Female Entrepreneurs Programme
Project Overview
This programme strengthens female-led businesses developing solutions to urgent climate and sustainability challenges across the Middle East and North Africa, including in conflict-affected and fragile contexts. The entrepreneurs operate in sectors critical to the green transition, often under severe constraints related to access to capital, markets, infrastructure, and leadership support.
Despite these conditions, the entrepreneurs are driving innovation and delivering impact in their local communities and beyond. The programme was designed to amplify this impact by combining practical business support with leadership development, enabling participants to grow resilient companies capable of scaling their solutions.
The programme was designed and delivered by Sustainability Collaborative on behalf of a government agency with a mandate to support trade, development, and international cooperation, while building long-term trust and relationships between Sweden and partner regions.
The Challenge
Female entrepreneurs in the MENA region face structural barriers that limit their ability to grow and scale impact-driven businesses. These include limited access to finance and markets, underrepresentation in decision-making spaces, fragile political contexts, and a lack of tailored leadership and peer support. As a result, high-potential climate solutions often struggle to reach scale.
The client sought to strengthen female entrepreneurship as a lever for sustainable development by:
- Building entrepreneurial and leadership capacity in complex and high-risk contexts
- Enabling viable, scalable businesses with measurable sustainability impact
- Creating trusted networks that support collaboration, investment, and long-term growth
- Delivering a high-quality, replicable programme aligned with a government development mandate
Our Approach
A six-month, impact-focused entrepreneurship and leadership programme was designed around participants’ real business challenges and sustainability goals. The approach integrated business fundamentals, impact strategy, and leadership development, ensuring that learning translated directly into action.
The programme combined online workshops and mentoring with an intensive in-person module in Sweden, creating space for deep learning, international exposure, and relationship-building across cultures and markets.
Core elements included:
- Hands-on, action-oriented learning linked to business and impact goals
- Strengthening leadership, resilience, and decision-making in volatile contexts
- Scaling climate and sustainability impact through partnerships and matchmaking
- Peer learning among female founders facing similar systemic challenges
Delivery
The programme brought together a carefully selected group of high-potential female entrepreneurs developing scalable climate solutions, and supported them through practical, high-impact learning experiences. Designed to strengthen business capability, leadership confidence, and long-term resilience, the programme combined strategic insight with hands-on tools participants could immediately apply in their ventures — even in challenging operating environments. Key components included:
- Selection of high-potential female entrepreneurs working on scalable climate solutions with strong potential for growth and impact
- Thematic workshops designed to build capability across critical areas, including:
- Business models and growth strategies
- Impact planning, measurement, and communication
- Self-leadership, organisational culture, and community leadership
- Investment readiness and strategic partnerships
- Using AI to enhance operational efficiency and decision-making
- Adaptive programme delivery during periods of conflict, prioritising psychological safety, maintaining continuity, and ensuring ongoing relevance to participants’ realities
Outcome
The programme generated strong business, leadership, and network-level outcomes, strengthening both individual enterprises and the broader entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Key results included:
- Over 95% of participants built strong, trusted professional support networks
- 73% established new strategic partnerships
- Over 90% reported significant improvements in leadership capacity, team development, and the ability to build sustainable organisational cultures
- 97% were likely or very likely to recommend the programme
- Over 90% rated the facilitators’ expertise and overall programme quality as “to a very large extent”
Beyond quantitative results, the programme enabled women entrepreneurs to increase confidence, resilience, and influence, positioning them as change-makers and role models within their sectors and communities.
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