agriculture for 29 years as an expert and leader. I am now a self-employed entrepreneur and former president of the Amhara Women Entrepreneurs Association in the region.
What has Tsige been doing?
Over the last five years, I’ve had the opportunity to receive business skills development training and develop a small and medium-scale agriculture business that includes poultry, dairy, and fruit production and processing. As one of the entrepreneurs, I was nominated to serve as president of the AWEA for two terms (six years in total). As an entrepreneur and president, I had the chance to meet and work with individuals, institutions, and different stakeholders, which was inspiring and challenging. The most inspiring aspect of my work has been expanding my business and contributing to the improvement of our association's institutional capability.
As the president of the association, I built on the foundation of the works of the preceding president and facilitated the expansion of the area coverage of the association from seven towns to 115 woredas, or districts, increased membership size from 200,000 to 1,300,000, and effectively facilitated the completion of the business center and equipped it with offices, a training center, and a childcare center for women working in the building.
I was able to get small grant support through networking, mostly for the expansion and strengthening of the association. It is now recognized that women entrepreneurs make significant contribution to the region's economy through their investments and consistently paying taxes. Paying expected taxes on time and practicing business ethics in day-to-day operations have become fundamental values of the association. Most of the association members are well-known for receiving awards from the Bureau of Revenue for being reliable and time-conscious taxpayers. Some of them were given with the title “Ambassadors of Revenue’.’
What were the challenges Tsige Girma and the AWEA experienced?
I and other AWEA leaders were unable to break through some of the barriers that had been hindering the growth and flourishing of women-owned businesses and the association. Some of these barriers include lack of adequate recognition for women’s business skills and their contributions to the regional economy, historically constructed and deep-rooted discrimination against women, the irregularity of the male-controlled business environment, and lack of appropriate regulatory systems and institutions for trade and business at regional and national levels. Due to these reasons, the AWEA in the region has been cast into the shadow of the regional Chamber of Commerce, which is dominated exclusively by male entrepreneurs. Nevertheless, I and the other leaders continued tackling such male-dominated business barriers and never considered giving up.
Why is the Leading for Change (L4C) training special for Tsige Girma?
The training was unique in that I learned the characteristics and importance of a growth mindset and emotional intelligence. “I started thinking about those missed opportunities due to being considered insignificant. Before attending this training, we had meeting sessions to discuss different tasks related to the association, where we used to share updates on our business and issues related to how the association is functioning, but we were never taught about sharing different experiences each of us had and developing business networks among ourselves.
The L4C training provided conducive environments for learning from the training and the experiences of other participants. The concept of a growth mindset caught my interest more than the other contents, and learning about it opened my eyes and enabled me to retrieve the information I had about the different skills, actions, successes, and failures we experienced during our previous sessions, to which we did not pay much attention other than focusing on the agenda that we used to set as priorities. Though we were aware that some of us were engaged in agribusiness and others in other businesses, we did not consider sharing business skills among ourselves, strengthening business-to-business collaboration and trade exchange, and other potentials that each of us possessed. If shared, these insights would have allowed us to grow more than we could have imagined.
Immediately after the training, I returned to my recordings and extracted information and contacts. I devised a brief plan for reconnecting with individuals' businesses, non-governmental organizations, and other entities with whom our association had a partnership. The purpose of the plan was to establish a functioning food system, promote savings, and engage in policy dialogues to ensure that Ethiopia's trade policy embraced the rights and equitable benefits of the AWEA. I contacted the International Labor Organization (ILO) and asked if they could train women entrepreneurs in certain topics. The ILO accepted the request and, in July 2023, trained 45 women, of whom 30 were from different woredas and 15 from Bahir Dar City, for five days. The contents were on food production, processing, hygiene, packaging, and labeling. The ILO also agreed to conduct a random check on post-training, focusing on individual practices.
What did Tsige and her groups do after the training?
Following the training, we developed an entry point action plan and produced organic food in our backyard garden. We also contacted women engaged in fishing, vegetable production, poultry, milk processing, oil seed production, and packaging. After listing potential persons, we gathered women entrepreneurs and farmers and shared information, experiences, and lessons. We learned that there was a surplus of tomatoes and onions, and that producers experienced significant post-harvest losses owing to their low durability after harvest. We created investment groups of women to strengthen business-to-business collaboration, experience sharing, and lesson learning as well as enhancing supply and demand. We discussed about ways to preserve perishable commodities; in this case, women in the Fogera woreda in Woreta town organized to manage vegetable post-harvest wastage.
We also established a supplier-buyer network between those involved in vegetable production and dairy, those producing eggs and delivering them to those with incubators for hatching, and those supplying feed to those engaged in dairy and fattening. Such networks balanced the demand-supply flow of goods or commodities as products and inputs to businesswomen and others. We learned about surplus production, consumption, and sale within the networks. For instance, for a while, there were surplus soya beans that could have been consumed as cheese locally, but they did not because people felt cheese could only be made from factory-processed soybeans. We also formed a women exporters group, and in July 2023, we organized an experience sharing event to motivate women, traders, and producers and help them start networking and design new ways to collaborate among women for growth.
What key skills did Tsige develop?
Ability to change business as the work environment changes. Following the L4C and ILO training, I diversified my business and strategies. Because of the ongoing conflict in the area, milk production has been affected or has almost stopped. Therefore, I started a non-farm business called Spinning of Cotton, for which I made 100 spinning tools to distribute to women who have experience in this activity. I will provide them with the cotton and the spinning tool, and I will purchase their products. For the youth trained in weaving, I buy the products and link them with designers. I plan to produce cultural clothes and promote them beyond local areas. Until my agribusiness resumes, I will work on that.
Apart from my formal business, I volunteer, teaching business skills and providing financial support to low-income women. After the L4C training, I approached the Bahir Dar City Administration Bureau of Women and Children Affairs for collaboration. This was intended at helping low-income women not to go out to the streets to dangerous lifestyles. The city shared a list of 12 women to mentor, and I provided them with on-the-job training. Six women are now in the process of starting their own businesses, with four already generating a profit from their small businesses. I gave them initial capital and followed up on their activities.
Translating challenges to opportunities. There was a resistance from the Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce, where men have been in control for over 15 years. Whatever we tried, we were unable to tackle their resistance. So, we formed a group to overcome this challenge. Recently, a trade policy was drafted and shared with the regional chamber of commerce for feedback, but we (as an association) were not requested to review and provide our views. After hearing that the policy had been sent to the Chamber of Commerce for feedback and returned to the Ministry of Trade, we discussed the issue with legal advisors and followed up each step of the policy process through our networks. Thus, we learned of a plan for a reflection session to consider perspectives before finalizing the contents. On the scheduled date, some of us attended the event and listened to the presentation. We organized our questions and asked the Ministry of Trade why the draft policy had no mention of the Women Entrepreneurs’ Association. Our inquiries were well accepted as valid; nonetheless, the policy was not enacted due to its lack of relevant content.
What plans does Tsige have for the Women Entrepreneurs Association?
Our plan is to gain experience through global exposure. When we get a chance, we will continue to demonstrate our presence in business and work to ensure our visibility and relevance to the economy. We intend to share our experiences with women outside of the Amhara region. We will continue to strengthen the AWEA. We are also discussing with the Ministry of Trade and Bureau of Trade to strengthen their structure and efficiency.
The AWEA represents 280,000 women, whose voices must be heard by the Chamber of Commerce. Women need the same global exposure as men. Our desire is for women members to benefit from the practices such as experience sharing, trade fairs, and bazaars in various locations, including major cities or any services. We will continue promoting women's saving cooperatives that strengthen access to loans to the members. Most importantly, we will continue our organized efforts and running our businesses until the policy incorporates the rights and benefits of the AWEA in its articles or sub-articles. We believe that C4FS has a desire to support us to reinforce our efforts towards more women-inclusive trade policy and business activities.
Resources
Learn more about the Leading for Change training in Ethiopia.