A two day women’s entrepreneur training workshop kicked off on Wednesday, October 22 at the Salisbury primary school.
The workshop was hosted by the Ministry of Youth Development and Empowerment, Youth at Risk, Gender Affairs, Seniors’ Security and Dominicans with Disabilities and the Adult Education Division under the theme ‘Financial Empowerment in the Midst of a Pandemic.’
The workshop forms part of the Enabling Gender-Responsive Disaster Recovery, Climate and Environmental Resilience in the Caribbean (EnGenDER) project. It is a project led by the United Nations Development Programme across nine Caribbean countries.
Minister with responsibility for Gender Affairs, Honourable Dr. Adis King says emergencies such as the covid-19 pandemic increases gender based violence.
“This is very important to us because as we know gender based violence is very concerning for all of us here in Dominica. Gender-based violence increases during every type of emergency, whether economic, conflict, or disease outbreaks. Pre-existing toxic social norms and gender inequalities, economic and social stress caused by the covid-19 pandemic, coupled with restricted movement and social isolation measures have led to an exponential increase in gender based violence globally,” Dr. King stated.
Dr. King says the workshop is one of the gender based violence prevention initiatives implemented by her Ministry under the EnGenDER project.
“The Ministry of Youth Development and Empowerment, Youth at Risk, Gender Affairs, Seniors’ Security and Dominicans with Disabilities is therefore implementing gender based violence prevention and response programs as part of the EnGenDER project. The EnGenDER project aimed at enabling gender responsive disaster recovery seeks to further integrate gender equality and human rights based approaches in disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and environmental management frameworks and interventions. All this is in an effort to identify and address the gaps to ensure equal access to disaster risk reduction and climate and environment resilience for our women, our men our boys and our girls,” the Gender Affairs Minister explained.
The Minister says the main purpose of the two day training is to promote socio economic empowerment and to increase their chances of employability.
“As part of this covid-19 response program, the Ministry in collaboration with Adult Education through the EnGenDER project is pleased to present this two day entrepreneurship training under the theme ‘Financial Empowerment in the Midst of a Pandemic.’ The main objective of the training is to promote the socio-economic empowerment of our women and to increase employability of rural women entrepreneurs. This coincides with the observation of International Rural Women’s Day which drew attention to the crucial role that women play in ensuring the sustainability of rural households and communities, improving rural livelihoods and overall wellbeing,“ the Minister highlighted.
Dr. King says that it is important that women are trained in entrepreneurship for the improvement of the private sector.
“Given the unprecedented impacts of covid 19 on the heels of recovering from Hurricane Maria, it is vital that women are empowered in entrepreneurship training creating a safe space for self-reliance and resiliency. Women are an indispensable part of the private sector as it pertains to economic growth, employment and job creation. The participation of women in small business renovates the quality and structure of the work force and society as a whole,” Dr. King added.