Deadline: 6 September 2024
Are you a Rwandan-based, women-owned company with a project idea to empower women economically? Will your idea create good employment for women, improve working conditions for women, or empower women-owned businesses in your supply chain and industry? Submit your short project concept, to apply for technical support.
The “Promoting Women’s Economic Empowerment” (WEE) project is part of the Special Initiative “Decent Work for a Just Transition” of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). It aims to empower women in the private sector by creating good new jobs for women, improving their working conditions, and empowering women-owned businesses. The WEE project is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Interationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.
Funding Information
- The company can qualify for in-kind support from GIZ ranging from 20,000 to 60,000 Euros. The company is expected to match or exceed the volume of resources GIZ contributes to the project.
- GIZ will support eligible project ideas with in-kind contributions, for example, national and international technical experts, capacity-building support, and small-scale equipment/material purchases. The partner company is expected to match – in-kind or in-cash – the value of resources GIZ invests into the project. GIZ and the partner company will co-implement the project idea: under this Call, there will be no cash flow between GIZ and the partner company.
- Project duration: The implementation of the project idea must not exceed 12 months.
Eligible Project Ideas
- The following are the main minimum criteria for project ideas:
- Development impact: The project contributes to sustainable development and goes beyond an investment in the partner company´s core business. Projects must contribute significantly to one or more of the following outcomes: (1) good jobs for women, (2) improved working conditions for women, and/or (3) improved performance of women-owned businesses.
- Contribution by partner company: The partner company is expected to contribute (in-kind or in-cash) to the project idea, for example, in the form of the time of their staff, materials, training costs or travel costs. The partner company is expected to at least match the volume of resources GIZ contributes to the project.
- Commercial interest for partner company: The partner company must have a clear commercial interest in the project idea (exclusively charitable projects will not be supported).
- Project region: Only projects based exclusively in Rwanda can be supported.
Eligibility Criteria
- The following are minimum criteria for companies submitting project ideas:
- Ownership: Company is majority-owned by a woman/women (at least 51%).
- Nature of company: Company must be profit-oriented and not engaged in business practices that are unsustainable or harmful to development outcomes.
- Legal entity: Company is privately owned and must be legally registered in Rwanda for at least 2 years.
- Business sector: preference is given to labour-intensive sectors that have the capacity to create more new jobs.
- Financial and human resources of company: Company must have sufficient financial and human resources to co-implement the project idea with GIZ. The company should have had an annual revenue of at least 20,000 Euros in 2023.
For more information, visit Invest for Jobs.
