On 11 December, educational entrepreneur Beatrice Ayuru will tell a TEDx audience in Geneva the inspirational story of how she overcame poverty and prejudice to launch a school that is improving the lives of children – especially girls – in her community.
UNCTAD strongly believes promoting women entrepreneurship is a key way to enhance productivity growth and find practical business solutions to social and environmental challenges.
The case of Beatrice Ayuru, the first-prize winner of the UNCTAD/Empretec Women in Business Award in 2010, clearly shows how women entrepreneurs are a smart investment as they can bring positive social and economic returns to their communities.
Ms. Ayuru overcame numerous challenges to establish a school in an underserved rural community in northern Uganda that provides quality education to young people in an economically disadvantaged region, and in particular, to girls in the region who generally lack access to education.
Launched in 2000 in a largely impoverished rural region that had been ravaged by civil war, Lira Integrated School caters to a wide variety of students from varying backgrounds, including children from poor families who cannot afford school fees as well as those affected by war and HIV/AIDS.
Upon graduating from Makerere University with a degree in education, Ms. Ayuru launched a cassava and canteen business, became a teacher, and saved her earnings to start the school in Lira. In its fourteen years, the Lira Integrated School has had a significant impact in the community.
Beyond providing quality education to students in a post-conflict setting, the school has increased access to education, especially among girls, and achieved gender parity in the girl-boy ratio that had historically been skewed in favour of boys.
In addition, girls attending Lira Integrated School not only outperform boys in national exams, but the school's female school dropout rate has declined as many girls now complete their education. The school's policy to allow girls who become pregnant to sit for their national exams has also contributed to a higher school completion rate for the girls who are then better able to support their families.
Moreover, the school's success in addressing gender inequality in education has begun to dispel outdated notions about gender and, as Ms. Ayuru says, has "inspired many parents to seriously consider educating girls".
In 2008, Ms. Ayuru enrolled in an entrepreneurship programme offered by UNCTAD's Empretec Centre in Uganda known as Enterprise Uganda.
"Empretec helped me to build my skills, gain knowledge of my rights as a business person and how to make my business unique," Ms. Ayuru says, adding "because of the training, I am now accountable and transparent, and I operate a formal business."
Empretec began in 1988 in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme. Under the leadership of UNCTAD and its public and private partners and donors, including the governments of Italy, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands, Empretec has engaged more than 600 local certified trainers to support more than 360,000 entrepreneurs in 36 developing countries and economies in transition.
Providing a one-stop-shop for information and business training, Empretec stimulates public-private sector partnerships and develops institutions with forward-looking advisory boards. It also plays a major role in connecting entrepreneurs with institutions, and Empretec workshops create lifelong bonds that are essential to future business growth as they form a critical mass of successful, committed entrepreneurs who become the driving force of the project.
With Empretec, UNCTAD is empowering women entrepreneurs in developing countries with the adequate competencies to succeed. Initiatives such as Empretec's biennial Women in Business Awards highlight the economic and social achievements of women in developing countries, as well as celebrate strong role models for the next generation.
"Women entrepreneurs are powerful agents of change that can contribute to economic growth, poverty alleviation and sustainable development," UNCTAD Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi says.
Women entrepreneurs represent a third of entrepreneurs worldwide and in developing countries there are 8 to 10 million formal small and medium enterprises with at least one female owner.
"Nevertheless, women continue to represent an under-utilized pool of entrepreneurial talent. Mainstreaming women entrepreneurship into sustainable economic development strategies, in addition to helping to address social equity concerns, makes good economic sense," Dr. Kituyi adds.
"UNCTAD has both the responsibility and the expertise to play a key role in ensuring that gender considerations are included in its substantive activities, according to the three pillars of analytical work, consensus building and technical cooperation," he says.
"Furthermore, as the international community contributes to the post-2015 United Nations development agenda, UNCTAD is playing an active role in advocating the inclusion of gender equality with in the post-2015 sustainable development goals."
For Ms. Ayuru, her only regret is not having signed up to Empretec earlier. "I would have avoided making a lot of mistakes and better managed risks - now I have to make a lot of corrections," she says.
