Women’s Economic Empowerment through Strengthening Market System (WEESMS) Project

The main objective of the project is “to work towards sustainability of the WEESMS intervention after the project by integrating relevant market mechanisms iSocial

develops for its Kallyani business portfolio”. 

Project timeline: 13th January 2019 to 30th September 2020

Partners: 

• IDE (Lead Partner)
• WEEMS (Core Project)
• iSocial (Implementation)

Project objective:

The WEESMS project, despite significant challenges including the COVID-19 pandemic, has demonstrated a profound and positive impact, particularly on the lives of rural women and their communities.

Socio-Economic Empowerment of Rural Women:

• Successful Entrepreneurship: The most significant impact is the successful transformation of rural women into entrepreneurs within their own communities. The project effectively recruited and maintained 100% of its Women Sales Agents (WSAs) as active in business, demonstrating successful onboarding and sustained motivation despite hurdles.
• Increased Income and Financial Support: WSAs were able to generate monthly sales and profits, enabling them to support their families financially. The recovery in sales post-lockdown signifies the resilience and dedication of these women in rebuilding their businesses, directly impacting their household economies.
• Overcoming Barriers and Gaining Acceptance: The project successfully broke down numerous societal barriers that previously hindered rural women’s participation in entrepreneurship. Community perceptions have shifted, with WSAs now being accepted and supported as “social changers” within their communities.
• Building Trust and Reliability: WSAs have become the “most trustworthy” sources of products and services in their communities. This indicates a significant impact on local dynamics, where community members now rely on these women entrepreneurs, even preferring their doorstep and K-shop services over traditional market shops. This trust is a testament to the quality of service and products provided by the WSAs.

Community-Level Transformation:

• Changed Community Perception: The project has undeniably altered community views regarding women’s roles. The initial resistance to accepting women as entrepreneurs has evolved into widespread acceptance and dependence, marking a notable short-term societal change.
• Enhanced Access to Goods and Services: By providing doorstep and K-shop services, WSAs have improved accessibility to essential health and hygiene products and services for community members, especially in remote areas.
• Demonstration of Resilience: The project’s ability to recover sales and profit levels after the severe impact of COVID-19 showcases the inherent resilience of the WSAs and the effectiveness of the project’s support mechanisms in navigating unforeseen crises.

Future Potential for Broader Impact:

• The success in motivating WSAs and fostering their business growth, even through a pandemic, lays a strong foundation for the geographical expansion of similar initiatives, promising to extend this positive impact to more rural women across the country.
• The project’s experience highlights the potential for greater impact through providing financial inclusion and communication tools (e.g., EMI-based smartphones) to rural women, which could further accelerate their entrepreneurial journeys.
• The established partnerships and the concept of women empowerment through entrepreneurship have created a framework that can be replicated and scaled, potentially leading to widespread socio-economic upliftment.

In essence, the project has not only empowered individual women financially but has also initiated a valuable social transformation by reshaping community perceptions and establishing a trusted network of women entrepreneurs in last-mile communities. 

Locations the project served: Rangpur Sadar, Jessore Sadar

Recommendations for Project Expansion

• Project Webinar: A day-long webinar can be arranged to share the overall project briefing with relevant parties and organizations. This can promote more projects with similar concepts in the future, enabling the expansion of the Women Entrepreneur Network.
• Geographical Expansion: Spreading the wing of this network can bring fruitful outcomes in the lives of rural women. The expansion can result in more effective changes, like we have seen in our current project. We can think further to move into other geographical areas with more developed ideas along with the existing ones.
• Opportunities for Rural Women: Rural women have a keen interest in becoming women entrepreneurs. It is also noticed that in some households of rural areas, there is only one smartphone which is used by the household head. And the interested women are lagging behind as they don’t have enough communication sources, financial support, or financial inclusion. iSocial has a plan to add EMI-based smartphones to the product basket, targeting both women and men.
• New Partnerships for the Expansion: iSocial is in a continuous process of concept development as the organization itself works for women’s empowerment. With this purpose, iSocial is developing new partnerships such as Robi and Dakbivag, who will help us bring more developed facilities for women. iDE can also recommend value-chain partners with whom we can move forward.
• Presentations, Brochure, and Video Vlog: The project overview along with the results can be prepared in PPT so that we can present it anywhere the concept fits. Besides, a brochure or short magazine can also help the audience to understand the project goals, achievements, and outcomes in the near future. Moreover, the experience-sharing videos by WSA can be used as promotional material which can be shared on social media platforms.

Report Link:  2020_WEESMS Project Completion Report_iDE