Welcome

Welcome to WISE official website. Organization for Women in Self Employment (WISE) is an Ethiopian Resident Charity registered with the Ministry of Justice since August 1997 and has been operating since January 1998.WISE is a non-governmental organization (NGO) located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We are dedicated to elimination 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 due to the benefits it provides for women's leadership development and increase ownership of their own institutions. Members are able to easily access sizable 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 create job opportunities for many people in their communities.

In a nutshell, the overall aim of the programme is to bring about holistic development in women and girls. We also strive to contribute to the reduction of poverty, which has been 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 poverty and attain economic empowerment of women and girls in Ethiopia.