We're delighted to announce that we've been selected as one of the seven winners of the UNHCR Iraq Innovation Award for 2022.
The award celebrates the efforts and achievements of NGOs who have each developed innovative approaches for protecting and delivering services to refugees, IDPs and other persons of concern to UNHCR Iraq.
Our award has been granted in recognition of our highly successful Women's Business Incubator project, which provides business training, mentorship and grants so that women can start small businesses of their own choosing. The project is designed to enable vulnerable women to earn a sustainable income so they can support themselves and their families, and move out of a life of poverty.
UNHCR Iraq said this award was focused on women-led NGOs with “strong organisational values, principles and commitments to gender equality and accountability to women and girls, as well as those that promote women in positions of leadership.”
Since its launch in 2019, our Women’s Business Incubator (WBI) has led to many women-run start-ups – including snack shops, food markets, beauty salons and a barbershop, plus businesses selling stationery, women’s clothing, tailoring and cosmetics.
While many of the women already have the skills and abilities needed to start a business, most lack the capital and support to launch them – which is where the WBI steps in. As well as receiving mentoring and a financial platform, the women attend awareness sessions on gender-based violence and legal rights, as well as our educational and wellbeing programs that further boost their confidence, skills, and social networks.
Vian Ahmed, our Regional Director, says: “The financial independence brought by the WBI is very important for women because it empowers them both within their families and their communities, and it also helps reduce the amount of gender-based violence they face.”
Crucially, any profits the women earn through their businesses is paid directly to them, so they have full control to support their families and re-invest in their own enterprises.
The UNHCR Innovation award is the second major recognition our WBI has received in recent months, and last autumn it also won the iValues award for Economy and Jobs.
Read more about the UNHCR Iraq Innovation Award and why we were chosen here, and if you can, please do support us so that we can help more women start viable businesses…