WE Act connects Young Women Entrepreneurs to the Knowledge, Connections, Tools, and Resources to Grow Their Business Online
August 14, 2023
With support from USAID, Pact’s WE Act project has been working with Facebook to train 11 Cambodian Digital Marketing Trainers to deliver training to 1,700 young women entrepreneurs by early 2023.
In August 2020, four trainers received Training of Trainer and graduate. These four trainers already trained and empowered more than four hundred women entrepreneurs across Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Battambang province to grow their businesses by taking advantage of Cambodia’s growing digital economy.
Through this hands-on training, Young Women Entrepreneurs learn how to apply the basic principles of online marketing, how to create their own Facebook page for business, how to make and keep the content attractive including using creative content creation tools, and how to manage that page, as well as using Facebook Insight to monitor the page performance and understand where the audience is located and what they are most interested in.
Nil Borey, 23, a young woman entrepreneur who received the training in Siem Reap province expressed that, “Before the training, I posted pictures and captions without thinking about the content or meaning of it. Now I make my post’s caption short but meaningful as I apply what I learn from the training into practice and my business. I observed that the knowledge from the training helps me a lot. My post engagement and reach increased more than before. Some customers also inbox and ask me about my products after seeing those posts”.
These skills enable YWEs to include online sales as part of their sales strategy. Especially during Covid-19, when many sales outlets were closed, going online represents a huge untapped market-access potential, giving them the opportunity to maintain, or grow their income and revenue.
“Young Women Entrepreneurs have limited knowledge about online and digital tools. That is why they can’t reach mass customers. They can only sell their product offline and get normal revenue as family-owned business. If we get to learn more about digital marketing, we can sell the products widely.” said Heang Reaksmey, 35, a trainee in Battambang province.
Women tend to share economic prosperity with their families and communities in ways that drive development in areas beyond livelihood. These are the women who turn their passion into business and who have a profound impact on their families, their communities, their economy, and the world.
In January 2021, there will be seven more trainers ready to deliver trainings. The partnership between Facebook and WE Act is unique and showcases how development and private sector entities can work together towards common objectives to reach better results. WE Act is on the lookout for more private sector partnerships to extend positive impact and benefit our Cambodian young women entrepreneurs and youth.
“Bringing the private sector (Facebook) and development partners (Pact) together in their common objective of improving women entrepreneurs’ businesses and civic engagement, is a powerful approach combining the best of both worlds to the benefit of Cambodian Women Entrepreneurs, said Veena Reddy, Mission Director USAID.
Find out more about WE Act on Facebook
