AWAN – an elevator for women’s competitiveness

AWAN, the African Women Agribusiness Network, operates within Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda and will soon also be re-vitalised in Rwanda. The network is in the process of launching a new policy platform enabling them to be the voice to advocate for a competitive business environment for African women in agribusiness.

The start of this took place during a workshop with the board of AWAN in Nairobi 10-12 of April. The workshop, held within the CTS-AWAN cooperation, focused on how to advocate and lobby, on the identification of issues and stakeholders, experience sharing and planning. Increasing the capacity for AWAN to contribute to a better business climate and support women economic empowerment is part of the goal for the three-year cooperation between CTS and AWAN.

To further emphasize the start of the cooperation a Memorandum of Cooperation was signed by AWAN East Africa chairwoman Ms. Jane Mutiso and CTS CEO Ms. Charlotte Kalin. The signing was attended also by representatives of the Swedish Embassy and the Tanzania High Commission in Kenya.

For more information contact sofie.wikander@chambertrade.se

How does CTS cooperate with AWAN?

Through a longstanding and good relationship the chambers have embarked upon the first project cooperation with AWAN by including them in the Chamber Academy programme.

The aim of the cooperation is to increase the capacity of AWAN to contribute to a better business climate and support women economic empowerment, increase the capacity and competitiveness of AWAN and its members to promote and take part in sustainable development of trade. This will be achieved through a number of activities including AWAN in relevant CTS events. Furthermore AWAN is a part of the mentorship programme and will continue to receive strategic support throughout the period of the partnership agreement.