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AWEP – Accelerating female CEOs in Ethiopia
- Thomas
- Ethiopia
- February 1, 2026
Situation
The Alliance for Women Entrepreneurship (AWEP) supports Ethiopian women-led SMEs to strengthen their competitiveness and expand into global markets. Yet many members lack foundational business capabilities—such as concept development, branding, customer engagement, financial planning and investor readiness. Limited access to tailored capacity-building resources has led to imitation-driven entrepreneurship, with many SMEs starting without viable business cases or clear value differentiation.
Assignment
The task was to design a tailor-made training program that would build the organisational and strategic capacity of AWEP members—enabling them to scale sustainably, operate more customer-centrically and develop unique, competitive business offerings.
Approach
Proportion conducted intake sessions with AWEP leadership and members to define training needs. Insights shaped a human-centred accelerator curriculum focused on: developing strong business concepts, defining uniqueness and authenticity, increasing customer value, creating marketing strategies and crafting compelling investor pitches. The program consisted of three in-country bootcamps, applied research and design assignments, peer mentoring and facilitated access to investors.
Result
Twenty participating companies demonstrated significant transformation within three months, strengthening their business strategies and gaining confidence in articulating their value propositions. All women CEOs pitched to local investors, with three securing direct investment—marking a powerful step toward a more resilient, competitive women-led SME ecosystem in Ethiopia.