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Capacity building for women entrepreneurs at AFAB

The Burundi Business Women Association (AFAB) trains women entrepreneurs

Capacity Building in Business Management

The Government of the Republic of Burundi, through the Ministry of Human Rights, Social Affairs and Gender, has a National Gender Policy of Burundi, 2012-2025. Among the eight identified challenges which affect the social, legal and economic situation of women and which limit the promotion of equity is the challenge of Equitable Acquisition of Knowledge and Skills by women.

The Action Plan for the operationalization of the Policy provides for the identification of the capacity building needs of women active in the economic sectors in rural and urban areas. It is also planned to develop a program to strengthen the technical and managerial capacities of women as well as the organization of training in informal cross-border trade on national and regional trade policies and border procedures.

In General, the Business Management Training Commercial training or takes care of the entire chain needed to produce goods and services. Its main missions are :

• The conquest of new customers;
• The development of clients and projects;
• The development of international activities;
• The development of strategic partnerships, in order to prepare for future growth.

Commercial management also provides market indicators enabling managers to make the relevant strategic choices.

In Burundi, some women’s and non-women’s organizations are already working to train women entrepreneurs in order to position themselves well in the business market.

Therefore, Burundian women, involved in socioeconomic sectors, should benefit from all these training in commercial matters and in business management, since Burundi is in certain regional economic communities and where the free movement of Goods and Capital is a reality.

Information guide

• The survey conducted in 2012 shows that the level of financial education for women remains low in Burundi
• The country has an education and financial inclusion strategy  to meet this challenge

In partnership with banks, microfinances and other stakeholders, the Government through the Bank of the Republic of Burundi (BRB) seeks to equip the population with knowledge on the themes of:

• The management of income-generating activities,
•  Savings in groups,
• Main reasons for saving,
• Techniques or strategies relating to savings,
• Types of income-generating activities in the surrounding environment,
• Daily savings procedures 

Contacts:

Avenue du Gouvernement
BP 705 BUJUMBURA
Tel: (257) 22 20 40 00/22 22 27 44
Fax: (257) 22 22 31 28
email: brb@brb.bi

Financial education in Burundi

In Burundi , financial education (EF)  which is a non-financial service offered by Micro-Finance Institutions (MFIs ) and banks in general and other actors in the capacity building  of  women for financial inclusion,  has great importance in the country’s economy.Burundi is implementing its financial education policy through its national strategy for Financial Inclusion . Financial education is enabling beneficiaries to be equipped and have access to credit regardless of the barriers that may arise to prevent them from doing so.

Financial education is the understanding of knowledge related to how money is earned, spent and saved, as well as the skills and ability to use financial resources to make informed and effective decisions with all available resources.

There are several studies, reports and other reference tools on financial inclusion and education on the interventions led and implemented by different actors.

The results of the various documents show that the level of inclusion and financial education of women in Burundi are not satisfactory. 

Organizations providing financial education services

Financial Education in Burundi

Education for financial inclusion is a reality within the Banque de Republique du Burundi (BRB)

The Council for Education and Development (COPED)

contributes to improving access to financial services

CARE INTERNATIONAL BURUNDI

trains beneficiaries on savings techniques, management of income-generating activities, group savings, etc.

Information guide

a $ 380,000 fund for women

How to be a beneficiary?

For groups

• a minimum amount of contribution 
• have at least 15 members and at most 30

For members

• be an active member of a given group
• regularly pay the required contributions
• repay the credits contracted on time
• have an income-generating activity 

However, these conditions do not all apply at the same time, there may be specific cases.

Advantages

Groups can be promoted to the rank of cooperatives and in business or in IMFS if they meet the conditions required by the 2017 law and regulations on micro-finance of the BRB and its implementing texts .

Goals

The services offered have an ultimate goal of:

• increase access to factors of production;
• build skills;
•  alleviate the overload of household work;
•  promote participation in decision-making bodies;
• strengthen access to social protection;
•  strengthen the legal and legal framework;
•  strengthen the mechanisms for coordination of implementation and monitoring and evaluation;
• share knowledge and build capacity to access opportunities; and
• strengthen the legal framework for the protection and decision-making capacity of women, coordination of implementation mechanisms and monitoring and evaluation

Contact details

Ministry of Human Rights, Social Affairs and Gender;
Building Ex-Finances, 1st Floor, Number 30;
BP: 2690 Bujumbura – Burundi
Tel: +257 22246924
E-mail: mdphas@gmail.com

Women’s Economic Empowerment Program

 According to the  national assessment report on the implementation of the Beijing + R1325 declaration and program of actions , Burundian women and girls participate in socio-economic recovery opportunities and benefit from various supports. This is possible thanks to the national program for strengthening the economic capacities of women.  

A Guarantee Fund of $ 380,000 for womenAs part of this capacity building program, the Government of Burundi, in collaboration with its partners such as UNDP , WFP, UNFEM, UNFPA, the World Bank – has set up a guarantee fund to facilitate women’s access to credit for their empowerment. This fund currently stands at 380,000 US dollars  .

Since 2014, the government of Burundi has put in place two mechanisms to help the poor rural population in order to enable them to access credit: the Guarantee Fund for the Rural World (FG) and Microcredit for the Economically Poor. assets (MCPEA). This guarantee fund, which mainly targets associative groups, also helps in setting up VSLAs.

Fund managers

This guarantee fund is housed and managed in micro-finance institutions – MFIs such as:

• CCEEM,
• WISE,
• COSPEC,
• DUKUZE MICROFINANCE,
• ITEKA MICROFINANCE,
• FENACOBU 

Gender equality

Burundi has a ‘ National Program for the Strengthening of Economic Capacities for Women’  whose objective is to align with objective 5 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDs ) which aims for gender equality and the empowerment of women. women and girls.

This program supports women in the areas of:

• technical,
• administrative,
• structural,
• organizational and logistical
• access to inputs; and
•  assistance in the establishment of plans, budgets, proposals for monitoring the implementation and management of the process of women’s economic empowerment.

Asset Publisher

supervision of village savings and credit associations (VSLAs)

The Government of Burundi helps to set up VSLAs

Program approach

Mentoring, coaching and supervision are some of the strategies used

Empowerment of women and “National Program for Strengthening the Economic Capacities of Women 2019-2027, Bujumbura, BURUNDI July, 2019”

Burundian women make a great contribution to the national economy. Despite this enormous contribution to the economy of the country and the family, it remains affected by several scourges including …