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An association of business school students is training the women of Bobo-Dioulasso in company management and creation in Burkina Faso, alongside a locally established association.
Women do 66 % of the work in the world and produce 50 % of the food, but only earn 10 % of the income and own a mere 1 % of the world's wealth, according to the World Bank. Faced with this finding, the Association World Wom'ents has brought together students of ESSEC, a business school, since 2011 to provide enterprising women in the developing countries with management training enabling them to create their own companies. To do this, they conduct research and development on adaptable and flexible training tools, by plunging into the local context and by co-constructing training programs with local partners, helping them to perpetuate their action.
While wishing ultimately to expand its activity across the world, World Wom'ents decided to launch its first projects in French-speaking Africa: in Sénégal and in Burkina Faso. At Bobo-Dioulasso, in southwest Burkina Faso, they work together with the Burkina branch of the association Asfodevh (Association pour la formation en développement humain), an African network and volunteers. During a first phase of immersion and investigation in the field lasting about three months, the students identify the precise needs of the women entrepreneurs in the local context. Then, in collaboration with Asfodevh, they develop a training module for a score of women specialized in the agrifood business.
Among the projects conducted by Asfodevh, World Wom'ents can therefore provide the marketing and distribution expertise of a women's group using a simple and effective technique for tomato sauce processing and storage, enabling them to have some in their homes and on their shelves, all year round. The project includes a technical training aspect handled by Asfodevh, and a management training aspect (marketing, distribution) in which World Wom'Ents is active.
The students also have the objective of developing the capacity of the local association to set up and provide management training, so that the project can last and then be duplicated. This economic self-sufficiency target is essential in a developing country.
The project is co-sponsored: by Arnaud Assié, trainee in the Veolia Environnement Sustainable Development Division and also a student at ESSEC, and André-Louis Chaussenery, who works in Burkina Faso for SADE.
The grant awarded by the jury of the Student Solidarity Prize specifically helps to acquire the training media.