Internet‐based communication (e.g., Viber, WhatsApp). They seldom required more than three to four days of training to be able to manage the MIS. In many OSSs, annual turnover exceeded 30 percent, with many staff leaving shortly after they had been trained on the MIS. Turnover was also high in MFIs and the DBE, making training of staff on the MIS a continuous, ongoing process.

# **WEDP: A complex project**

Ethiopia has achieved high economic growth in the past decade, averaging 10.7 percent per year, establishing it among the fastest growing economies in Africa and the developing world, but it is falling behind its peers in terms of credit to the private sector. According to the World Bank Enterprise Surveys, micro (41 percent), small (36 percent), and medium (29 percent) enterprises in Ethiopia perceive access to finance to be the main business environment constraint, compared with Sub‐ Saharan Africa averages of 24 percent, 20 percent, and 16 percent, respectively.

Opportunities for female entrepreneurs in Ethiopia lag far behind those for men. In _The Economist_ Women’s Economic Opportunity index, Ethiopia ranks 107 of 112 countries. Most growth‐oriented female entrepreneurs fall into a “missing middle” trap, in which neither commercial banks nor MFIs serve them. High minimum loan sizes and excessive collateral requirements restrict women’s access to loans from commercial banks. MFIs primarily cater to micro‐firms with group lending schemes that provide very small loans and tend to have poor outreach to women (30 percent). Growth‐oriented women‐owned enterprises are therefore starved of the investment they need to thrive.

To address this challenge, the Government of Ethiopia, with the support of the World Bank and the Governments of Canada and the United Kingdom, launched the WEDP in 2012 to support women‐ owned micro and small enterprises (MSEs). The WEDP aimed to increase the income of female entrepreneurs and to create employment and job opportunities. MSE development was critical to the government’s efforts to increase the economic empowerment of women, and the development of income‐generating activities for women was a specific aim of the five‐year plan of the government at that time – the Growth and Transformation Plan 2011‐2015.

The WEDP was established in October 2012 as a $50 million International Development Association investment lending operation. In addition to the World Bank, the Governments of Canada and the United Kingdom were the core development partners, contributing an additional $13 million. In 2017, the Governments of Japan and Italy added resources, bringing the total donor contribution to approximately $130 million.

The project development objective of the WEDP has been to increase the earnings and employment of female‐owned or partly owned MSEs in the five main cities of Ethiopia. This was to be achieved by removing two of the main barriers to female enterprise growth by tailoring financial instruments to the needs of the target group and ensuring availability of finance and by developing women’s entrepreneurial and technical skills. The target beneficiaries were growth‐oriented female entrepreneurs.

The implementing structure was complex, involving entities from several different government structures. The components included access to finance; entrepreneurial skills development; and project management, advocacy and outreach, M&E, and impact evaluation.

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