The Role of Capacity Building Program on Women Socioeconomic Empowerment: The Case of Women Entrepreneurs in Selected Zones in Southern Ethiopia

ABSTRACT

Building the capacity of women is an indispensable strategy for enhancing gender equality, and improving the lives of poor women. The main objective of this study was to assess the socio-economic benefit of capacity-building program (CBP) for women entrepreneurs. Employing a two-stage sampling technique, a total of 258 women entrepreneurs were selected from six randomly selected zones in southern region. Quantitative data were collected from women entrepreneurs through Paper Assisted Personal Interview (PAPI) technique. Interview and FGD were conducted with government officials and the selected women. The data were analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The quantitative data were analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics like proportion test, pairwise proportion tests, Cramer’s V, and Somer’s d, while thematic approach was used to analyze and interpret qualitative data. The study revealed that CBP improved the general livelihood of women by bringing about socio-economic improvement.

KEYWORDS:

• Capacity-building program (CBP)
• women
• socioeconomic empowerment
• entrepreneurs
• poverty reduction
• Ethiopia

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the women entrepreneurs and the government officials who participated in this study for their honest and cooperative response to all the questions solicited in this research. We would also like to thank Dilla University, Research and Dissemination Directorate for the financial support we received to carry out the research project on which this article is based. Any errors that still remain in this article are, however, our intellectual responsibility.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Notes

1. Sidama was a zone when we collected data. Now it is the 10th region of Ethiopia, formed on 18 June 2020.

2. In this paper, socio-economic empowerment means the summation of poverty reduction (income gained),improvement in saving ability, household support, employment generation, income and gender inequality reduction and, business management skill improvement.

3. This question is concerned only with married women.

4. In this paper no schooling refers to women who are not attending formal education at school.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Research and Dissemination Directorate, Dilla University.