AWEP

African Women’s Entrepreneurship Program

MISSION STATEMENT

The United States Secretary of State, Mrs. Hillary Rodham Clinton launched the African Women’s Entrepreneurship Programme In the spring of 2010 at President Obama’s Entrepreneurship Summit in Washington. AWEP was conceived to empower women entrepreneurs in Africa to take advantage of favorable terms of trade under the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act. Under the AWEP program, selected women business leaders from across Africa were enrolled in the International Visitor Leadership Programme.

AWEP is an outreach, education, and engagement initiative that targets African women entrepreneurs to promote business growth, increase trade both regionally and to U.S. markets through the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), create better business environments, and empower African women entrepreneurs to become voices of change in their communities.

Through the African Women’s Entrepreneurship Program (AWEP), the U.S. Department of State seeks to dismantle the obstacles to business opportunities and economic participation that African women face. Launched in July 2010, the initiative identifies and builds networks of women entrepreneurs across sub-Saharan Africa poised to transform their societies by owning, running, and operating small and medium businesses, and by becoming voices for social advocacy in their communities.