Dissemination of kudumbashree model-based entrepreneurship among rural women groups in Africa and Asia

Kudumbashree model from the state of Kerala in India has been highly successful as a model for entrepreneurship development among rural women through neighborhood groups. The Kudumbashree model is proven and most successful in enticing rural women towards entrepreneurship to address the problems affecting agriculture and, at the same time, empowering women economically. The model has the potential to make replication in developing countries. With the objective of introducing the Kudumbashree model in selected countries of Asia and Africa, the officers representing Government, civil societies, and private firms from Africa and Asia were identified and invited for training. Selected officers were trained at Kudumbashree, Kerala under the Feed The Future India Triangular Training (FTF ITT) to get exposed to the working of Kudumbashree modeland to identify the rural entrepreneurship opportunities for their home countries. The theory of change is that the trained officers from respective countries will disseminate the knowledge gained in India and implement the same in their workplace. Since India shares several similarities with the countries in Africa and Asia, Indian innovations and technologies can find a place in other similarly placed developing countries. This research showed that lack of micro-enterprises, unstable market price, and unorganized market structure were the challenges selected by trainees to try and implement Indian innovations and strategies learned through training.