WE Ignite Booster Myanmar

Increasing access to finance for women entrepreneurs

We focus on developing gender-friendly outreach, selection and training that can be integrated in accelerator programs.

Partners

ANDE
One to Watch
USAID
Visa Foundation

Expertise

Business model innovation
Gender and diversity

Sectors

Finance
Food and agriculture
Renewable energy and efficiency
Water, sanitation and hygiene

Markets

Myanmar

Timeline

2020 to 2021

Creating a gender-inclusive accelerator program

Investors require entrepreneurs to provide them with a crystal clear overview of their current operations and future business plans. Most women-led SGBs lack the basis within their business to produce these documents. In practice, OTW and Bopinc experience that less women-led businesses than male-led businesses apply for acceleration programs and they tend to start at a lower level of professionalism when applying. Women need more support preparing for pitching, especially for delivery, putting their growth plans on paper, learning about accounting and financing options, etc. This is not surprising as both practice and literature show that women-led businesses generally face more challenges than their male counterparts.

There is a need for gender-smart adjustments and add ons to current accelerator models to make sure women benefit as much from the offered support services as their male counterparts. By inserting the WE Ignite Booster, we aim to have more women-led SGBs enter the process and pass the expert gap analysis stage of the model. Therefore, we believe supporting women-led businesses to arrive well prepared at the gap analysis, will lead to a high certainty of accessing growth capital.

Impact

Ready to use package for women focused accelerators

Inspired 200 women-led startups

To show that accelerator programs can take their needs into account

10 women-led startups supported

Through training and coaching

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She Shares Webinar

Duration: 80 minutes
WE Ignite Booster Myanmar

Our solution

We will adjust and incorporate the gender-smart assessment tool developed by Bopinc in the OTW selection process. The assessment tool looks holistically at economically empowering women through identifying constraints and assessing needs in decision making, leadership, critical consciousness, resources, collective action and bodily integrity.

All 5 Ms (Money, Management, Markets, Motherhood and Meso/Macro environment) are covered through a gender lens in this tool. The outcomes of the assessment tool will be used to provide the needed (customised) support in the other steps of the pipeline model. The learnings and WE Ignite toolkit will be disseminated among the ANDE network and beyond, so other accelerator programs can implement the WE Ignite Booster.

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Britt de Lange
Timeline

Project milestones

Discover

Collect insights on key requirements to increase participation of women entrepreneurs

Define

Outreach tools, selection criteria and support for entrepreneurs defined and materials created

Develop

Pilot tools within entrepreneur support services within One to Watch

Deliver

Integrate gender specific tools in accelerators globally