The “Promoting Women’s Economic Empowerment” (WEE) Program 2024

Are you a Rwandan-based, women-owned company with a project idea to empower women economically? Will your idea create good employment for women, improve working conditions for women, or empower women-owned businesses in your supply chain and industry? Submit your short project concept by September 6th, 2024, to apply for technical support.

About The “Promoting Women’s Economic Empowerment” (WEE) Program

Opportunity Details

Date Published: August 15, 2024
Category: Entrepreneurs Women
Oppotunity Locations: Rwanda
Eligible Locations: Rwanda

The “Promoting Women’s Economic Empowerment” (WEE) project is part of the Special Initiative “Decent Work for a Just Transition” of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). It aims to empower women in the private sector by creating good new jobs for women, improving their working conditions, and empowering women-owned businesses. The WEE project is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Interationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.

Sponsor Organisation: German Development Cooperation (GIZ)

Benefits of The “Promoting Women’s Economic Empowerment” (WEE) Program

How will project ideas be supported?

The WEE project is offering partnerships to women-owned companies through “Integrated Development Partnerships with the Private Sector” (iDPPs).

iDPPs allow GIZ to cooperate with companies to implement joint projects. GIZ will support eligible project ideas with in-kind contributions, for example, national and international technical experts, capacity-building support, and small-scale equipment/material purchases. The partner company is expected to match – in-kind or in-cash – the value of resources GIZ invests into the project. GIZ and the partner company will co-implement the project idea: under this Call, there will be no cash flow between GIZ and the partner company.

The “Promoting Women’s Economic Empowerment” (WEE) Program Requirments

The following are the main minimum criteria for project ideas:

Development impact: The project contributes to sustainable development and goes beyond an investment in the partner company´s core business. Projects must contribute significantlyto one or more of the following outcomes: (1) good jobs for women, (2) improved working conditions for women, and/or (3) improved performance of women-owned businesses. Detailed definitions for each of the outcomes can be found in the “Frequently Asked Questions” document, which can be downloaded below.
Contribution by partner company: The partner company is expected to contribute (in-kind or in-cash) to the project idea, for example, in the form of the time of their staff, materials, training costs or travel costs. The partner company is expected to at least match the volume of resources GIZ contributes to the project.
Commercial interest for partner company: The partner company must have a clear commercial interest in the project idea (exclusively charitable projects will not be supported).
Project duration: The implementation of the project idea must not exceed 12 months.
Project region: Only projects based exclusively in Rwanda can be supported.

Detailed criteria can be found in the “Frequently Asked Questions” document, which can be downloaded below.

Company eligibility criteria

The following are minimum criteria for companies submitting project ideas:

Ownership: Company is majority-owned by a woman/women (at least 51%).
Nature of company: Company must be profit-oriented and not engaged in business practices that are unsustainable or harmful to development outcomes.
Legal entity: Company is privately owned and must be legally registered in Rwanda for at least 2 years.
Business sector: preference is given to labour-intensive sectors that have the capacity to create more new jobs.
Financial and human resources of company: Company must have sufficient financial and human resources to co-implement the project idea with GIZ. The company should have had an annual revenue of at least 20,000 Euros in 2023.

Detailed criteria can be found in the Frequently Asked Questions document.

Application Date and Process

A two-stage application procedure will be applied.

In the first stage, all interested and eligible parties are invited to submit a short concept note (Expression of Interest), which will be evaluated. Please submit your concept note (Expression of Interest) in English by email to [email protected] by September 6th, 2024. The subject line should be labelled “Expression of Interest for Partnerships with Women-Owned Companies”.

Only applications using the Concept Note template will be considered. This template as well as Frequently Asked Questions can be downloaded below.

During a second stage, selected applicants will be invited and supported to develop a full proposal for cooperation.