Empow'HER (Niger)
Empow’Her is an international network of social ventures that works towards the empowerment of women. Using entrepreneurship as a powerful tool for emancipation and impact, Empow’Her deploys support and training programmes to help women entrepreneurs acquire the necessary skills to develop sustainable businesses and build their self-confidence and decision-making abilities.
In 2020/2021, the Eurofins Foundation supported the Women GROW Project in Niger, empowering Nigerian women to collaborate within the agricultural value chain to develop profitable, sustainable, and climate-resilient agricultural innovations.
The Eurofins Foundation has contributed to the achievement of the project's objectives: many women now have sustainable access to land to run their income-generating activities, and 138 farmers within the four cooperatives were trained in a wide range of sustainable agricultural practices while learning about entrepreneurial tools. The individuals and cooperatives involved are now better able to run and manage their costs and income.
This project has also helped to highlight the obstacles faced by women farmers to local authorities. Among these obstacles are difficulty finding access to land and financing, and oversight of the specific domestic and cultural constraints faced by women. By creating discussions around financial, cultural, and customary constraints and putting women at the heart of these discussions, the project gives women a voice to express their realities, needs, and solutions. This represents the first step in changing community and policymaker attitudes and perceptions of a woman’s place in the agricultural sector.
In 2021/2022, the Eurofins Foundation supported the Women Dare Programme in France, the scaleup of the Women GROW programme, fostering vocational integration through social entrepreneurship for women in vulnerable situations. Acknowledging the lack of diversity among the founders and directors of social enterprises, while at the same time the sector is constantly growing and hiring, Empow’HER wants to contribute to the emergence of a new generation of leaders of change.
As a result:
- 6886 people have been sensitised through events and awareness actions;
- 210 women were referred through Empow’HER’s entrepreneurship orientation programme, of which 70% subsequently participated in a longer support programme;
- 223 women have been coached in a 12-month programme;
- 730 hours of collective and individual coaching has been completed
Some of the achievements of project leaders who have left the programme, or who are still being supported, include:
- Séverine, a resident of a disadvantaged neighborhood in the Paris region (France) who had been looking for work for more than 6 months when she entered the programme, launched her brand Boucles Libres, a committed hair cosmetics brand, in May 2022. In September 2022, she participated as an exhibitor at the Empow'Her Festival.
- Auriane created Cèucle, a wardrobe of upcycled and unisex children's clothes, made by people in professional integration in the suburbs of Paris (France). As part of her support programme, Auriane launched a crowdfunding campaign and reached 210% of her goal, allowing her to collaborate with a pattern maker, to finance children's models and to develop adult pieces.
In 2022/2023, the Eurofins Foundation renewed its support to Empow’HER, helping support 40 women entrepreneurs in Europe and West Africa developing the impact of their ventures, connecting with other women entrepreneurs to feel supported and in accessing new business opportunities for their projects.
This project contributes to the following United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals
