The program takes a strategic approach to strengthening Ugandan women’s economic empowerment in their communities through interest-free microloans aimed at developing their entrepreneurial skills. Given Uganda’s struggling job market and the challenges women face in supporting their children’s education in rural areas, women play a key role in supporting a large proportion of Uganda’s small business workforce. They comprise 54 percent of the labor force in both the formal and informal sectors. In small business and trading activities, they constitute more than 80 percent of trading activities in the rural areas in addition to fulfilling daily household chores. Yet Ugandan women remain among the most disadvantaged. They are disproportionately clustered in the least productive sectors, with 90 percent employed in the informal sector or agriculture. Their predominance in the informal economy translates into low productivity, meager earnings, and exposure to exploitation.
According to the UN’s Capital Development Fund, comprehensive impact studies have demonstrated that microfinance helps very poor households meet basic needs and protect against risks. The use of financial services by low-income households is associated with improvements in household economic welfare and enterprise stability or growth. By supporting women’s economic participation, microfinance helps to empower women, thus promoting gender equity and improving household well-being.
The program is intended to help rural women to strengthen their economic empowerment in their communities, towns, and villages. Through this structure, women can access a revolving interest-free microloan to develop their entrepreneurial skills, resiliency, and families’ ability to be self-sufficient. Of significance is that rural women have an opportunity to articulate their concerns, evaluate their accomplishments, and devise strategies to tackle challenges they may encounter.
Through Business Development Support Services, CORIDON supports communities establish and improve their economic activities through market and value chain development approach model that focuses on selecting and developing products that are more advanced and relevant at the required time and standard. CORIDON also facilitates development and application of innovative approaches to diversify and improve technology transfer and information to small scale entrepreneurs, rural and peri-urban communities who seek to introduce new products or to employ new manufacturing techniques for sustainable development. CORIDON undertakes pilot projects and conducts market research to test and inform its interventions, and those of its clients. CORIDON implements activities aimed at facilitating market improvement by increasing demand and/or improving supply. In summary the key facilitation areas:
