ASSESSMENT OF WOMEN ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT AND THEIR CHALLENGES IN THE CASE OF ARADA SUB-CITY, ADDIS ABABA

Abstract

The main purpose of the study was to assess women economic empowerment and its challenges in Arada sub city. The study was applied both primary and secondary data. A self-administered structured questionnaire and open ended interview was used as instrument of data collection. All women in the sub city who were participated in Young Women Championing for Economic Right and Justice to Attain Sustainable Likelihood project were considered as the population of study and 143 sample respondents were selected using simple random sampling technique and 5 employees for interviews used purposive sampling technique. Descriptive analysis was deployed to assess women economic empowerment in the sub city. The result revealed that the current level of women economic empowerment is high in terms of access to employee, economic decision making and generation of income. On the other hand control over asset and productivity and skills were a moderate level of support for women economic empowerment. Beneficiary selection, provision of training, poor business skills, unnecessary expense and lack of vision was some of the challenge for women economic empowerment. Therefore, the Arada sub city would focus on providing more support in these areas, such as providing training and resources on asset management and productivity improvement. The sub city also works to create partnerships with other organizations and businesses to provide more opportunities for women- owned businesses to access markets and increase their profitabilit