AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE UN Women, Tanzania has partnered with the Ministry of Labour, Empowerment, Elders, Women and Children (MLEEWC) in Zanzibar, through the Barefoot College International to invest in women’s economic empowerment in an effort to alleviate the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on women entrepreneurs.
The Barefoot College International is a non-profit social enterprise founded in India in 1972. It moved to Tanzania and opened a vocational training centre in Zanzibar in 2015, to offer livelihood opportunities to illiterate and semi-illiterate women from rural Tanzania and the rest of East Africa.
In an interview this week, the Minister of Labour, Empowerment, Elderly, Women and Children in Zanzibar, Dr Maudline Castico said the partnership aims to support women entrepreneurs affected by Covid-19 to become economically active, now that the coronavirus disease is under control.
Through this partnership, the Barefoot College project has recruited 60 women to produce 60,000 reusable facial cloth masks that will be distributed for free to 30,000 marginalized people, including women in the rural areas, the elderly and women and girls with disabilities, and those living with HIV.
In addition, the recruited women have received training in entrepreneurship and financial literacy, which is aimed at building skills in sales and marketing, operational efficiency, customer relations and marketing.
“We are in the early stages of implementing this project in partnership with UN Women. Our aim is for women entrepreneurs to have the ability to bounce back from the effects of Covid-19, and also to strengthen prevention of new Covid-19 infections in Zanzibar,” said Dr Maudline Castico.
The concept behind this particular project, she explained further, resonates with the mission of the Barefoot College International, which believes that women are catalysts with power to create transformation and activate sustainable change for their families and communities.
As a result, expectations are high among women in areas such as Kandwi, Kilimahewa, Taveta, Kijito upele, Mgambo and Mkataleni, who would like to see this project deliver more support to more women, well beyond the production of the 60,000 masks.
Dr Castico said this calls for sustained funding for the expansion of the project to then be able to introduce a package of new Covid-19 recovery initiatives that can help to strengthen economic resilience by addressing the significant gender inequalities in the economic participation of women in Zanzibar.
“We are looking for additional financial and technical support on behalf of UN Women, to increase the number of women we can support through an expanded Covid-19 response and recovery project that can provide longer-term support, and ensure significant change to the lives of women,” said Dr. Castico.
She further explained that despite efforts by the Government, UN Women and other development partners, the majority of women in Zanzibar were still disproportionately affected by poverty due to obstacles that often push them to insecure hand to mouth micro enterprises and low-wage jobs. In case of emergencies such as the Covid-19 pandemic, women are most affected.
“Furthermore, the widespread practice of evaluating the components of the economy based on formal employment, part-time engagement, different levels of enterprises, the informal sector, employment and so forth, tends to overshadow how the ‘burden of unpaid care and domestic work’ also affects women and girls in the bigger scope of the economy.
“Therefore, the support we need include mechanisms that can enable women to spend more time participating in the economy, and importantly for the men to be involved in the equal sharing of the domestic and care work.
Practices such as this creates coping mechanisms for families and communities in times of crises, ” said Dr Castico.
Through this project, the Ministry envisions women’s economic resilience and advancement in the various areas they are operating, and for them to acquire the power to make and act on economic decisions.
The first cohort comprising 20 women in the Barefoot College project has currently produced 20,000 masks.
These were distributed to 10,000 people in Kisiwa, Makoongwe, Kendwa and Matele.
The first cohort will make way for two groups of 40 women who will produce the remaining 40,000 masks and receive entrepreneurship and financial literacy training in September and October.
Young women trainees such as the 26-year-old Afrah Sayed, who is a fashion designer, said she was looking forward to the project being expanded to also include training in digital technology.
“My business was badly affected by the coronavirus disease and further support will help me to increase marketing opportunities for my clothing label using various digital innovation.”
Ameera Mohamed, 28, runs a small tailoring business in Unguja. At the height of the pandemic, she had to work from home but says mobility restrictions affected production.
She also hopes for a longer-term support that can facilitate provision of loans and the establishment of savings’ clubs to reinvigorate her business.
Mohamed’s business associate Azhaar Mwinyi is 30-years-old, and she would like to see the capacity of the project increased to include the creation of a network of women entrepreneurs and help Zanzibar businesswomen to connect with other women networks and collaborate in times of crises.
The UN Women Representative, Ms. Hodan Addou said the young women’s ideas were supported by many study findings that have shown the importance of investing in building the economic resilience of women for future shocks is a key accelerator for sustainable development.
“Through this project UN Women is supporting the national Covid-19 Response Plan working with governments in both Zanzibar and Tanzania Mainland to build back better, and effectively respond to the needs of women and girls through more gender-equal recovery interventions.
In the case of the Barefoot College project, our support is building women’s economic resilience and providing income generation opportunities for recovery from the economic effects of the pandemic.
This is in line with our response to the Tanzania Emergency Appeal and the UN socio-economic response framework for Tanzania,” said Ms Addou.