Rural Women in Micro-Enterprise Development: A Training Manual and Programme for Extension Workers
by International Labour Office
Category: Businesswomen

Extrait de l'introduction : "Many women in the rural areas of Zimbabwe are organized into groups, which have 10-20 members each. The groups undertake income-generating activities [...]. These activities are performed on a part-time basis. The women worrk in their small enterprise activities during "chisi", the day of the week when one traditionally is not allowed to work in the fields. The primary source of income for all the women is semi-subistence farming. [...] Since most of the harvest is retained to feed the familly, only a small surplus is left to sell. [...] Research showed, however, that often women were contributing more mone to their small businesses than they were earning from them. In the light of these meagre results, the project "Action to Assist Rural Women" was designed [...]. Its developmenal objectives are : [1] to improve the organizational, managerial and economic performance of women's groups in the rural areas ; and [2] to increase the participation of women in the socio-economic development process. To fulfil these objectives, the project staff developed a two-pronged approach : training for both the women's groups and the extension workers ; and the implementation of a credit scheme with a local bank. Why this manual ? [The authors] would like to share [their] experiences of the extensino worker training programme with others in the small enterprise development field because [they] found [their] approach useful and effective. [...] This manual may be used by those who design training programmes in small enterprise development for extension worers, who, in turn, assist rural women with their income generating activities. In addition, trainers in small enterprise development may refer to this manual for course material."