Globe & Mail Article: Accelerating Women’s Empowerment

Driving economic empowerment, building confidence, for women globally

Written by Andrea Josic

As featured in the Globe & Mail on March 8, 2025

At Maasai Cultural Heritage, dozens of women meticulously weave small, vibrant beads into cultural jewellery, each colour and piece with a significant meaning to Kenya’s Maasai tribes. Teresa Mpetti, director and one of the organization’s founders, supports the women by offering a place for them to sell their products afterwards and take money home to their families.

Mpetti started Maasai Cultural Heritage in 2017 with 25 other women, all of whom were single or widowed. Like most of the women in the area, Mpetti married at a young age and was unable to finish school, later lacking the level of education to get a job and support her children. Maasai Cultural Heritage provides women with similar backgrounds opportunities to earn a living working at various businesses, including a fashion centre and a tourism homestay.

“If you sit down with a woman, train her, give her knowledge, you change her life. She will go on and train other women in the area,” says Mpetti. “You change one woman, you change a lot of people.”

According to the 2022 World Bank Gender Data Portal, women are less likely to work for income or actively seek work because of systemic and socioeconomic disparities. The global labour force participation rate for women is around 50 per cent, compared to just over 80 per cent for men.

Mpetti recognizes how empowering it is for women to have economic autonomy for a higher quality of life. She has been able to grow the organization and reach her goals with the support of Catalyste+, a Canadian economic development organization that offers mentorship and advisory services globally – and through the Accelerating Women’s Empowerment (AWE) program at Catalyste+.

AWE is funded by Global Affairs Canada and aims to address obstacles to escaping cycles of poverty faced by many women. Currently running in 21 countries, Catalyste+’s work helps improve the economic and social well-being of the most marginalized people, particularly women and girls. Since 2020, Catalyste+ has completed close to 700 assignments to support 300 partners through its AWE program.

The Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MoWA) is a national organization in Cambodia that works to achieve gender equality, empowerment of women and awareness of women’s rights. Chinneth Cheng, director of Gender Equality at MoWA, says the department hosts daily one-hour voluntary learning sessions about gender policies where employees, men and women alike, can learn from each other.

“Women are born to succeed and lead. A lot of women are rich in knowledge, but they lack confidence,” says Cheng. “Confidence is important to empower women. We need to take action; action cures fear.”

The one-hour training sessions were implemented based on a suggestion offered by Ginette Johnstone, the Catalyste+ Advisor who volunteered with MoWA. According to the World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law 2022 report, around 2.4 billion women of work- ing age do not have equal economic opportunity.

However, through organizations like MoWA, which has done nearly 20 assignments with Catalyste+ in areas like gender policy formulation, digital market- ing, and financial management, this gap can decrease over time.

Rocío Rojas founded Turistech in 2017 to develop and strengthen innovation projects led primarily by women in rural parts of Peru, with partnerships in academic institutions, public and private management, and civil society. Turistech recently developed the Redintur social innovation project, a network of women in tourism that brings together women leaders from different regions of Peru.

Rojas hopes to continue expand- ing partnerships across all regions of Peru, particularly supporting women farmers. She believes that building relationships with other communities will encourage leadership and growth among women.

“Sometimes, women in rural communities don’t have many opportunities to share their own ideas,” Rojas says. “When they see other women, especially in rural areas, speaking and exchanging ideas, they get inspired. I want to be that inspiration for other women.”

Women globally face systemic challenges with starting and operating businesses, such as accessing resources and lacking the confidence to advance ideas. Although they come from and work in different regions across the world, Mpetti, Cheng, and Rojas are all aligned on what brings women together: building confidence and sharing knowledge, all through the power of community.

Learn more about the AWE Program here