supported actors to prospect markets and to design new
labels and introduce more variety in package sizes to
meet the market demand and attract new clients. Through
coaching on “business plan development” delivered to five
women groups in Gogonou, 12 in Glazoué, and four in Lalo,
the processor groups also learned how to carefully plan
their activities and cash flow.
With 2SCALE support of local-level networking and
empowerment, major changes have been achieved in this
partnership. The production and sales of good quality
parboiled rice increased through the improved relationships
among actors, thus increasing their income.
Likie Ladies: A Micro-Franchise Model –
Soybean/Maize Partnership, Ethiopia
Understanding Women’s Challenges to
Starting a Business
When women are involved in business, it is often considered
their side activity. Businesses owned by women are often
in food processing and small-scale retailing. Women
concentrate in labor-intensive, low-tech types of production
that require little capital and make small profits. Their
businesses tend to stay small because of lower levels of
education and lack of money to invest and collateral for
loans. Women also tend to invest more in family needs,
such as schooling, food, and housing, and as a result, their
businesses do not expand as rapidly as those of men.
They also have to stay close to the home. As a result, they
may have less access to public spaces and networks where
information is shared and find it difficult to travel to distant
markets to establish business relationships. They have less
access to market information, business advice, and bank
loans (KIT, AgriProFocus, IIRR, 2012). Strategies to address
these constraints to women’s entrepreneurship include
capacity building in business planning, bookkeeping, sales
management and customer handling, access to loans and
networking opportunities, and access to markets, as seen in
the following example.
When the Ethiopian agri-food processor GUTS Agro
decided to diversify its markets to reduce its reliance on
institutional buyers like the World Food Programme (WFP),
it had several options in terms of product development and
distribution channels. With 2SCALE’s support, the company
developed a marketing strategy to specifically target poor
consumers with an affordable, highly nutritious maize-
soya blend for young children and expectant and nursing
mothers. GUTS Agro opted for a unique distribution model
named Likie.
The Likie distribution model shortens the supply chain
and improves the traceability of products. It is a micro-
franchise model: young women – the Likie Ladies – on
tricycles sell GUTS Agro products door-to-door by bringing
the products directly from the factory to the consumer’s
house; these women are not employees of GUTS Agro but
run their own business as small entrepreneurs. This micro-
franchise model eliminates markups by middlemen, reduces
costs for the consumer, and substantially reduces the risk
of deterioration of products in transit. It also increases
nutrition awareness among low-income women, as the Likie
Ladies are trained by GUTS Agro to offer nutrition education.
Most women in urban areas have children, and there are
many mothers who are denied any opportunities outside
their home. What they miss is not only the chance to
earn their own income but also interaction with people
from whom they could learn. With the Likie model, this
is changing.
According to testimonies collected from Likie Ladies, the
micro-franchise has enabled them to contribute to feeding
and meeting basic needs of their own family. Another
benefit of the model is that it contributes to making
Under the Likie
distribution
model, women
entrepreneurs use
tricycles to deliver
products
to customers’
doorsteps –
Soybean/Maize
Partnership, Ethiopia.
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