UN Women and Procter & Gamble launch the 3rd Edition of their programme for supporting Women Entrepreneurs in Egypt

Cairo, 10 February 2022 – UN Women and Procter & Gamble today mark the official launch of the 3rd edition of their joint programme “Stimulating Equal Opportunities for Women Entrepreneurs” in Egypt.

This programme is a result of a strong partnership that started in 2017 in support of women’s empowerment in Egypt and greater diversity and inclusion. Through this partnership, UN Women and Procter &Gamble aim to equip women entrepreneurs in rural and urban areas with the skills and support they need to access P&G’s opportunities as potential suppliers and distributors.

This partnership is part of a broader Global initiative carried out simultaneously in Egypt, Pakistan, South Africa, and Nigeria. In Egypt, and in support of the National Strategy for the Empowerment of Women, the work focuses on creating a pool of women-owned businesses that can be integrated into the supply chain and distribution channels of P&G as well as other companies, to ensure greater diversity and equity. The work targets trainings of women on business development, marketing, sales techniques (including in-person sales), financial management and on the provision of soft skills for women- especially in rural Upper Egypt.

Among the main results achieved by the programme over the two consecutive phases have been diversifying the supply chain of 57 women-owned businesses (WOBs) in various fields to establish a supplier base network for P&G. Ten of these WOBs are now registered as official vendors at P&G supplier database. The programme has also supported 300 women villagers in Beni-Suef and Minya governorates through enhancing their entrepreneurship and marketing skills, helping the women to reach over 713,000 potential buyers in 341 villages. The programme has supported women in the retail industry where 11 WOBs have secure contractual agreement to collectively provide seed capital to each other amounting to 375,760 EGP. Capitalizing on the support provided to women entrepreneurs, the programme aims then to link many of the beneficiaries to the National Council for Women’s Business Development Centre for further support.

“For UN Women, the partnership with P&G over the years has helped us in supporting women both rural and urban, who have incredible entrepreneurial drives and capacities. This next phase of partnerships will help us in supporting more women in Beni Suef and Minya Governorates, leveraging greater opportunities while building on the good work supported to date.. Increasing the supplier/distributor diversity has proven to be a win-win approach, as it ensures greater access to quality products and services for the companies such as P&G, and increased income opportunities for the women-owned businesses engaged in the programme”, stated Christine Arab, UN Women Country Representative.

During the event, Hossam Nassef, Senior Commercial Director at P&G Egypt, confirmed the strong partnership and announced great ambitions for the 3rd edition: “In P&G, we strongly believe in Equality and inclusion, and we build strong partnerships to enable and support Women. We are proud of the results achieved by our program with UN Women Egypt and glad to confirm the 3rd edition. We are looking to help another 30 Women to integrate P&G’s value chain in a business integrated way and make a real change in their lives”.

The global P&G/UN Women programme, implemented in Egypt, is funded through the generous support of Procter & Gamble and runs from December 2017–June 2022. This project is part of UN Women’s wider Women’s Economic Empowerment portfolio in Egypt, which is implemented in partnership with the Government of Egypt and national regulatory authorities, and in collaboration with private sector and civil society.

For more information, please contact: 

- Zainab Alji, Communications Director, P&G North Africa at Alji.z@pg.com 

- Maha Rateb; Communication and Advocacy Analyst, UN Women Egypt at maha.rateb@unwomen.org