The Women’s Pillar has as its objective

• To enhance the capacity of aspiring women entrepreneurs to become capable entrepreneurs.
• To assist startups owned and operated by women entrepreneurs
• To increase the social capital and business networks of the aspiring female entrepreneurs in the program
• To facilitate an online business network with people from other regions
• To investigate the project’s influence on future program design and policy recommendations.

MFT Women Pillar has had an ongoing collaboration with EDNA Myanmar on a number of projects. Initiating this collaboration, MFT Women Pillar assisted in curriculum development and participated as a partner organisation in the socioeconomic development project for women, a joint initiative between EDNA Myanmar and Sydney University, from 2014 to 2017. The activities included entrepreneurship training for women to start micro, small, and medium enterprises. MFT’s Programme Director, Daw Kyi Kyi Nyein, collaborated with the university to develop the curriculum and train trainers

Furthermore, from 2019 to 2022, we worked with EDNA Myanmar and Matchers, as well as partner groups in Indawgyi, Hopin, Myitkyina, Ngwesaung, and the Ayarwaddi region, to execute entrepreneurship education and enterprise development support activities. From 2021 to the present, the women’s pillar has trained mostly female facilitators in the aforementioned regions to deliver the Basic Business Knowledge Course.

Based on our understanding of Myanmar’s micro and SMEs in 2020, EDNA and MFT created a platform to give online one-stop support to programme participants. Online One-Stop Support seeks to provide MSME operators in Myanmar and those participating in our projects with the information they require.

As the SME’s in rural Myanmar lack qualified HR departments, we decided to create job preparation skills courses to train women and youth. MFT, in conjunction with EDNA Myanmar, has produced the following employability courses: These courses are: (1) a CV and interview course; (2) an office skills course; (3) a customer service course; (4) a sales and marketing course; and (5) an accounting and storekeeping course. Since 2021, various facilitators have been trained to deliver these courses in their own communities.