Gender Deep Dive: Building Women's Businesses in South African Township Economies

The Gender Deep Dive: Building Women's Businesses in South African Township Economies: A View On Intersectional Approaches to Entrepreneurial Support takes a closer look specifically at the support provided to women entrepreneurs in township economies. It is based on desktop research, data from the Ecosystem Snapshot, and in-depth interviews with entrepreneurial support organisations. We asked them about their reasons for focusing on women entrepreneurs, their approaches used in doing so, and which approaches have worked particularly well. The report describes how township-based women entrepreneurs face a double set of intersecting and mutually reinforcing challenges - those inherent in being township-based entrepreneurs; those inherent in being women entrepreneurs; and those specific to the experience of township-based women entrepreneurs. The report provides a loose framework of ESO approaches used in supporting women entrepreneurs, categorised according to which set of challenges they take into account. It concludes with key recommendations for the ecosystem, directed at ESOs, donors, and researchers respectively.

This report accompanies the ANDE South Africa Township Ecosystem Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Snapshot, which can be accessed on ANDE's interactive digital platform: https://ecosystems.andeglobal.org.