Breaking Barriers: Elevating Women Across Industries in Ethiopia
Amarech’s workplace looks like one of many of the houses in the city center of Hawassa. It’s a bit run down and not particularly noteworthy in any way. When finally making it up the steep stairs to the third floor, one is surprised to find a garment factory with over 78 workers taking turns in two shifts.
The large room that serves as the factory is filled with rows of sewing machines. The space is dimly lit, with numerous wires dangling from the ceiling to power the machines. The room is sparse, with no decoration apart from the company logo displayed prominently, giving it a strictly functional appearance.
Amarech had to overcome many challenges to arrive where she stands today. When she was nine years old she left her home in Arba Minch to move a few hundred kilometers north to Hawassa with her brother to continue her education. Her determination was tested through numerous harrowing experiences, including sexual abuse that led to a forced marriage and an unexpected pregnancy, before being left by the child’s father.
As a single mother, Amarech worked tirelessly in various low-paid jobs, including as a cleaner at a hospital and as a housemaid, to support herself and her child. Her life took a turn when she became a participant in the UP-Women project, where she received vocational training to work in the garment industry.
Amarech’s exceptional performance during training earned her employment at the garment factory, where she continues to excel and be recognized for her dedication and diverse skillset. At age 21 she is already an “all-rounder” and seamlessly handles numerous tasks such as ironing, cutting and sewing, as well as supporting the purchasing team. She has been able to increase her income by taking on more challenging tasks, slowly transforming her life through sheer perseverance and the opportunities provided by the project. Her supervisor has recognized her potential, expressing confidence that with continued commitment she could advance to higher positions in the future.
Creating entry points in male-dominated professions
Amarech’s story doesn’t stand in isolation; many of the girls and young women trained by the UP-Women project now see pathways to leadership roles and new opportunities for brighter futures. The project, which is implemented by Helvetas in the Sidama Region of Ethiopia, focuses on women who face numerous socio-economic challenges.
Ethiopia's youth (under 30 years of age) comprise 73% of the 120-million-person population, but only three million young people enter the competitive labor market annually. Since land ownership is traditionally not allowed for women, many young people like Amarech migrate to urban centers seeking earning opportunities. However, young women often face underemployment, low-paid or unregulated work. Early marriage remains a prevalent issue, often resulting in adolescent motherhood. Caregiving responsibilities are tied to societal expectations and reproductive roles, further limiting opportunities for economic independence.
Additionally, low awareness in Ethiopia of the value of vocational training, combined with high attendance costs and insufficient facilities, significantly limited the access of young women to these opportunities. The poor implementation of existing gender-inclusive policies creates further barriers for women. Essential amenities are also absent in these spaces, such as separate toilets to address women's hygiene and safety needs. And with inadequate budgets allocated to vocational training centers, outdated curricula is being used that does not meet the market demand, reducing the relevance of training programs.
Although sectors like welding, auto mechanics, electrical engineering and construction offer extensive job opportunities and earning potential, women in these industries face entrenched gender stereotypes within the vocational system as well as in their families, communities and the private sector. These biases often discourage women from pursuing male-dominated professions, since they are frequently perceived as unfit for such roles. Women-led enterprises also struggle with inadequate business skills and restricted access to startup capital, land and loans.
The UP-Women project implemented since 2020 in four city administrations in the newly established Sidama Regional State has put different mechanisms into place to reduce these challenges for women as much as possible. The project connects girls and young women to education on functional literacy and provides training on life skills to boost self-confidence and learn about customer service. Business owners serve as training providers, offering short-term vocational training to the young women so they can develop their skills to pursue high quality (self-) employment. Information is also provided, and awareness raised among female trainees as well as males in their families and communities about sexual and reproductive health to enable informed decisions. 1988 girls and women have been trained in Integrated Functional Adult Literacy (IFAL), 3962 in Technical and Vocational Training and Education (TVET) and entrepreneurship, 3500 in Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) topics. Currently 60% of the trainees are trained in non-traditional professions.
Incentivizing graduating and securing employment
The project applies an inclusive systems approach, and many of the participating women are integrated into high-potential sectors that are traditionally dominated by men. This approach focuses on encouraging system actors to adopt and sustain new, beneficial practices by leveraging internal incentives, ensuring that changes are embedded within the system and remain self-sustaining. By identifying and addressing the root causes of exclusionary or underperforming systems, the approach aims to create more equitable and sustainable market environments. Its adaptive nature reflects the dynamic complexities of market systems, allowing interventions to respond effectively to changing conditions and emerging opportunities.
The UP-Women project fosters systemic change by facilitating collaboration among system actors, building capacities and promoting innovation. A key achievement has been the development and strengthening of six public and 32 private training providers, which is a significant increase from the seven providers (predominately public institutions) that existed at the project’s outset. Through the project’s interventions, private sector actors such as company owners were trained to become vocational training providers. This capacity building included training in what tools to use and which processes to follow. Newly designed curricula for short-term Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) courses were also discussed with the training providers. Prior to the project, no short-term TVET courses existed and training providers often relied on randomly chosen topics from outdated curricula, resulting in training content that did not meet the market need. Now 19 newly designed curricula are being used by private and public training providers in the Sidama Regional State.
Implementing an inclusive systems approach is challenging, but the UP-Women project goes further by fostering gender transformation in the TVET system. It addresses constraints at multiple levels: At the individual level, girls and young women receive career guidance and life skills training, encouraging women to pursue training and work in non-traditional jobs that are often better paid and in male-dominated sectors. At the household level, boys and men are engaged in awareness-raising to challenge gender stereotypes. At the community level, service providers such as one-stop shops, microfinance institutes and banks are sensitized to the business case of offering business development services and loans to women entrepreneurs. At the policy level, the project facilitates discussions with regional governments and the private sector representatives to address constraints that prevent women from participating in the labor market.
Tsehay Mengistu, program participant who trained as a welder
As of late 2024, more than 700 women participating in the project had secured wage employment or self-employment. These successes are guided by the results-based financing (RBF) approach, which Helvetas has applied extensively to employment projects in Ethiopia and Nepal. RBF uses a phased payment system to incentivize vocational trainers to assist graduates in their search for employment or to start their own enterprise. Training providers receive 35% of the payment early in the training to cover initial costs such as materials. Another 35% is paid after students successfully complete the training. Full payment is contingent upon achieving key outcomes: At least 80% of trainees must pass the skills test for the second instalment, and 80% of graduates must secure meaningful employment. A verification of at least four salaries having been received is conducted for the training provider to qualify for the third instalment.
Initially many of the training providers in the UP-Women project did not claim the third instalment, despite agreeing to the payment structure after having been thoroughly informed about it. They required time to fully understand the process and its implications. Many providers focused solely on training young women and did not account for the effort and skills needed to facilitate their transition into employment or self-employment. Additionally, potential employers often undervalued the graduates' skills, favoring familiarity over qualifications. However, with the project’s capacity building efforts, training providers now better understand their role and are seeing more success with graduates securing employment.
The project also introduced regular job fairs as a supportive measure to connect young women with local employers seeking skilled workers. These events offer valuable networking opportunities, especially for marginalized young women. While job fairs were not entirely new in the Sidama region, they had previously focused on university graduates, excluding non-graduate skilled women. The first Helvetas-organized job fair in 2024 brought together private and public training providers, local businesses and government partners. Since then, the project has hosted two additional job fairs and two private TVET providers were inspired to organize similar events for their graduates.
Removing gendered barriers to success
Advocacy among local employers, city administration staff and relevant regional bureaus to identify existing gender bias and create conditions that support women's economic empowerment has led to a mindset shift. There’s now acknowledgement among these actors in the region that women can excel in male-dominated professions, and that they have a role to play in providing better business development support for women-led startups.
A key constraint for female-led businesses is access to finance. UP-Women supports their financial education, facilitates saving groups and links the businesses with banks who develop and offer financial products tailored to their needs. Two banks are piloting the business case of supporting women in the project. A guarantee fund allows them to cover potential defaults, and they’ve agreed to offer loans to the women-owned enterprises based on group collateral instead of demanding individual collateral from each person.
The Sidama Job, Skills, and Enterprise Development Bureau is one of the many important project partners who have recognized the importance of the project and dedicated support with advocacy as well as financing. Instead of allocating all available funds to university graduates, in June 2024 the bureau earmarked 10.5M Birr ($83,000) as credit to be distributed among the businesses of UP-Women graduates, allowing them to start their own enterprises in groups.
After they secure a workspace and startup capital, the women receive ongoing, personalized coaching from training providers within their respective sectors. The coaches are committed to helping them overcome challenges such as marketing their products, managing financial resources, building confidence in male-dominated professions and growing their businesses.
“I would like to prove the opposite to those who think that women are inferior to men,” said Tsehay Mengistu, who was trained as a welder and has become a role model for young women in the program. “I was motivated to do a typically male job in order to earn well. And I'm doing great at it. Women should be considered equal. They are equal.”
But the UP-Women project goes beyond individual success stories. By strengthening the capacities of public and private training providers, developing new curricula, advocating for gender inclusion in TVET and employment, and improving access to startup capital and business development services for women, the project has started to slowly change systems. These efforts enable women like Tsehay and Amarech, along with many others in the Sidama region, to build thriving careers and secure a brighter future.
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