SUSTAINABLE INCOME GENERATION & SELF EMPLOYMENT OF NOFOTANE WOMEN
Donor Agency: Canada Fund for Local Initiative
Duration: September 2018 – February 2019
Nofotane women in Samoa are vulnerable to exploitation and lack control over their lives. This is partly due to their low status in the village hierarchy and their unemployment status. Nofotanetranslates as ‘stay or live with husband’. This is the status given to women who marry outside their home village.
From July 2017 to April 2018, Samoa Victim Support Group (SVSG) has been providing livelihood training workshops for over 5,000 unemployed nofotane women as part of its economic empowerment program with UN Women Fund for Gender Equality. The aim of this program is to increase the ability of these women to earn an income and achieve sustainable employment.
From these 5,000+ nofotane women trained, close to 800 have registered to start a small business but only 400 (50%) of these trained nofotane women have earned an income from the skills being trained on.
The project therefore targeted the sustainable income generation & self- employment of 400 nofotane women who have previously attended SVSG’s livelihood program with the UN Women FGE and have earned a living from it.
The project goal was for self-employed nofotane women to have increased access to resources and support for sustaining their income generating activities
Achievements:
https://www.samoaobserver.ws/category/samoa/38039
Duration: September 2018 – February 2019
Nofotane women in Samoa are vulnerable to exploitation and lack control over their lives. This is partly due to their low status in the village hierarchy and their unemployment status. Nofotanetranslates as ‘stay or live with husband’. This is the status given to women who marry outside their home village.
From July 2017 to April 2018, Samoa Victim Support Group (SVSG) has been providing livelihood training workshops for over 5,000 unemployed nofotane women as part of its economic empowerment program with UN Women Fund for Gender Equality. The aim of this program is to increase the ability of these women to earn an income and achieve sustainable employment.
From these 5,000+ nofotane women trained, close to 800 have registered to start a small business but only 400 (50%) of these trained nofotane women have earned an income from the skills being trained on.
The project therefore targeted the sustainable income generation & self- employment of 400 nofotane women who have previously attended SVSG’s livelihood program with the UN Women FGE and have earned a living from it.
The project goal was for self-employed nofotane women to have increased access to resources and support for sustaining their income generating activities
Achievements:
- SVSG sourced out 120 successful women mentors to provide mentorship for the 460 self-employed nofotane women reached by the program;
- 32 women to women partnerships were created amongst the nofotane earners (with the assistance of the SVSG village rep.) to mentor and encourage each other;
- 299 nofotane women were allocated to the local financial institutions for account set up, the rest of the women have opened bank accounts of their own;
- SVSG linked 386 nofotane women (excluding the 74 commercial cooking earners) to the relevant market affiliations;
- The Nofotane Market was held on 8thMarch 2019 at the Malaefatu Reserve in Apia to close off the project. It was well attended by the local community including the delegation 8-members delegation from the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) of Canada.
https://www.samoaobserver.ws/category/samoa/38039