UNDP empowers women in Karak to become retail entrepreneurs

AMMAN — Thirty Jordanian and Syrian women in the southern governorate of Karak have successfully completed a training course to become entrepreneurs in retail as part the “Asilah” programme. 

Asilah, an initiative by the UNDP Jordan and Unilever, supports and empowers women in remote and underprivileged areas through training, capacity-building and a seed fund that will ultimately help them establish micro-joint ventures and partnerships, according to a UNDP statement. 

It is hoped that this programme will increase women’s economic participation in the retail distribution sector and empower them to become direct-to-consumer sales distributors via home-based businesses. 

The women received intensive training on business skills, including rules of establishing a microbusiness, marketing, accounting, business management, sales and after-sales services, legal rights, merchandising and inventory management.

The UNDP is executing this programme in Arab states for the first time, with the ultimate objective of increasing women’s participation in the workforce, a key inclusive growth challenge since Jordan ranks among the lowest countries in female economic participation, particularly in remote and vulnerable communities like Karak, the statement said. 

The governorate has been impacted by the influx of Syrian refugees and faces high youth unemployment, particularly amongst educated women. The programme has identified and trained women who will become role models and advocates of entrepreneurship via Asilah for future generations.

Asilah contributes to Sustainable Development Goals by working on goal 1 (no poverty), goal 5 (gender equality), goal 8 (decent work and economic growth), goal 12 (responsible consumption and production) and goal 17 (partnerships for the goals), the statement added. 

UNDP Resident Representative Sara Ferrer Olivella stressed in the statement the importance of including women in development as a prerequisite to economic growth and prosperity. She added that any programme that excludes women “is depriving communities of key players who can actively contribute to the welfare of both their families and societies”. 

Ferrer Olivella noted that the outcomes of the programme are “meant to be long-term”, as it drives change in communities where women’s economic participation is low and limited to the public sector. 

“Those ladies are changemakers. We can see how they impacted their communities by bravely entering the male-dominated retail sector, defying societal norms and increasing gender balance,” she was quoted in the statement as saying.

The second step in the programme involves empowering the women to establish and run their own micro businesses using global business practices and models developed through Unilever in Arab countries such as Egypt and Lebanon. 

Each woman will receive financial and in-kind grants and merchandise to sell and distribute in her local community. The three women who demonstrate leadership in small business will receive a sizable grant of $10,000, the statement said.