EDNA Myanmar in collaboration with the Myanmar Redcross and the generous support of the Danish Redcross, successfully implemented the “Pro-poor entrepreneurial business through education & business development initiatives for the DRC Participants in Kachin”.
Over the duration of the five and half month’s program, 12 classes were opened in three townships in Myitkyina, Bhamo and Mohnyin. Nearly 280 people from the IDP camps enrolled in the program with 277 of these learners/entrepreneurs receiving Mentoring and Enterprise Development Support. 150 enterprises were successfully in operation as a result of the program. Our weekly M&E data reveal 71% of the businesses reported an increase in their weekly business revenue and 69% of the enterprise reported an increase in their customer base. We are happy to observe nearly all of the entrepreneurs are now recording their inputs and keeping their household and business expenses separate. There were significant improvements in the areas of market segmenting, targeting customers, marketing and business strategy, tracking and reporting finances. The program observed an encouraging level of practical and soft skills improvement.
We are proud of the achievement of the entrepreneurs in our program. We are happy to observe our program helped improve the social capital, business network and access to opportunities for the aspiring entrepreneurs in our program. We are confident with the outcome of this pilot program, as it illustrates that with the right mix of entrepreneurial education and enterprise development support, we can accelerate the self-employment opportunities of groups otherwise deprived of it.
We remain grateful to the Ministries, the Regional administrations, the NGOs, the business community, the MRCS and DRC field team and the EDNA Myanmar team for the commitment and support in the delivery of this program.
