Business Incubator Focused On Women Is Going Global
As the first gender-focused business incubator in Cambodia, SHE Powered by IDE now supports more than 2600 female entrepreneurs globally.
Support Her Enterprise (SHE), a women-focused business incubator, founded in Cambodia, is going global.
After joining US-based nonprofit International Development Enterprises (iDE) in early 2024, Cambodia-based SHE has launched pilot programs in Zambia, Ghana, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Nepal, and Bangladesh. These include iDE’s “Investment Readiness Pilots” supporting entrepreneurs in Ethiopia, Ghana, Mozambique, and Zambia, and facilitated by 28 newly trained SHE facilitators across Africa.
SHE program director, Keisha Gani says the success and growth of SHE comes year on year as more organisations like iDE prioritize, and recognize the power of investing in women as drivers of change.
“Studies show that women reinvest earnings into their households, often prioritizing education, nutrition and health care,” says Gani. “Yet the economic and social impact of supporting women entrepreneurs is significant.“
Since being launched in 2015, SHE women-focused business incubator founded in Cambodia has created more than 1,000 jobs.
In that same time period, 2,622 entrepreneurs have graduated from SHE’s programs globally, with the average graduate increasing their earning to upwards of US $2,306.57 in the first six months of operation.
Since being launched in 2015, SHE women-focused business incubator founded in Cambodia has created more than 1,000 jobs.
Gani says in Asia and Africa, women dominate the informal economy, running small farms, household enterprises and market stalls that support whole families and communities. Yet cultural norms, gender-based violence, limited access to finance and low literacy rates hold women back, and prevent them from starting businesses and developing the skills they need to do so.
“Our role has always been to facilitate: to be a sounding board for entrepreneurs as they envision their goals for the future, and to provide as much support as we can as they push towards it. " says Gani.
Currently the SHE program operates across 15 provinces in Cambodia, from major cities like Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, to sparsely populated remote regions like Ratanakiri and Mondulkiri on the border of Laos.
Starting with an incubator for eight women entrepreneurs and a ‘Training of Trainers’ for the field staff in Siem Reap, SHE partnered with iDE initially by offering entrepreneurs engaged in the iDE sanitation scale-up program to grow their businesses and increase their confidence in decision-making.
“Similar to iDE’s model, SHE strengthens women-led businesses in Cambodia by combining training, finance, digital tools, mentoring, and gender-focused business practices, " says Kevin Robbins, iDE Cambodia country director, “This in turn helps thousands of entrepreneurs grow resilient, formal businesses that contribute to economic transformation.”
Currently the SHE program operates across 15 provinces in Cambodia, from major cities like Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, to sparsely populated remote regions like Ratanakiri and Mondulkiri on the border of Laos.
The integration of SHE’s team within iDE Cambodia also allowed the SHE’s work to be adapted for other regions with assistance from iDE’s Innovation Lab. With funding from a Paul Polack foundation Spark Grant, iDE-led human-centered design research was conducted in Zambia and Nepal with women-ledbusinesses to ensure the training addressed local needs.
In Zambia, the incubator model was incorporated into “Her Time to Grow,” a project focused on financial literacy and confidence-building for female farm business advisors and smallholder farmers participating in village savings and loan associations.
In Nepal, SHE’s team is leading a feminist-centered participatory action research study to explore the financial inclusion challenges women face when scaling their businesses in rural settings like childcare centers and family farming.
