Context
The project promotes companies and jobs in Ethiopia, especially for women and young people. Ethiopia, economy, investments, companies,
Job partnership promotion of small and medium-sized enterprises in Ethiopia
With 126 million inhabitants, Ethiopia is the second most populous country in Africa. Economic development is showing high growth rates, driven by industrialization and a falling poverty rate. Despite numerous government subsidies, the Ethiopian economy and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in particular face challenges such as difficult financing, weak infrastructure, bureaucratic hurdles, political instability and a lack of qualified workers.
The economic policy framework and the employment and income situation, especially for owners and employees of SMEs, have improved in terms of long-term economic development.
Objective
The project promotes long-term private investment with the special initiative "Good employment for socially just change". The initiative aims to create high-quality jobs that offer improved working conditions and higher incomes - especially for women and in environmentally relevant sectors of the economy.
Approach
It is part of the "Invest for Jobs" strategy.
The initiative is based on three complementary components:
• It improves the investment conditions for European and African companies.
• supports local SMEs by
o promotes various areas of management,
o introduces process and product innovations and improves sustainable ecological and social production,
o builds up business relationships on national and international markets through active networking.
o advises on loan applications and targeted networking with investors.
• It optimizes the business environment in selected economic sectors by increasing attractiveness and securing jobs with technology-supported solutions. These include, for example, payment functions (e-commerce), data solutions (e-traceability), social media tools and online sales platforms.