SEATTLE, WA — Located in Southeast Asia, on the right side of the Gulf of Thailand, Cambodia is a country of approximately 16.77 million people. In Cambodia, SMEs have played an important role in providing employment, skills training, sustainability and overall economic development. Cambodian women entrepreneurs run 61% of the country’s businesses, but 95% of them are small, typically with fewer than four employees.
Supporting Cambodian women entrepreneurs
Support Her Enterprise Co., Ltd — SHE Investments — started in 2013 as an independent social enterprise. The organization began with a mission to empower women entrepreneurs in Cambodia. Its motto is: [an]Opportunity; not charity. ” As of January 2024, the company is supported by International Development Enterprises (iDE) as a support program.
iDE Cambodia is a non-profit organization that creates business models for local entrepreneurs in the hope of alleviating poverty in the country. One area where they are making progress is in gender equality. For example, the nonprofit is researching how to better include women in the business world. It uses the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) to measure women’s improvements in leadership, income, production, resource and time use.
Resources and support for entrepreneurial growth
Under the management of iDE Cambodia, SHE Investments supports the nonprofit’s goals by continuing to deliver the most successful products, services and initiatives. Many of the company’s products are resources for Cambodian female entrepreneurs who don’t have systems or information to support their businesses, such as the KOTRA Riel Bookkeeping App, Learning Management System, and Digital Resource Center. Additionally, the company sells educational handbooks on entrepreneurship and investment in English, Khmer, and Burmese to increase accessibility. Its Financial Pathways Toolkit webpage, funded by USAID, also features other local business resources, including an app and Facebook community for Cambodian women entrepreneurs.
Impact and future outlook
In addition to online resources, SHE Investments hosts workshops and incubator programs for women in business from across Cambodia.ITS workshops touch on topics such as finance and digital literacy. In addition, The company’s six-month incubator program is accepting applications from women-led small businesses across the country who want to help their companies grow through business education. For example, Ms. Chany, a nun who recently joined the program, noticed that the production of her banana business increased by her 800% after completing her experience with SHE Investments. The organization also holds networking events where Cambodian women entrepreneurs can come together and give each other advice and support.
SHE Investments is already making a big difference for Cambodian women entrepreneurs and their small and medium-sized businesses, with around 6,000 people currently using the KOTRA Riel bookkeeping app. The company has worked with more than 350 of her people in its incubator program and more than 100 of her people in its accelerator program. Reflecting the truth of that motto, we found that the program increased graduates’ total monthly income by $728,334 and $2,006 per participant. Graduates of the program have created more than 850 jobs across the country.
I’m looking forward to
– Estelle Lee
Estelle Lee is based in Seattle, Washington, USA and focuses on business and new markets for the Borgen project.
Photo: Unsplash
