Doing business in Addis Ababa: Case studies of women entrepreneurs with disabilities in Ethiopia
The ILO Technical Cooperation Project, "Developing Entrepreneurship among Women with Disabilities", is being implemented in Ethiopia by the Ethiopian Federation of Persons with Disabilities (EFPD) and the Tigray Disabled Veterans Association (TDVA).
Funded by the Government of Ireland, the objective of the project is to devise a strategy for developing entrepreneurship among women with disabilities in an urban area - the city of Addis Ababa, and a rural area- Tigray Region, in Ethiopia, which can be replicated in other regions of the country and in other countries of the world. The project aims to promote economic empowerment among women with disabilities and women with disabled dependants, by providing training in micro-enterprise skills, arranging access to vocational skills training opportunities and credit, and supporting the women in starting a business activity or developing an existing one. It also seeks to increase the capacity of the EFPD and the TDVA to manage and sustain the new programme of training and support for its disabled women members.
The project represents a new approach to technical cooperation by the ILO in the field of disability, an approach that is innovative and flexible, based on partnership with local non-governmental organizations of persons with disabilities, and designed and implemented in close consultation with training providers, micro-finance institutions, and national and local government authorities. The ultimate goal is the development of an effective strategy by which women with disabilities can optimise their incomeearning potential and escape from poverty.
In preparation for the project, women with disabilities, members of the EFDP and TDVA, compiled case studies of disabled women who were already engaged in small enterprise in Addis Ababa and Tigray Region. The descriptive information which they contain complements the profile which emerged from the exploratory survey of potential participants in the project, which is the subject of a separate publication. In many ways, though, the Case Studies speak for themselves, using the women's own words, and provide a vivid testimony of their situation.
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