Women Entrepreneurship Challenging COVID-19 (WECC-19)
The Problem
With the negative socio-economic impact of COVID-19, women and refugee-led cooperatives and entrepreneurs have experienced multi-layeled challenges such as access to market and the downfall of supply chain mechanisms.
To create comprehensive and sustainable solutions including financial support, training and access to the market strategies has gained prominence to provide a well and efficient framework for the women and refugee-led cooperatives.
The Solution
In collaboration with Innovation for Development (I4D), SPARK, Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD) and Hepsiburada, Women Entrepreneurship Challenging COVID-19 (WECC-19) Project was initiated to ease access to online e-commerce platforms for women-led social enterprises, cooperatives and firms.
The Impact
The training and mentorship program was designed based on the needs assessment of beneficiaries. A compact and efficient training/mentorship program aimed at women and refugee-led cooperatives and entrepreneurs was implemented. After the intense training program, the beneficiaries who fulfilled the requirements for e-commerce integration were provided with grants and their own marketplace.
Through “WECC-19”, 45 women and refugee-led cooperatives & entrepreneurs consisting of 1,223 Turkish and refugee women, gained their own marketplace at Hepsiburada (a leading Turkish Online Marketing platform). 35 women-led cooperatives have receieved over 40.000 Turkish Liras in grants, and 50+ women and refugee-led cooperatives & entrepreneurs have benefited from the training and mentorship program for capacity building.
