Deadline: December 17, 2019.

The African Women Entrepreneurship Cooperative (AWEC) is a 12-month, high-touch leadership and management capacity building program. AWEC empowers women from across Africa and the diaspora with the knowledge and network needed to build resilient and scalable businesses. We use applied and collaborative learning models, enabling immediate business impact and cultivating a pan-African cooperative of entrepreneurs, experts, and allies. Our mission and impact are aligned with the UN’s SDGs focused on gender equality, economic empowerment, and high-quality learning opportunities. AWEC is a program created through the Center for Global Enterprise (CGE), a nonprofit and nonpartisan research institute focused on developing insights that help current and future business leaders build resilient enterprises.

AWEC was created to meet an expressed need for more equal access to sustained, high-quality leadership and business management learning opportunities, mentorship, and a pan-African peer network.  AWEC is unique in its inclusiveness, innovative learning approach, and content.

• Technology-enabled Blended Learning: Innovative technology and program design allows us to serve women in real-time from across the continent and diaspora, both online and offline
• Quality and Rigor: Fast-paced, 12-month program dives deeply on business, leadership, and management skills taught by global thought-leaders
• Applied Learning: Learning topics are immediately applicable, not theoretical
• Diverse Industries and Countries: Exposes cohort to an array of experiences and viewpoints
• Women-only Cooperative: Supportive give-and-take learning and networking environment

ELIGIBILITY

Women who meet the following criteria are encouraged to apply:

• Current or aspiring entrepreneurs working in any industry and in any country
• Citizens of any African country, currently living on the continent or in the diaspora
• Founders of for-profit or non-profit/NGO ventures
• Comfortable with remote teamwork and collaboration, especially using digital tools
• Proficient in verbal and written English
• Regular (at least weekly) access to the Internet through a computer or tablet

BENEFITS

Upon successful completion of the 12-month program, participants will:

• Form connections with a diverse network of African women entrepreneurs
• Establish relationship with at least one senior business mentor
• Strengthen strategy, leadership and business management skills
• Apply their AWEC learning to their business with an eye toward sustainable growth
• Gain skills needed to grow and scale their enterprise
• Develop a toolkit of soft skills, including self-confidence, resilience, collaboration, and cross-cultural communications

OFFICIAL LINK: https://www.thecge.net/awec/apply/