U.

S Embassy Proposal Draft:

“Commercial Capacity-building for
Women Entrepreneurs: Economic
Empowerment through English
Language and Entrepreneurial Training”.
1. Description of Project (50):

This project will provide online Business-focused English language training, alongside
entrepreneurial workshops, to women entrepreneurs through the ‘Kurak’ Women’s Entrepreneur
forum, aiming to engender economic empowerment through capacity building by focusing on e-
commerce training, expanding business potential and providing the skills required to participate and
trade competitively in international markets.

2. Problem Statement (250):

This project will address three prominent and interrelated issues in Kyrgyzstan: economic resilience
in the face of COVID-19 and the move to e-commerce; gender equality in the economic sphere; and
building entrepreneurial capacity.

Markets are increasingly moving online, and the pandemic has significantly sped-up this process. E-
commerce has become an essential requirement, as businesses close and entrepreneurs struggle, as
a result of this transition. Training in e-commerce is thus essential to the creation of economic
resilience and continued productivity. This requires re-training and English language skills, as the
lingua-franca of the internet/global markets.

Woman have been adversely affected by COVID-19 and in business in general. In April/May 2020,
10% lost their jobs, 59% lost all of their income and 62% couldn’t cover basic household expenses. 1
Women in Kyrgyzstan suffer a significant pay-gap, 2 low economic participation at 48.2% (75.7% for

1
n/a, ‘COVID 19 Impacts on Livelihood of Women and Men in The Kyrgyz Republic – Gender Rapid Assessment as of 15 th
May 2020’, SIAR Research Consultancy and STAACT, (2020).
2
Author n/a, Kyrgyz Republic: Country Gender Assessment – December 2019 , (Manila: Asian Development Bank, 2019): ix

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men) and3 work in lower paid sectors4. These issues are compounded by the sharp urban/rural divide
in Kyrgyzstan, where wealth and opportunity in concentrated in the urban areas.

An approach to entrepreneurial capacity building focused on e-commerce, female entrepreneurs

and including considerations of the in-built urban/rural divide which exacerbates this issue is thus
essential to economic empowerment and thus prosperity.

3. Target Area (250):

Although the primary area of operations for this project will be Bishkek, (as the centre of business in
the North of Kyrgyzstan), operating through the Kurak Women’s Forum, this project will make use of
the extensive spread of Kurak members to ensure the meaningful inclusion of diverse participants
from both sides of the urban/rural divide. The project will thus give special attention to those areas
of commerce which are reflected in this divide, where production and operations are often rural
whilst profit and management remains urban: for example, the handicraft and tourism markets.

This project will work with women entrepreneurs from Bishkek and Osh, as the primary urban target
areas, and across all regions of Kyrgyzstan in relation to the selection of rurally based participants.

4. Beneficiaries (250):

The beneficiaries of this project will be the members and associated entrepreneurs from the Kurak
Women’s Forum, a locus for female businesses and a notable organisation in pursuing economic
empowerment as a means of achieving gender equality. They will be women raging from their 20’s
to 60’s and from both urban and rural backgrounds, with the explicit aim of fostering dialogue
between regional groups, creating the space for networking, support groups and further business
opportunities.

There will be 40 participants altogether, who will form the core beneficiary group. These will be
selected on three grounds: firstly, if they have a starting English level of A1 (middle beginner);
secondly, on the basis of an even split between those coming from rural and urban areas. The two
urban areas in which participants will be sought will be the cities of Osh and Bishkek. Rural
participants will be sought across all regions of Kyrgyzstan, ensuring the maximum benefit for the
country. Through providing the means of economic empowerment to female entrepreneurs and
3
Ibid: x
4
Ibid: xi.

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business leaders, beneficiaries will not only be the participants themselves but their employees,
communities and society in a more general sense. The success of women entrepreneurs, across the
urban/rural divide, paves the way for promoting gender equality, improving the productivity of the
economic sphere through increased labour-force participation and co-operation.

5. Project Goal (250):

The aims of this project are threefold: to provide online business-orientated English language
training; to deliver online Russian language entrepreneurial workshops on the technical and required
skills for successful enterprise and e-commerce; and thus to engender economic empowerment for
women entrepreneurs in Kyrgyzstan. This is combined with a push to include participants across the
urban/rural divide, bringing them together in order to facilitate co-operation, knowledge exchange
and the development of further support networks. The project goal can thus be summarised as ‘to
provide the necessary skills and training required for advancing business skills and facilitating
successful participation in the rising world of e-commerce for women entrepreneurs in both urban
and rural Kyrgyzstan’. This will primarily be achieved through the provision of intensive, foundational
English language training; business specific English language workshops and lessons; and Russian
language entrepreneurial and e-commerce workshops and seminars.

The intensive English language lessons will ensure that the general language level of participants is at
the same, foundational level. The business specific language training will provide participants with
the technical vocabulary, speaking, reading and writing skills necessary to use English competently in
the world of business. The entrepreneurial workshops and seminars in Russian will bolster this by
providing further technical knowledge and skill to enable participants to effectively use their new-
found language skills as part of a new, successful and productive approach to enterprise and e-
commerce, focusing on marketing, management skills and financial competence.

6. Activities (250):

1: Preparation stage: participant selection and placement testing, (to determine the initial ability of
participants). This will help to ensure they meet the minimum requirement of participation and in
assessing the success of the project as a whole. Duration: two weeks.

2: General English Language Stage: to ensure that all participants have foundational English
language skills in order to ensure the effectiveness of the following stages. Duration: two months.

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3: Business English Language Stage: This consists of advanced English language lessons, specifically
geared towards providing the necessary linguistic skill, vocabulary, role-play and training necessary
to conduct business, read educational material for entrepreneurs and participate in global e-
commerce in the English language, as the lingua franca of the internet and global commerce.
Duration: three months.

 The preceding activities will be undergirded by the additional activity of completing tasks,
training and e-learning through DynEd software, during the participants own time, (see
‘Additional Information’ for further information on DynEd).
 Language training will be reinforced throughout by entrepreneurial workshops in Russian.
The reason for Russian language here is to ensure maximum comprehension of difficult and
technical topics. Duration: throughout the five months between preparation/concluding
stages).

6: Concluding Stage: A placement test will be conducted to measure the progress of participants on
a CEFR/IELTS scale. In addition, an email questionnaire will be sent out to participants to further
measure the success of the project and in order to receive detailed feedback to feed into any future
projects which expand upon this project’s work.

7. Expected Results (250):

By the end of the project, participants should have a conversational/foundational level of English
language, beginning from listening and speaking competency and progressing to reading and writing
capability. Secondly, this project will build upon this result through expanding language skills with
business-specific language training. The expected results of this addition are the further
improvement of language skills and the development of competency in the technical language of
business and entrepreneurship required for e-commerce and expanding participants’ business
capacity and entrepreneurial horizons. Lastly, this project aims to build-upon this capacity and
potential through workshops and seminars in the Russian language in order to ensure that the
language skills can be effectively put to use in the participants enterprises. These expected results
are undergirded by the central aim/intended result of this project: increasing the capacity of women
entrepreneurs and enabling them to contribute on a more equal footing to their male counterparts
and expand their businesses globally through e-commerce. It aims to empower women through the
provision of language training and entrepreneurial workshops, essential to the success of their
business and to the expansion of their potential in a world in which English language skills are a
necessity. Such training will facilitate inclusive economic growth: it is the precursor to successful

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participation in e-commerce, expanding businesses beyond their current language limitations, which
restrict them to operating within Kyrgyz/Russian speaking contexts. This will form the basis of the
central expected result of this project: economic empowerment.

8. Cost Share/Co-funding (250):

The costs of this project will be partially shared by the Kurak Women’s Forum and the participants of
the project itself. This will take the form of a one-time payment made during the project to help to
cover the costs of the workshops and seminars. This will… (COMPLETE AFTER BUDGET).