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Refugee women have been implored to embrace the spirit of competitiveness in entrepreneurship in order to enhance development among themselves.

Rebecca Kukundakwe, a gender specialist at Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU), said competition will see the majority of them grow their businesses to greater heights.

She was speaking during an information-sharing meeting for potential providers of technical skills and business development services in refugee-hosting districts in Kampala on Tuesday.

Kukundakwe said that the sh800 billion World Bank-supported Generating Growth Opportunities and Productivity for Women Enterprises (GROW) is ready to support refugees to grow their business so that they can realise development.

“We are trying to support women address some of the barriers that are deterring them from starting and growing their business," she said.

"We want to support women entrepreneurs in these refugee settlements to be able to grow their business from micro to small and from small to medium and from medium to large.

"We shall do this through providing a different set of services, ranging from business management, access to capital, among others, and out of this, we shall be building partnerships that are relevant to women."

According to Kukundakwe, the project is also focusing on inclusivity, where women with disability will be deliberately catered for.

A standardized curriculum was established to make sure that refugees receive quality training on the different aspects of managing their respective businesses.

“We shall work with service providers that have expertise and can explain this curriculum and the training in local languages. They shall give relevant examples that deal with the business the women entrepreneurs are engaged in to foster understanding," said Kukundakwe.

From left, Rebecca Kukundakwe, a gender specialist at PSFU, and Dativa Byabagambi of Makau Kwetu Homes interact during the information sharing meeting in Kampala. (Photo by Agnes Nantambi)

'Social safeguards'

On accessing capital and credit, Kukundakwe said they have made a public call to commercial banks to express interest in working with the project.

“These are going to be assessed to understand whether they have enough coverage and financial products for women in refugee camps.

"We are going to take these commercial banks through a gender-sensitive training that focuses on social safeguards that brings out issues of dealing with vulnerable and marginalized groups, “she said.

The hope is that the training will address issues of financial inclusion so that when they are going to carry out financial literacy, the packaging is done differently.

“It should take into consideration the differences of the people who are in the camps. It should be done in local languages and gives options that favour the refugee communities, “she said.

Kukundakwe explained that while working with the different commercial banks, the project is deliberate to make sure that what the participating financial institutions are giving is cognizant of the different needs of the different people they are serving, specifically the refugees.

Carol Brenda Lolika, the project manager of the Development Response to Displacement Impacts Project (DRDIP) said since they are implementing a livelihood support programme to support business growth, it is an opportunity for them to have a linkage with the GROW project.

“We started from the grassroots with giving them revolving funds, which is helping them to progressively grow. We believe that to enable these to move from the initial stage to small scale and then to micro level, they need to link with the GROW project to enhance their business growth and development to become self-reliant,” she said.

Dr. Julian Adyeri Omara, the director of Delight Uganda, said the GROW project will help in mentoring and parenting women to help them grow into young entrepreneurs.

“I have been an entrepreneur and I have grown old; I want to see young Adyeris coming on board making money and working on their own so that we take them through the thick and thin we have gone through, such that they can support themselves and their children, including their husbands."