Programs provide business mentors to women globally

“Educate a woman, you educate a whole nation.”

Josephine Uwineza pauses, smiles, then repeats the line for emphasis. The Rwandan businesswoman, who runs a Chinese restaurant and a company that sells chili peppers, admits that when it comes to entrepreneurship, such a task is not easy. Until recently in Rwanda, she says, “a woman was not supposed to go out and work.”

{mosads}Freshta Hazeq describes even more extreme obstacles to starting and operating her business, Afghanistan’s first female-run advertising and printing agency.

“They were saying it’s not going to last, it’s going to fail,” she admits. At one point, some of her male employees were even bribed to sabotage her operations.

Through it all, however, one goal kept her going. “ I wanted to go ahead and show I can bring change, that everything is possible.”

That idea — that growing their presence in business and other professions can change what’s possible for women — is at the very core of the nonprofit Institute for Economic Empowerment of Women’s Peace Through Business program, which took Uwineza, Hazeq and 23 others around the United States this summer for training, leadership development and mentoring by American counterparts in the same trade. And it underlies a host of other exchange programs for professional women, both public and private, that are transforming lives, economies and foreign policy.

“If you’re trying to solve a problem, whether it is fighting corruption or strengthening the rule of law or sparking economic growth, you are more likely to succeed if you widen the circle to include a broader range of expertise, experience and ideas,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told attendees of the Women in Public Service Colloquium last winter.

Exchanges are seen as an important means of widening that circle, and have received growing funding support under the last two administrations. Total spending on Educational and Cultural Exchanges went from about $300 million to more than $500 million under George W. Bush, and Barack Obama has requested $587 million for them in the coming fiscal year.

With the increase in available resources has come a proliferation of programs specifically targeting women. Particularly attention-grabbing is the Fortune/U.S. State Department Global Women’s Mentoring Partnership, which pairs emerging female leaders from overseas with members of Fortune magazine’s Most Powerful Women list for a monthlong internship. Another initiative with a business focus is the African Women’s Entrepreneurship Program (AWEP), which brings women to the United States to network, learn best practices and meet counterparts in the agribusiness, textile and home decor industries.  

There are also a number of exchange programs for women in other fields. TechWomen takes technology professionals from the Middle East to Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C., for mentorships and workshopping. The Women in Public Service Project is holding its inaugural institute for promising civic and political leaders at Wellesley this summer. In the fall, approximately 20 women in sports management, communication and medicine will be the first to travel to the United States for professional development as part of an initiative co-sponsored by ESPN.

The immediate benefits of these exchanges for participants are obvious, but what may prove to be most transformative comes from the women themselves: a desire to pass on their expertise.

Sylvia Banda, an AWEP participant and now chapter head for Zambia, rattles off a list of accomplishments since she returned home from her exchange two years ago.

“The idea was for us to mobilize other African women to carry that flag,” she explains, which led her and other participants to register AWEP as a legal entity that encourages the growth of female-run enterprises. After adding chapters in seven countries, they are now working on creating a business incubator to train women in how to make their products export-ready, as well as acquiring a warehouse in the United States to store those products.

Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Goli Ameri believes Americans, too, profit from these programs.

In her experience, those who come here usually leave with a more positive view of the United States and its people, as well as a better understanding of their values. “It’s almost impossible to get to know Americans and not to love them,” she says.

That’s why exchange programs enjoy what she characterizes as “tremendous bipartisan support.”

She’s hopeful that support will translate into a continuing expansion of opportunities for women. “They work, they make a difference … It’s a cost-effective program.”

Hazeq, whose exchange was funded by private donations, admits that she will continue to face challenges, from culture to corruption, upon returning to Afghanistan. And she says more support for programs like hers is needed. But she’s planning to do her part, too, by using what she learned in America to train at least 10 women back home.

“When we go back, we will be there as a change agent,” she says. “I have to pay it forward.”