Supporting ethnic minority women in digital transformation of startup groups

Deputy team leader Vu Thi Quynh Anh

What are the barriers that the group often faces in the process of economic development and business startups?

There are three main barriers that make it difficult for ethnic minority women to start a business. The first is communication. According to GREAT research, 78 per cent of H’mong women cannot read or write Vietnamese. Other ethnic minorities such as Ha Nhi have limited reading comprehension ability, especially for women over 30 years old.

The second barrier comes from the ability to access knowledge. Due to illiteracy and limited internet connection, ethnic minority women face many difficulties in accessing and adopting new knowledge about production and business skills, market information, and new technologies. When we opened an online course on leadership skills, many people had to travel up to 5km to connect to the internet. These barriers make women afraid to change their livelihood activities and start a business.

What initiatives has GREAT implemented to support female businesses to expand market?

Realising the negative impacts and pressures of the ongoing pandemic on female enterprises, GREAT has recently implemented two business acceleration programs in Son La and Lao Cai, targeting female enterprises with growth potential, including individual business households and cooperatives.

The first initiative focuses on the goal of building e-commerce business capacity for female enterprises and promoting the development of digital business support services in transportation, warehousing, and payment stages. Agricultural enterprises with outstanding products after participating in the training course will earn skills in selling products and posting articles on e-commerce platforms such as Sendo, and Lazada and connecting with shipping and payment service providers.

Meanwhile, the Digital Accelerator Programme was launched in 2021 to provide training courses and promote digital transformation for 20 female enterprises in adapting during the pandemic. It features online lessons to equip them with knowledge in digital business strategies, online marketing, and personal and corporate financial management. Every day, the trainer will guide each enterprise to help them overcome their shyness and self-reliance to change to a new working mindset.

As a result, GREAT has helped 46 female-run enterprises to improve their business results, one-third of which have increased revenue 3-5 times. The programme also includes leadership training sessions so that female entrepreneurs know how to assign work, mobilise family support, and develop business plan.

What has GREAT learned in the journey to inspire tribal women to confidently start a business?

When approaching ethnic minority women, we find that they are eager to learn. We are always patient and ready to listen to understand their stories, arouse the desire to change and make money, and consider them as our partners, so we always try to offer the right support.

GREAT and its partners are very interested in inspiring and helping women become more confident. We organise tours of successful business models so that they can see and hear stories from other women who are in similar or more difficult situations.

We also equip them with photography skills by phone, presentation skills, and storytelling about their changing journey in business. These stories are always shared at community events.

Does GREAT plan to cooperate with large corporations to support ethnic minority women in business?

We always encourage and seek to partner with big businesses in the tourism, agriculture, and training industries in this country. They can share knowledge about products, markets, business networks and technologies to support women-owned businesses, households and cooperatives. Nearly 30 of GREAT’s more than 60 partners are directly involved with us in developing supply chains in a number of industries, helping ethnic minority women apply standards and also improving their business results in order to participate in higher value chains, even exports.

Currently, in the field of tourism, we also want to be able to connect with large corporations that are established around the country, such as Muong Thanh Group.

For example, in Lao Cai province, we have cooperated with Lao Cai Vocational College to train up tourism skills and connect them with partners, helping tourism and travel agencies access well-skilled staff according to high Australian standards. GREAT will accompany businesses in the form of joint investment or sharing working methods to bring the best results, develop together and bring benefits to the community.