UN Women in funds drive to save business
THE Tanzanian tourism sector, like many others around the world, was in March dealt a blow with the outbreak of Covid-19, with most lodges in Ngorongoro District temporarily closed or scaling down business following the cancellation of tourist bookings.
The accommodation facilities were 23-year-old Rosemary Berere’s major market, and the outbreak affected her organic vegetable business, which she established after receiving business training from the Pastoral Women’s Council (PWC) in partnership with UN Women in 2018.
The programme, called Empowering Adolescent Girls and Young Women through Education in Tanzania, is funded by the Korea International Co-operation Agency (Koica).
It started in 2016 and will run through 2021, having so far trained 100 adolescent girls and young women in both life and technical skills.
The training focuses on green renewable energy businesses such as domestic solar panel installation, maintenance and marketing of the products and construction of domestic biogas plants.
Following the setback caused by Covid-19, Berere was left with the option to sell her vegetables around her community while she searched for other market opportunities in other regions and some neighbouring countries.
Following the news of additional support from UN Women, she has started increasing production to introduce new vegetable varieties and says she would like to sell more and boost her savings to buy a water pump for irrigation.
Through the first phase of the intervention package in response to Covid-19, UN Women has set aside more than R1 million through the education programme funds from Koica, to provide small grants that will support economic innovations aimed at helping to keep the young women’s businesses afloat.
Hodan Addou, the UN Women Representative in Tanzania, said business activity in the informal sector provides livelihoods to more than 50% of women in the region.
“This is still part of the education programme supported by Koica and we have allocated part of the funds to support struggling businesses that depend mainly on the tourism industry in Ngorongoro.
“The small grants will support our efforts to promote the rights, needs and agency of women and girls,” Addou said.
Through the grants, some of the women will buy smartphones to support access to new business markets and online information.
For young women such as Lucy Lembikas, the pandemic has forced them to push the boundaries and think outside the box for their businesses to survive.
The 25-year-old single mother from Kirtalo village in Loliondo, Ngorongoro, has set her eyes on expanding her crafts business to the commercial city of Dar es Salaam, where she will also be selling solar products and providing solarmaintenance services.
“Following the training, there is a lot I can do now, including applying my new skills to plan the expansion of my business,” Lembikas said.