The U.S. Embassy, in partnership with the Women Entrepreneurs Business Council and Makoi Women’s Vocational Centre, launched the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs program in Fiji for the fifth consecutive year yesterday.
The embassy provided US $43,300 (FJD95,000) to WEBC to support AWE Fiji 2024, benefiting women business owners from Fiji’s Central, Northern, and Western Divisions who possess a variety of backgrounds and business expertise.
Marie C. Damour, the U.S. Ambassador to Fiji, remarked, “With today’s event, the United States is proud to continue our support for an inclusive, prosperous Pacific. The 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent identifies economic development as one of its key thematic areas, and we join your leaders in our commitment to empower women to be active participants in economic life.”
The Academy for Women Entrepreneurs equips enterprising women with the knowledge, networks, and access needed to establish and expand successful businesses.
Seven facilitators from the Women Entrepreneurs Business Council and Makoi Vocational and Training Centre will guide women business owners through the AWE mentoring and training program.
AWE utilizes a hybrid model combining the online training platform “DreamBuilder” (developed through a partnership between Arizona State University’s Thunderbird School of Global Management and global copper mining company Freeport-McMoRan) with in-person mentoring and facilitation.
Participants of AWE acquire core business skills and then gather as a group to discuss the material with their facilitators and AWE alumni, who adapt the content to Fiji’s local context.
The facilitators have also enhanced their own expertise through virtual training from the Washington, D.C.-based AWE team and an in-person workshop that improved their facilitation skills and course content knowledge.
Since its launch in Fiji in 2020, 457 women entrepreneurs have graduated from the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs program.
The benefits of AWE continue long after the program concludes, as alumnae apply the skills they learned to manage their businesses and become part of a large network of women business leaders.
A recent survey revealed that over 90 percent of AWE alumnae reported that the program increased their confidence and self-esteem and helped them gain strategic planning and public speaking skills.