Fostering Digital Entrepreneurship among Women in Africa.The four-year program targets Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Namibia, and the Republic of Congo, with a clear goal: boost women’s participation in the continent’s rapidly expanding digital economy.
The Core Challenge
Women across these four nations face persistent barriers to digital opportunity. Structural obstacles restrict access to critical digital skills, financial services, and online market opportunities. The UN ECA’s Technology, Innovation, Connectivity and Infrastructure Development Division (TICID) will oversee the initiative, with a focus on dismantling these barriers systematically.
This isn’t unique to these nations. Across Africa, digital transformation is accelerating, yet women often face disproportionate challenges accessing training, capital, and market platforms that men take for granted.
What Gets Done Over Four Years
| Component | Target/Details |
|---|---|
| Training | 1,000+ women entrepreneurs in digital and financial skills |
| Policy Work | 200+ policymakers in capacity-building workshops |
| Activities | 8 national workshops, regional training, online platform, study tours |
| Timeline | Runs through 2029 (started with kick-off May 18, 2026) |
| Oversight | Multi-stakeholder coordination taskforce with UN agencies and governments |
The Strategy: Entrepreneurs and Policymakers
The initiative takes a two-pronged approach. On one side, it provides direct support to entrepreneurs with practical digital literacy and financial management training. On the other, it works with over 200 policymakers and government officials to create more inclusive, gender-responsive policy frameworks that actually enable digital entrepreneurship rather than hinder it.
Similar efforts are underway elsewhere in Africa, but this UN ECA initiative distinguishes itself by combining grassroots entrepreneurship support with top-level policy work simultaneously.
Immediate Next Steps
The taskforce has emphasized tailoring interventions to each country’s unique socio-economic conditions. Gender and youth considerations remain priorities throughout the project. The immediate focus is conducting comprehensive assessment studies in each of the four nations over the next six months. These studies will identify local challenges, opportunities, and policy gaps specific to each context.
The findings will form the foundation for country-specific interventions, ensuring that training programs and policy recommendations actually address what women in Burkina Faso face, rather than applying a one-size-fits-all approach.
Why This Matters Now
Africa’s digital economy is expanding rapidly, but women are being left behind. By 2029, when this initiative concludes, these four nations should have more women equipped with digital skills and more supportive policy environments. That’s not guaranteed without targeted intervention. The UN ECA is betting that combining grassroots training with policy reform creates real, lasting change rather than temporary programs that disappear when funding ends.
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