Developing Resilience and Enterprising Opportunities for Internally Displaced Women in Ethiopia and Zambia

Volatility due to persistent poverty, political instability, social tensions and natural disasters severely affects rural areas and contributes to rural-urban migration and internal displacement in Africa. Women suffer disproportionately in such contexts and are also extremely vulnerable to the economic effects of the Coronavirus pandemic. How can entrepreneurship by women provide the agency to alleviate these multiple problems in such contexts? This interdisciplinary research project seeks to bring novel insights from the hitherto under-explored contexts of Ethiopia and Zambia on how the internally displaced and rural-urban migrated women experience urban living, enterprising opportunities, and the development of urban resilience. The project aims to contribute to a holistic understanding of women’s entrepreneurship that helps to address the challenges of inequality faced by women (SDG 5), enhance their economic contributions (SDG 8), reduce poverty (SDG 1), support the disadvantaged (SDG 10) and develop sustainable communities (SDG11) in the contexts of Ethiopia and Zambia.

Dr Kassa Woldesenbet Beta, De Montfort University; Dr Aynalem Megersa Gemechu, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia; Dr Tendeukayi Mugadza, IIE MSA, South Africa; Dr Natasha Katuta Mwila, De Montfort University