Ecosystem to boost women entrepreneurs

Tripartite MoU signed for facilitating ecosystem development for women entrepreneurs in Nagaland

Our Correspondent
Kohima | September 10

A tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for facilitating ecosystem development for women entrepreneurs in Nagaland was signed today between Deutsche Gaeselischaft fiir Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Investment & Development Authority of Nagaland (IDAN) and Dhriiti-The Courage Within.

The proceeding of signing MoU was done virtually. The partnership is an initiative to create an enabling ecosystem for women entrepreneurs in Nagaland to thrive.

A copy of MoU which made available to media persons after a virtual programme between GIZ, Dhriiti and IDAN, stated that the MoU would be effective from the date of signing until July 31, 2022. The memorandum was signed by Dr Julie Reviere, Country Director GIZ, Alemtemshi Jamir CEO IDAN, Anirban Gupta, Co-Founder Dhriiti and Ullas Marar, Head of Project WEE, GIZ.

GIZ and Dhriiti are already collaborating through Project Her & Now to provide support to women entrepreneurs from the North East Region through a structured incubation and acceleration programme.  So far, the programme has supported over 200 women entrepreneurs in the region.

GIZ and Dhriiti have come together to partner with IDAN to expand the scope of women entrepreneurship promotion and establish a larger network constituting different stakeholders, agents and actors that can leverage the potential of Nagaland’s women entrepreneurs.

“One critical need that we have seen emerging during our implementation is for the different stakeholders of the entrepreneurship ecosystem to come together to address the unique needs of women entrepreneurs, and facilitate their access to a network that helps them grow. We are confident that our partnership with IDAN and Dhriiti will bring us one step closer to achieving this in Nagaland,” said Julia Karst, Head of Project Her & Now, GIZ.

“We sincerely feel that this partnership with Her & Now, GIZ and IDAN will enable the women entrepreneurs of Nagaland to build a special identity for themselves and their products. We also see that this initiative will build an active ecosystem for promoting and supporting women entrepreneurship in Nagaland,” said Anirban Gupta, Advisor and Co-founder, Dhriiti.

“The IDAN is happy to partner with GIZ and Dhriiti in a work that ventures into an area that is less travelled, being - ‘Women enterprise and entrepreneurship’. We look to carrying this forward even after the project period comes to an end and where the Government of Nagaland involvement will be required,” said Alemtemshi Jamir, CEO, IDAN.
To achieve the objective of the MoU in a time bound manner, GIZ, Dhriiti and IDAN agreed to play their respective roles.

GIZ will provide funding including communication campaign, consultants, and research studies that come under the purview of ecosystem development, facilitate access to multi-lateral networks and connections for ecosystem development in Nagaland, commission reports, studies and other documentation for ecosystem development work and lead communication campaign development for ecosystem development initiative.

The role of IDAN includes- facilitating partnerships with state government bodies as well as key stakeholders in entrepreneurship ecosystem from the state, co-hostimg all events, activities and initiatives with GIZ and Dhriiti for Nagaland’s entrepreneurship ecosystem development initiative,  and allocating additional resources as and when the need is identified for ecosystem development initiative.

Dhriiti will act as the state implementation lead for ecosystem development in Nagaland. It will design models, programmes, events and engagement activities for ecosystem development initiative, offers mentoring and capacity building support to incubators to offer women-centric incubation along with service providers in the state and facilitate connections, partnerships with key networks and actors, outside Nagaland and North East region for ecosystem development initiative.

Notably, GIZ is implementing the project ‘Economic Empowerment of Women Entrepreneurs and Start-ups by Women’ on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and in partnership with the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), Government of India. Under the name of Her & Now, the project aims to contribute to a more enabling environment for women-led enterprises in India.

Dhriiti is working for promotion of entrepreneurship across the country with its core work around shaping women-led businesses, with unwavering commitment to invest in the North East Region.

IDAN is an investment promotion and facilitation agency to explore, promote and facilitate all possible investment opportunities in the state.

Objectives of MoU

•    To jointly undertake initiatives to strengthen entrepreneurship ecosystem for women entrepreneurship in Nagaland along with key stakeholders that would impact policy, capacity building and accessibility for women entrepreneurs in the state.
•    To establish a charter of a women entrepreneurship network in Nagaland drafted with input from key stakeholders from the state entrepreneurship ecosystem
•    To co-host events and conduct outreach, activities and discussions with multiple stakeholders.
•    To support each other by extending respective expertise in terms of network, infrastructure, knowledge and resources for strengthening the Nagaland women entrepreneurs ecosystem.
•    To work together to co-create new programs and initiatives for policy and capacity building intervention, as well as facilitate accessibility to finance, markets and networks that support women entrepreneurship growth in Nagaland.