Two women pioneer a new way to help African women help themselves

In the West African nation of Ghana, two American women are employing a creative approach to help their native counterparts build successful, sustainable businesses. Since 2003, Renae Adam and Kristin Johnson have assisted hundreds of women across the country to dramatically increase their income, pay off debts and find a global market for their products.

The effort grew out of their experiences as Peace Corps volunteers in the 1990s and their shared belief that helping women gain economic independence is the most effective way to create prosperous communities.

In fall 2002, Adam returned to Ghana to research why the lives of women entrepreneurs had not improved since her time their nearly a decade earlier. She found a support infrastructure that, while well meaning, was in the end inadequate to bring about serious and lasting economic progress for Ghanaian women.

The majority of the development programs in the country suffered from a few overarching shortcomings:

• A focus on generic training meant that eager entrepreneurs were denied the practical implementation and post-training support that are so critical to establishing and sustaining a viable business.
• The programs tended to target only a single aspect of business development, failing to address the specific needs of the particular business owner.
• While helping prepare businesses to export their products, little assistance was provided in actually transacting international sales.

“We formed Women in Progress (WIP) in 2003 in direct response to our findings,” Adam says. “We wanted to provide a long-term and comprehensive approach to economic development that would lead to the sustainable growth of these struggling woman-led businesses.”

WIP, a non-governmental organization (NGO), sought to generate real, tangible results by providing hands-on, personalized assistance in the implementation of practical business strategies. This would include everything from creating a business plan to managing day-to-day operations, all with a focus on penetrating global markets.

They launched their brand, Global Mamas, in 2003 in partnership with a handful of Ghanaian batikers, beadmakers and seamstresses. They relied on a novel development approach they call “assisted implementation.”

Distinguished by its comprehensive nature, assisted implementation is designed to help women entrepreneurs help themselves to analyze the challenges of their business, develop realistic business plans, identify growth opportunities, and, most importantly, implement these ideas in a sustainable way.

Perhaps most notably Adam and Johnson conceived a unique income-generation model that eliminates dependence on outside funding. Revenue streams, like the NGO’s popular volunteer program, were developed that enhance the mission rather than distract from it. A revenue-sharing program was also begun that aligns WIP’s financial sustainability with the financial success of the businesses it assists.

Today, thanks in large part to its pioneering assisted implementation strategy, WIP helps some 75 woman-owned businesses across Ghana to coordinate production of more than 150 products for more than 250 customers around the globe. Revenue has grown from $20,000 the first year to an incredible $800,000 in 2008. Uncountable are benefits this success is bringing to the women, their families and the communities in which they live.

Learn more at www.womeninprogress.org and www.globalmamas.org