SUPPORT MICRO SMALL & MEDIUM ENTERPRISES IN UGANDA

A new group of 65 women have joined cooperative group. Most of these women have chosen to breed rabbits as their enterprise.  Cooperatives in Uganda help members to save and invest. These cooperatives are commonly known as SACOS. The smallest one is found at the village level while the bigger ones cover regions. Every member of the cooperative is encouraged to choose one or two enterprises after taking them through enterprise selection.cooperative societies play a significant role in the development of women's groups in low-income countries, offering economic, social, and political empowerment. They provide a platform for women to generate income, access resources, and build supportive networks, contributing to their overall well-being and community development

In Uganda, as elsewhere, inequalities persist between women and men in terms of access to and control over social, political and economic resources and opportunities for participation. In employment, women are found more often than men in informal and precarious work, with particularly pronounced imbalances in some sectors. With regard to agriculture, women are estimated to produce up to 80% of the food in Africa. Yet, when it comes to agricultural inputs and services, the share going to women is meagre: they receive only 7% of agricultural extension services, less than 10% of the credit offered to small-scale farmers, and own only 1% of the land. In this context, women are often found concentrated in subsistence agriculture and unpaid farm work, and excluded from more lucrative agricultural opportunities such as cash crop production. Rabbit breeding is taking root and it is popular because it does not need big pieces of land and they can entirely be reared on vegetation where women do not have to spend any money on buying feeds

Kigezi Healthcare Foundation has supported 15 groups to visit other peer groups to learn from different experiences in the last six months. The visits focused on the group Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Group exchange visits in Uganda are crucial for learning as they facilitate a direct, hands-on exchange of knowledge and practices between different communities, organizations, or regions, allowing individuals to learn from each other's successes and challenges, fostering innovation, and promoting collaborative problem-solving, particularly in areas like community development, agriculture, healthcare, and education, where diverse approaches can be observed and adapted to local contexts.

Exchange visits, which are also called study tours, seek to improve the knowledge and practices of the visitors and their organizations, and to integrate the experience gained from the visit into their daily lives

During these visits plans are discussed with the hosts . Activities are mixed to fit interests and learning styles. Enough time is allowed for informal discussions, reflection and rest as well as enough time between the different stops/facilities.  time is allowed for visiting teams to brainstorm on how they’d like to incorporate lessons learned into their programs. In a number of these exchanges, this was in the form of a “workplan” of several items/to-do’s that the visiting team prioritized to work on after the exchange. It’s also important to create a learning environment for the host as well. Time is given to   the visiting team to share something working well in their program.

Follow-up survey 1-3 months after the visit to see how the visiting team incorporated any of the learnings into their work asking the following questions:  How have you incorporated learnings from the visit into your work?, What is the change as a result?,  Why is this important?, What did you like best about the learning exchange visit?, What did you like least? and What suggestions do you have to make future visits better