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ARISE Re-launches on the Last Week of September 2022
By Samrawit Geremew | Wed Sep 07 2022
Over the course of 2021, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and RENEW reached 1,382 women-owned and -led agri-businesses in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) through the design, launch and successful execution of the African Resilience & Investment Series for Women Executives (ARISE) Program in 2021.
The ARISE program was designed with the knowledge that agriculture holds the key to broad-based economic growth, poverty reduction and food security in Africa, and with the understanding that the COVID-19 global pandemic had a severe impact on women-owned and -led agri-businesses in Africa. The ARISE program had the goal of addressing issues that can help the businesses boost their capacity to cope, recover and build resilience to future shocks.
The ARISE program covered critical and relevant business and skills capacity topics over a series of five training programs, including recovery during a crises and business contingency planning, executive and financial management, leadership skills, investment readiness and pitching to secure third party finance, as well as emotional support and networking sessions. The training programs included the Investment Seminar, Accelerated Women Executives’ Program, Investment Preparation, Pitch Coaching sessions and Peer-to-Peer Support (i.e., virtual coffee sessions).
While the ARISE program was successful in engaging with strong and dynamic women and creating a platform through which agri-businesses could come together to learn best practices, attend coaching and support sessions, obtain essential tools to implement learnings, and network with industry peers and discuss the ways to recover and build the groundwork of resilience for their businesses, there’s more to be done. AGRA’s promotion of women’s economic empowerment within the agriculture sector and addressing the persisting problems they face is not meant to be a one time thing, rather it’s a continuous expedition of breaking the barriers impeding growth of agri-businesses in Africa.
With the feedback, learnings and key takeaways from the ARISE program the AGRA and RENEW project teams will be enhancing the ARISE program and providing strengthened and further tailored training programs over the coming 4 months. During this period, members of AGRA’s VALUE4HER platform will have the opportunity to go through an intensive upskilling and reskilling program, wherein the original suite of training programs will all be improved to better address self-identified business and skills gaps, as well as bridge the confidence, self-esteem and ambition setting gaps that were observed as part of the post program survey for the original ARISE program. The ARISE project teams believe the enhanced trainings will better meet women-led and -owned agri-businesses’ needs in terms of content, tools and engagement, and we look forward to working with AGRA-supported companies again in the coming months.
Note: Be sure to watch your inbox, the Value4Her platform and RENEW’s marketing channels for announcements regarding training dates and times for the above mentioned key sessions. We encourage you to be one of the futuristic, growth-minded and exemplary women agri-preneurs who participate and strive to make a mark on economic growth, poverty reduction and food security in Africa.
Renew Capital is an Africa-focused impact investment firm that backs innovative companies with high-growth potential. Renew Capital manages investments made on behalf of the Renew Capital Angels, a global network of angel investors, foundations and family offices who seek financial returns and sustainable social impact. For the latest on investing in Africa, subscribe and follow us at our social links below.
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