Our Journey towards Africa’s Agenda 2063 on Women Empowerment and Development.

Women Business Hub is working together with Pendeza Weaving Project to promote Craft and entrepreneurship to address challenges encountered by women and youth, (especially those living in slums and rural areas) such as poverty, low literacy levels and unemployment. Local initiatives and innovations driven by women and youth to empower them can become the real game changer in a society where unemployment is sky rocketing.

Art and craft-making as a leisure-based activity yields numerous benefits for participants, including improved wellbeing, an enhanced sense of self and self-efficacy and economical gains. Community based arts and crafts projects in rural areas empower women and youth in four ways. These projects serve as a means for economic empowerment, enhancing a sense of community, establishing networks of support and are also therapeutic for women suffering challenges of mental health.

The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 5 seeks to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. It recognizes the critical role women play in society and the challenges they come across which include but are not limited to violence and unfair labour practices, and therefore advocates for the advancement of women in various arenas such as politics and the economy, and the ending of violence against women (United Nations, 2015).

African Union through its African Women’s Decade initiatives aims to accelerate the status of women in various fields such as education, agriculture and governance (African Union, 2013). The year 2015 was declared the year of Women Empowerment and Development toward Africa’s Agenda 2063 by the African Union and Women Business Hub is striving to make this dream becomes a reality among indigent women and youth in Western Kenya region.