Information communication technology keeps women in micro, small enterprises engaged in markets

Philippines, June 2014 - A number of women in micro and small enterprises from selected developing countries across Asia have realized life-changing results from their involvement in the economic empowerment global project called WINNER.  

The project has provided training courses on enterprise management, international trade practices and e-commerce as well as customized assistance to women entrepreneurs seeking business contacts outside their domestic markets.  

The project called Women into the New Network for Entrepreneurial Reinforcement has received numerous letters of compliments and critical views on the project going forward to the next stage.  Experience of these women-beneficiaries has been documented and compiled in a monograph prepared by DEVNET, the project execution agency.

Researchers-writers were commissioned to interview a random sampling of women-micro entrepreneurs in the local communities.  Their stories gave insightful information on how they as start-up business people in their communities, grew their business ventures and used the Internet to find new markets.  

Some testimonial letters received from the women-beneficiaries of the WINNER project  revealed interesting breakthroughs for them in reaching distant contacts and clients.  Some excerpts of these business letters are:

We have been benefited with new skills when we took part in the training organized by WINNNER in Zimbabwe.  Since then we have managed to improve our business linkages though the Internet…. Now my company is doing business with a partner in India…

 I am one of the rural women who took part in the e-commers training held in Mountain Province (Philippines) a couple of years ago.  I remember the advice of the WINNNER trainor who encouraged me to introduce my products to the international market by using the internet and sending my product and business profiles for inclusion in electronic market place of WINNER.  Indeed after several months, an importer from Australia tapped my company to supply its requirements…  

My association with WINNER has provided me an opportunity to establish business contacts in Eastern Europe, particularly Bulgaria and Georgia. Later, through WINNER, I was introduced to business contacts in Ivory Coast and Ghana, with the assistance of a Dutch organization that was collaborating with WINNER.

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