Welcome to WISE official website. WISE is a secular, indigenous, non-governmental organization (NGO), located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We are dedicated to elimination of the facts of urban poverty and the realization of sustainable livelihoods among poor urban women. In wise, the major focus areas are economic, social and political empowerment of women and the attainment of gender equality.

The services of WISE in saving and credit initiatives have proven to be successful and a significant majority of the target women have become productive and self-reliant. The main reasons for choosing the savings and credit cooperatives (SACCOs) approach for the micro-finance services is that the approach provides for women's leadership development and it gives them ownership of the institutions. Members are able to easily access sizeable loans for their businesses and they are directly involved in making decisions on pertinent issues such as the rate of interest on loans and savings, size of loans, repayment periods, etc. Surveys on women who have taken advantage of WISE services indicate that some of the target women have been able to transform their businesses from micro to small-scale, and that they have been able to create job opportunities for many people.

In short, the overall aim of the programme of bringing about holistic development in women and girls and contributing to the reduction of poverty has been satisfactorily attained with vivid results, witnessed by various studies and evaluations done on the performance of WISE. Thus, the extension of the programme with continual improvement and advancement through strategic partnerships with like-minded organizations is imperative to further contribute to the eradication of absolute poverty and attain economic empowerment of women and girls in the country.