Case Study 02 July 2023 INCORPORATING SPOUSAL SUPPORT This case study is a product INTO A MINDSET-FOCUSED BUSINESS of the World Bank Africa TRAINING FOR WOMEN IN ETHIOPIA region Gender Innovation Lab’s Innovations in Financing Women Entrepreneurs (IFWE) Authors: Adiam Hagos Hailemicheal, Sreelakshmi Papineni, and Toni Weis initiative, in partnership with the Digital Opportunity SUMMARY Trust (DOT). The Africa Gender Innovation Lab (GIL) Psychology-based business trainings that develop a proactive entrepreneurial conducts impact evaluations mindset have been shown to be more effective than traditional business training and rigorous research to in supporting female entrepreneurs to grow their businesses (Campos et al. 2017). determine what works and At the same time, recent studies have shown that women’s business decisions are what does not work to improve gender equality and influenced by their spouse, and that these intrahousehold dynamics contribute to it uses this evidence to shape gender gaps in entrepreneurship outcomes (Friedson-Ridenour and Pierotti 2019; policy. Funded by Global Wolf and Frese 2018). A new training curriculum developed by the World Bank Affairs Canada, IFWE works in Africa Gender Innovation Lab (GIL) in partnership with the Digital Opportunity Trust partnership with World Bank (DOT)1 builds on these insights by inviting male partners to participate in a mindset- operations to pilot, scale up, and evaluate new approaches focused program targeted to women entrepreneurs that is partly delivered at the to empowering Ethiopia’s trainees’ home. female entrepreneurs. IFWE works across three This GIL case study summarizes key learnings from a pilot intervention carried components: business skills out with 987 participants across four cities in Ethiopia during 2021–22. The pilot and services, access to provided insights into the challenge of ensuring spousal participation in the training finance, and policy evidence. program, the feasibility and cost of delivering sessions in a home setting, and the need to prepare trainers for unfamiliar environments and dynamics. GIL is also conducting a randomized controlled trial that will compare the impacts of providing the training to only female entrepreneurs with the effects of providing the training to female entrepreneurs and their husbands. https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/africa-gender-innovation-lab MOTIVATION: WHAT IS THE PROBLEM? partners to participate in the mindset module of the program As in other parts of Africa, female-owned firms in Ethiopia alongside the female entrepreneurs. The three sessions that have significantly lower revenue compared with male-owned partners are invited to join focus on exploring the value of the businesses (World Bank 2019). A lack of business skills is often wife’s business, mapping her business path, and identifying cited as an explanation for this gap (Haile 2015). However, new resources. These sessions were identified as areas in traditional classroom-based business training programs are which husbands can play a role in supporting their wives and time- and resource-intensive and have relatively small impacts unlocking opportunities for growth in their businesses.2 on improving business outcomes, such as firm survival rates and profits (McKenzie 2020). At-home course delivery. Classroom-based business trainings often have low attendance rates; the previous DOT Participation in classroom-based entrepreneurship training is training in Mekelle, for example, had a completion rate of just also unattractive for time-constrained women who balance over 50 percent. Requiring the participation of male partners business activities with additional demands from care and threatened to further reduce turnout. In anticipation of this household work. This is especially true for the owners of issue, a pair of DOT trainers conducted all three sessions larger, growth-oriented firms for whom the opportunity costs of the mindset module at the entrepreneur’s home or at an of attending the training are higher (Alibhai et al. 2019). For alternative location chosen by the trainee. The remaining these women, tailored coaching, mentoring, and business training modules, which were not attended by the male consulting interventions or flexible training schedules may be partners, were hosted at a local DOT training center. more promising approaches to skills transfer. In addition, new research shows that the ability of female FIGURE 1: UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES OF THE entrepreneurs to apply new skills partly depends on the support COUPLES-BASED TRAINING CURRICULUM of their husbands (Wolf and Frese 2018). In Ethiopia, Wolf and Frese (2018) categorize the husbands of female business Model positive behavior owners into profiles on the basis of the husbands’ level of Trainers are asked to model effective communication techniques and to supportive and constraining behaviors. Female entrepreneurs help couples practice these, rather than to simply provide instruction. in Ethiopia are more successful when they are married to men who engage with their business and they are less successful Focus on success when their efforts are ignored by their husbands. Emphasizing past achievements can help build the entrepreneur’s self-confidence, while talking about future success can inspire trust and a shared vision between the spouses. FINDING A SOLUTION To overcome the limitations of traditional business trainings, Co-creation of solutions the Gender Innovation Lab (GIL) partnered with the Digital Developing materials and responses to facilitator questions together Opportunity Trust (DOT) to develop and implement a training increases joint ownership of outcomes and reduces arguments about program for female entrepreneurs in Ethiopia. The resulting who is right or wrong. training built on DOT’s ScaleUp! program, which employs a modular curriculum tailored to the individual needs of The business owner is the decision maker experienced entrepreneurs who want to grow their firms. The Although the husband is encouraged to think through challenges and new training format introduced three new elements: solutions with the female entrepreneur, the training emphasizes that the female entrepreneur is the primary decision-maker on matters A focus on psychology. Mindset-oriented entrepreneurship relating to her business. trainings that try to build confidence, grit, and personal initiative have strong positive impacts on business outcomes and are especially beneficial for women (Campos et al. IMPLEMENTATION 2017). A previous collaboration by GIL and DOT in Ethiopia tested a mindset-oriented training in Mekelle and found that Following the design of the couples-based curriculum, GIL it generated a 30 percent increase in female entrepreneurs’ worked with DOT to integrate the module into DOT’s ScaleUp! profits (Alibhai, Buehren, and Papineni 2016). The new program and to implement a pilot of the new training. The pilot curriculum incorporates a similar mindset module that was run in four cities—Addis Ababa, Hawassa, Shashemene, introduces tools to cultivate self-confidence and future and Bahir Dar—as well as in surrounding satellite towns orientation (see figure 1), in addition to other modules tailored between October 2021 and December 2022, with a total of to the entrepreneur’s skill set and business needs. 987 female participants. Participation of husbands. Husbands are a key source of Invited participants were drawn from lists of female business financing for married female entrepreneurs, as well entrepreneurs who had already registered with either DOT or as an entry into more profitable, male-dominated sectors the Women Entrepreneurship Development Project (WEDP), a (Alibhai et al. 2017). Therefore, the new training invites male World Bank–funded operation that provides access to loans and business training. Eligibility criteria included having an jointly with their husbands). During the pilot, the wife was operational business and being married or living with a partner. responsible for securing her partner’s consent; in future For the randomized controlled trial, these women were randomly iterations of the training, it might be preferable for the training placed into one of three treatment arms: one-third were offered provider to reach out directly to the husbands or to offer a training that included their spouse; one-third were offered the testimonials from partners who graduated from the program. same training but without the inclusion of their spouse; and This is especially important to ensure that training is not just the remainder were assigned to a control group that was not provided to those couples where the husband is already offered any training. supportive of the wife’s business. The training was delivered by DOT trainers over the course of 2 In focus group discussions, women were six sessions: three sessions for the mindset module followed appreciative of the new program. by three additional sessions/topics chosen during a business health assessment that identified training needs.. Women After completing the program, female participants talked about enrolled in the couples’ program invited their husbands to taking new pride in the work they do and the value it provides to participate in the first three sessions, which were facilitated at their customers and their families. In addition, participants their home or place of work. Pairs of DOT trainers facilitated the reported that they saw attitudinal changes in their husbands program, with each pair containing at least one female trainer. and in their relationships, such as communicating more and The three mindset sessions each lasted for two hours, with the consciously spending time together. Similarly, DOT trainers first 30 minutes used for setting expectations and the remaining observed that male partners were often reluctant to engage in time dedicated to mindset-based exercises. The remaining the initial activities but became more active over time and three sessions, which focused on topics such as marketing and expressed a new outlook on their wives’ work and their bookkeeping, were held at the local DOT training center, and contribution to the household. However, these insights should women in the couples group attended the sessions alone. be considered anecdotal. The impact evaluation results will provide a more rigorous measure of the training on behaviors Implementation of the pilot was affected by the COVID-19 and business outcomes. pandemic and conflict in northern Ethiopia. National COVID mitigation rules introduced in 2020 prevented home visits 3 Make sure to adequately train the trainers. and led to a six-month delay of the project’s launch. Plans to conduct the training in Mekelle had to be called off due to conflict in the region, and trainers in Mekelle were relocated to Talking about positive attitude change, delivering a training in other cities. someone’s living room, and navigating tensions among spouses may be unfamiliar to and challenging for facilitators who are In addition, some participants were unreachable, refused to used to training in a classroom. DOT spent considerable effort participate, or dropped out after attending only a few training on ensuring that trainers were well prepared for the new tasks. sessions. Their reasons included time constraints, familiarity It hosted a one-week training of the trainers for the mindset with the training materials, and the unwillingness of the spouse sessions, which allowed facilitators to work through the different to participate in the training. An outreach campaign resulted in exercises with entrepreneurs and couples specifically recruited re-enrolling 199 trainees who had dropped out. The average for this purpose. DOT also hosted a refresher training after the take-up rate of the home-based training across all three cities in COVID-19 pandemic delayed the program rollout and gave the study was 63 percent. The city breakdown shows variation in facilitators the opportunity to debrief and exchange experiences take-up rates across the cities with the highest take-up rate (97 after the initial training rounds. percent) in Hawassa and the lowest (40 percent) in Addis Ababa. 4 Home-based trainings are worth considering. KEY TAKEAWAYS Facilitating the program at a variety of locations meant additional expenses for the provider. The trainers also incurred 1 Many women found it difficult to convince their transportation costs for the three home-based sessions and husband to agree to participate. offered a small gift when first visiting the home. In total, this amounted to an additional expense of US$51 per participant. The pilot team started screening participants from a pool of Attendance data suggest that meeting participants at home 10,000 female entrepreneurs. In addition to those who were not increased participation. Although participation in home- versus reachable or who refused to participate in the screening survey, classroom-based sessions cannot be compared directly many were screened out because they failed to meet the (completion of the mindset module was a requirement for taking selection criteria, which included being married, owning a the classroom sessions), there was a noticeable drop in business, and having an interest in participating in the program. participation (11 percent) between the two components. Just The final pool of recruited women for the training pilot was 987. as important, mindset-based exercises often involve personal Feedback from training implementers and a qualitative study experiences (especially when shared with a spouse), and conducted by GIL found that the need to enroll jointly with their participants reported that completing these sessions in familiar husbands further limited participation (all women had to enroll surroundings helped them engage in the program. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This work has been supported through generous contributions from Global Affairs Canada, in partnership with the Umbrella Facility for Gender Equality (UFGE). The UFGE is a multidonor trust fund administered by the World Bank to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment through experimentation and knowledge creation to help governments and the private sector focus policy and programs on scalable solutions with sustainable outcomes. The UFGE is supported with generous contributions from Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. For their contributions to and participation in this work we would also like to acknowledge Karen Anderson, Tsedey Asheber, Mengistu Bessir, Niklas Buehren, Sophia Friedson-Ridenour, Tricia Koroknay-Palicz, Marlon Rawlins, Yohannes Solomon, Nolawi Tadesse, and the Women Entrepreneurship Development Project. We are especially grateful to our partners at the Digital Opportunity Trust, including Abraham Embaye, Heather Gilbert, Kate Hayward, Elizabeth Mengesha, Nicole Mitri, Solomon Tadesse, and Tirsit Tefera as well as Ato Ashenafi, Ato Samuel, and the team of trainers in Addis Ababa, Bahir Dar, and Hawassa. 1. DOT is an international non-profit organization that is headquartered in Ottawa, Canada and was established in 2001. Through its peer-to-peer programs in Africa and the Middle East, DOT has enabled more than 1 million economically marginalized youth and women to access and apply information and communication technologies (ICT) to create educational, economic and entrepreneurial opportunities for themselves. 2. Frese and Wolf (2018) show that husbands that share resources and networks are associated with successful businesses. Moreover, husbands who have less stringent perceptions of gender roles contribute more to their wives’ entrepreneurial success. REFERENCES • Alibhai, Salman, Niklas Buehren, and Sreelakshmi Papineni. 2016. “From Learning to Earning: An Impact Evaluation of the Digital Opportunity Trust (DOT) Entrepreneurship Training (English).” Gender Innovation Lab Policy Brief 17, World Bank, Washington, DC. • Alibhai, Salman, Niklas Buehren, Sreelakshmi Papineni, and Rachel Pierotti. 2017. “Crossovers: Female Entrepreneurs Who Enter Male Sectors: Evidence from Ethiopia (English).” Policy Research Working Paper 8065, World Bank, Washington, DC. • Alibhai, Salman, Niklas Buehren, Michael Frese, Markus Goldstein, Sreelakshmi Papineni, and Kathrin Wolf. 2019. “Full Esteem Ahead? Mindset-Oriented Business Training in Ethiopia.” Policy Research Working Paper 8892, World Bank, Washington, DC. • Campos, Francisco, Michael Frese, Markus Goldstein, Leonardo Iacovone, Hillary Johnson, David McKenzie, and Mona Mensmann. 2017. “Teaching Personal Initiative Beats Traditional Training in Boosting Small Business in West Africa.” Science 357 (6357): 1287–90. • Friedson-Ridenour, Sophia, and Rachael S. Pierotti. 2019. “Competing Priorities: Women’s Microenterprises and Household Relationships.” World Development 121: 53–62. • Haile, Melat Tekletsadik. 2015. “Women’s Entrepreneurship Development In Ethiopia: A Case Study of Women in Self Employment (WISE).” SIT Graduate Institute. • McKenzie, David. 2020. “Small Business Training to Improve Management Practices in Developing Countries.” Policy Research Working Paper 9408, World Bank, Washington, DC. • Wolf, Kathrin, and Michael Frese. 2018. Why Husbands Matter: Review of Spousal Influence on Women Entrepreneurship in Sub-Saharan Africa.” Africa Journal of Management 4 (1): 1–32. • World Bank. 2019. “Ethiopia Gender Diagnostic Report.” World Bank, Washington, DC. FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT Adiam Hagos Hailemichael ahailemicheal@worldbank.org Sreelakshmi Papineni spapineni@worldbank.org Toni Weis tweis@worldbank.org 1818 H St NW Washington, DC 20433 USA www.worldbank.org/africa/gil Photo credit: All photos credited Tewodros Emiru / Impala Communication