Estonia Lends an Entrepreneurial Hand to Improve the Livelihoods of Internal Refugees in Ukraine and Georgia

The Estonian Refugee Council has been supporting small businesses in Eastern Ukraine since 2016, in order to offer opportunities for self-sufficiency to IDPs and residents of settlements close to the frontline. During this time, hundreds of companies have taken off with the support of the Estonian Refugee Council. Starting in 2021, ESTDEV has been financing council projects encouraging internally displaced women from Eastern Ukraine and Georgia to pursue entrepreneurial enterprises. These projects seek to ensure sustainable, independent living for these women and thus improve the quality of life for their households.

Participants’ Income Increased by 18%

Three years ago, the Estonian Refugee Council, Garage48, and Unity for the Future (an NGO) launched an entrepreneurship program in the Zaporizhzhia region aimed at women in Eastern Ukraine. The project supported 83 women from the Donetsk, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia regions. As part of the follow-up project, called Empowering Women, women from these regions were invited to take part in an intensive two-week entrepreneurship program. The workshop focused on the development of business ideas, product and service design, risk assessment, and marketing strategies.

588 people applied for the program, with 188 business ideas; 64 were selected to participate. These business plans came from many fields, though most originated in agriculture – growing and selling flowers, growing herbs and mushrooms, beekeeping, or keeping chickens. The two-week entrepreneurship program was led by female professionals and entrepreneurs who shared tips and experiences with the participants.

Twin sisters Alla and Lidija Snitchova, who participated in the program, explained that they had no prospects in their former positions as teachers, because the salary was low and the hope of a pay raise was many years in the future. With the help of Empowering Women, the sisters realized their business idea of starting a cleaning company. Only half a year later, they have added three employees to their company, also former teachers. They see that hard work brings results, and that by working hard it is possible to advance.

After the program, a panel selected 24 female teams based on agreed-upon evaluation criteria. These enterprising teams were given a start-up grant and were offered versatile mentoring for six months to develop a sustainable business that would ensure a better livelihood for their families.

All 24 women’s teams that began with the project are still active at the end, and 23 of these businesses turned a profit in the sixth month. Each of these created businesses have been assessed as sustainable and the participants have improved their income by an average of 18%, or €75 per month.

The Women’s Entrepreneurship Program in IDP Settlements

In 2021, the Estonian Refugee Council started a one-year project in cooperation with For Better Future, an organization operating in the Tserovan IDP settlement in Georgia. The goal of the project was to support the independent sustainable livelihood of female IDPs in five IDP settlements across Georgia. The project was based on Georgia’s request for help in the context of COVID-19, contributing to the priority areas identified by the Georgian government, and was financed by ESTDEV.

Georgia has had two major armed conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia in the last 30 years: one in 1991-1992 and another in 2008. According to Taavet Tomberg, project manager of Estonian Refugee Council, these conflicts have been accompanied by internal refugee crises, and although a large number of people fled as a result are beginning to return to their homes, about 251,000 people are currently IDPs, with little chance of returning home.

For Better Future project manager Ekaterine Zaridze said that it is quite difficult for women, especially IDPs, to enter the labor market in Georgia. “Men have many more opportunities. Men can work in factories, which requires strong physical fitness, while women are usually housewives and stay at home with the children. They often do not even know how to write a CV and lack simple theoretical knowledge about entering the labor market. Women cannot leave home and children to look for work farther away, for example in Tbilisi, where there are many more opportunities,” explained Zaridze.

Participants’ Income Increased by a Third

Five-day entrepreneurship workshops were an integral part of the project. These workshops garnered 93 participants and as a result, 43 companies were created, all of which are still in operation six months later. The women selected during this competition and their business ideas were diverse; for example, producing cheese and other dairy products, creating ceramics and upcycling clothes, preparing dried fruits, and even establishing dog hotels.

All participants received mentorship for six months, which provided support in handling business issues and creating of online platforms, developing corporate social media accounts, and managing logistics for the delivery of products and services.

After the project, household incomes increased by an average of 31%. Income from informal sources decreased, indicating that earnings from businesses are sufficient enough to eliminate the need to work for envelope wages.

The women who participated in the project expressed that the lessons learned from such an experience helped change their way of thinking, teaching them to see new business opportunities and increase their income.

Ukraine and Georgia are priority target countries for development cooperation for Estonia. The projects organized by the Estonian Refugee Council to support women’s entrepreneurship have been successful and have helped many women acquire the necessary skills to ensure independent and sustainable livelihoods. The need to support internally displaced persons is still growing, and ESTDEV continues to finance continuation projects of Estonian Refugee Council in Ukraine and Georgia.