Sustainable Enterprise Development for Women and Youth - Business Growth for Young Entrepreneurs (BG4YE)

The Government of Zimbabwe (GoZ) intends to build on the achievements of the first AfDB funded Youth and Women Empowerment Project (YWEP) – 2017 – 2022 and complement the ongoing Sustainable Enterprise Development for Women and Youth project (SEDWAY) – 2022 - 2025. This new project that runs from 2022 to 2025 reaches out to additional young and growth oriented male and female entrepreneurs and their workers in the same districts covered by the SEDWAY, to strengthen their capacities to pursue profitable economic opportunities in a) the value chains of the anchor enterprises and b) in off-farm sub-sectors, such as in light manufacturing of goods and agro-processing value addition, in order to create employment opportunities for additional young men and women. The project capacitates Business Development Services (BDS) providers to provide demand driven entrepreneurship and business management training and on-the-job workplace support in order to improve their services to young entrepreneurs and their workers. Provision of Business Development services (BDS) plays a key role in nurturing entrepreneurship and assisting new enterprises to reach a stage where they can access traditional sources of capital. A group of mentors and coaches are capacitated to support the young entrepreneurs as they grow their ventures. This support also extends to mentoring the young entrepreneurs to develop new innovative ideas for potential new businesses or growth of existing businesses; incubation, where the new ideas are validated in the market; and scaling, where existing and new assets and capabilities are reallocated to help the new venture grow. The project is targeting to support at least 70 youth enterprise start-ups and build the capacity of 1,000 young entrepreneurs of whom 50% are women to access the business development services and networking support they need to grow and create decent jobs and formalize their businesses. In addition, the BG4YE project is targeting to create at least 1,000 jobs. The ILO deploys its Inclusive Markets and Value Chains Development Approach and the Producer Owned Anchor Enterprise Model to identify market deficiencies and address the underlying causes inhibiting the effective participation of young entrepreneurs in the value chains. The ILO also uses tools such as the Know About Business (KAB); Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB); Sustaining Competitive and Sustainable Enterprises (SCORE); Women’s Entrepreneurship Development (WED); and Work Improvement in Small Enterprises (WISE).

Project symbol

ZWE/22/01/BAD

Admin unit

CO-Harare

Start date

05/07/2022

End date

31/01/2026

Total allocation

999999

Total expenditure

Status

Active

997802

Development Partners

African Development Bank

Country/Countries

Zimbabwe

Outcomes

Outcome 4: Sustainable enterprises for inclusive growth and decent work