Working for Women Worldwide - Embassy of the United States

percent of the agricultural labor force. They are
responsible for more than 55 percent of food production
around the globe, although they own less than 2
percent of all land. Their productivity in agriculture is
often hindered by a lack of access to formal and informal
education, and difficulty in getting credit and
increasing their capacity to produce.
Despite these challenges, success stories from
USAID assistance in agriculture abound. In Ethiopia,
USAID recently reported that women were almost
60 percent of all the farmers reached by USAID’s
agriculture research and
extension services. Of the
1,600 households adopting
better technologies,
including fuel-efficient
stoves, improved crop varieties,
bee-keeping, and
soil and water conservation,
over 70 percent were
headed by women, as were
the nearly 80 percent of
the 3,600 households that
began new businesses.
More than 10 savings and
credit cooperatives were
providing financial services
to more than 2,000 households, the majority headed
by women.
Supporting Women Entrepreneurs
Worldwide
Another U.S. effort to promote women’s economic
opportunities is the Bush administration’s
Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI). Its funding,
for example, enables women from the Middle East
and North Africa to participate in entrepreneurial
training in the United States. Another program provides
three-month internships at leading companies in
the United States so that young women from the
region can acquire management and business skills. A
microcredit program for Palestinian women has provided
34,000 loans—worth more than $13 million—to
help build sustainable businesses.
In Africa, the United States has supported
women’s business development under the U.S. African
Growth and Opportunity Act and the Growth
Through Engendering Enterprise program. The
United States provides grants and technical assistance
and sponsors workshops on international trade opportunities,
the Internet, and financial management.
U.S.-funded programs for women also exist in
East Asia and the Pacific. Women can receive training
in organizational and management techniques in
Cambodia and East Timor; economic self-sufficiency
in Tibetan areas of China; and increased access to
credit in the Philippines and Indonesia. In addition,
the United States works with the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum to ensure
women’s interests are taken into account in its
policies and projects.
In Europe, U.S. support
for public-private
partnerships helps provide
job training for Roma
women in Bulgaria,
microcredit for women
farmers in Azerbaijan,
and networking opportunities
for women in
Russia’s Far East. The
United States recently
helped to launch a
Women Business Leaders
Summit in the region,
bringing women business
owners from Belarus, Estonia, Finland, Latvia,
Lithuania, Russia, and Ukraine together with their
American counterparts to share their experiences.
Programs that the United States has developed for
the newly freed and politically empowered women in
Afghanistan and Iraq are also worth mentioning.
They include:
* A $5-million microenterprise initiative and
other microcredit projects to help women start
their own businesses and become self-sufficient;
* $3.2 million for the Afghan Conservation Corps,
which employs several hundred women to help
rehabilitate the environment;
* $750,000 for business and entrepreneurship
training;
* $530,000 for the Arzu Carpet Initiative;
* $130,000 for handcraft training; and
* Fellowships to train women as managers and
technicians in agribusiness.
In Iraq, the United States is providing $10 million
in grants for the Iraqi Women’s Democracy
Initiative, a wide-ranging project that includes training
in entrepreneurship and business management. At
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