The purpose and objectives of the project:

State statistics show that women in KZ remain less competitive in the local labor market. There are more unemployed women than men. Women’s wages remain 1/3 lower than men’s. A study of the potential of female entrepreneurship in the countryside, which we conducted in 2021 and 2023, reveals that more than 30% of women are interested in starting their own business, but there is a lack of training.

Our project aims to provide employment opportunities to economically underprivileged women, especially in rural areas of Kazakhstan, through free of charge entrepreneurship courses and a grant competition. Since 2018, the project also runs 4 regional and one Republican Rural Women’s Forums aimed at uniting and promoting women’s social and business initiatives on a nation-wide permanent communication platform.

Implementation of the project:

The project is run by two NGOs and has an annual cycle. It starts in March with a kick-off conference with participation of relevant ministries, Commission for women affairs, and micro-lending institutions, where the start of the training courses is announced.

During summer, 4 regional Rural Women Forums are conducted in different regional centers in hybrid format, with participation of the same stakeholders plus local Akimats and prominent women-entrepreneurs. The aim of these forums is to increase awareness of the project with the local populaiton, as well as of the potential and the difficulties of rural entrepreneurship with state authorities.

Training on the basics of entrepreneurship runs online through ccb.kz website in 2-3 weeks streams, the last stream ending in October. Women can also take additional online video courses at farmerschool.kz, to master in more detail specific types of businesses that can be run at a rural household.

Any woman completing the training can prepare a business plan according to provided guidelines, submit it for the grant competition, and get a chance to win one of 20 grants for opening her own business.

The project stops accepting applications in early October. During October, the competition jury chooses 40 semi-finalists who then defend their business plans online in front of the jury, and 20 winners are chosen. The winners are awarded at the Republican Rural Women’s Forum in November, ending the annual project cycle.

Results:

In 2023, the project aimed at training 20,000 women. The real number trained was 35,000 women, and 20 grants of $2,000 to $4,000 were awarded to a variety of business ideas, from dairy product manufacturing to sewing traditional dresses.

A survey conducted in 2023 among the program graduates of the years 2020-2022 found out that they had established 7,532 new enterprises and created 10,500 jobs.

Since 2012, the program has empowered nearly 100,000 (>97,000) women – aspiring business owners in urban and rural areas of Kazakhstan and awarded 137 grants to winners of the competition for the best business idea to start their own ventures.