This was prompted by the realization that the population of women attending SIYB training activities has been gradually decreasing in the past ten years. The reports collected over time indicate that in the 1980’s the percentage of women being trained in Improve Your Business amounted to 70%. The current reports show that on average, 50% of women attend SIYB training. Of course, the numbers on the trained women / men vary from country to country. For instance, Zimbabwe has 57% female population trained, while South Africa and Tanzania have 33% females trained. Zambia remains the highest with 72% females trained.

In order to address this issue, the Regional Project Office, with assistance from the ILO-SEED in Geneva has held workshops for SIYB Master Trainers exchanging country experiences in gender mainstreaming. The programmes have included that following discussions:

• Researching the market by combining market research with Gender analysis
• Promoting and marketing training courses to women trainers and entrepreneurs
• Effective promotion channels and materials that appeal to women entrepreneurs
• Selecting women participants for SIYB seminars
• Effective methodologies in training women entrepreneurs
• Monitoring and Evaluation of programmes offered to women participants

Conclusions from these workshops led to the RPO and SEED to develop an action plan that is expected to assist Master Trainers more in understanding the gender-mainstreaming concept, as well as designing programmes that will help trainers to deliver the same concepts at entrepreneur level.

The RPO/SEED action plan includes:

• Developing case studies for women entrepreneurs trained in SIYB
• Broadening the selection criteria and recruitment methodologies to encourage women to attend SIYB seminars
• Include gender-mainstreaming training as part of the Tots
• Conduct capacity building training for RPO staff
• Select partner organizations in project countries and strengthen their gender mainstreaming efforts

SIYB stakeholders including Master Trainers will be required to develop their own country gender action plans to ensure that mainstreaming does not end within RPO but cascades down to the potential and existing entrepreneurs. A gender expert has been hired on a part time basis to assist build capacity for RPO and implement this aspect of the project effectively. Project countries should expect communication from RPO in this regard, which feedback will also solicit for input into the whole exercise in response to country specific situations.