The support for these inspiring women will continue. The next step for these up-and-coming women micro-entrepreneurs will be to receive grants to support them in launching or strengthening entrepreneurial activities, which will allow them to hire and give economic opportunities to other members of society.
“The World Bank through the TRANSFORME Project has given us the opportunity to participate at this training, and I ask you to continue to consider this type of project so that more people can benefit. Many women with hearing loss were unable to participate in this training, but they would like to take part in the future,” said a woman with hearing impairments who benefited from the training, speaking in sign language.
TRANSFORME Project team members, World Bank staff, and hearing-impaired women who benefited from the training. Photo: TRANSFORME Project Implementation Unit
Holistic Strategy
The TRANSFORME Project provides holistic support to entrepreneurs and enterprises across multiple target cities in the DRC through training sessions and economic grants to women micro-entrepreneurs, new enterprises, and established SMEs, with the aim of supporting these private businesses to increase their revenues, strengthen their climate resilience, and create decent jobs for others. It is also working for these groups to have improved access to finance by facilitating credit and by launching new financial services, while also strengthening the overall business ecosystem through innovative SME Hubs, structural reforms, and overall capacity building. The overall objective is to support individual entrepreneurs and enterprises, while also creating an enabling business environment that will support them and others to continue growing sustainably over the long term.
The TRANSFORME Project is based on the previous successful iteration of the PADMPME Project, closed in June 2024, which proved that this holistic approach works in the DRC. PADMPME assisted thousands of entrepreneurs and enterprises and the business ecosystem across four cities, establishing 6,012 new firms and creating 14,926 new full-time jobs, significantly higher than its targets. TRANSFORME is scaling up this effective approach and implementing the lessons learned from the previous project, including a stronger focus on access to finance and climate risks.
By Zouhour Karray, Senior Private Sector Specialist, World Bank and Jan Van Zoelen Cortes, Consultant, World Bank.