Digital and Entrepreneurial Skills for Women in Rural Areas

Project duration: 1 September 2018 – 31 August 2019

Most women in rural areas do not possess the necessary knowledge to help them improve their socio-economic life. Through the project “Digital and Entrepreneurial Skills for Women in Rural Areas“, they will have the chance to move through economic and social empowerment and opportunity to develop their digital and entrepreneurial skills.

The rapid advancement of digital technologies is changing all aspects of our lives, at the same time opening up the huge development potential for women, bringing new social, political and economic opportunities. Digital literacy is becoming almost as important as traditional literacy. Unfortunately, women are heavily underrepresented in the digital world, particularly women in rural areas.

Therefore, it is of utmost importance to foster girls’ and women’s acquisition of digital skills to enable their participation in today’s digital society on an equal basis, as digital technologies can significantly improve women’s capabilities to join the labor market and carry out actions of entrepreneurship.

The project “Digital and Entrepreneurial Skills for Women and Rural Areas” (DESWRA) was launched within the framework of support activities for priority actions for achieving gender equality in Serbia. The DESWRA project was selected for implementation by the United Nations Women’s Equality Agency – UN Women, following the call: Economic Empowerment of Rural Women CFP No. 2018-03 GEF.

The goal of the project is to develop new digital knowledge, skills and competences for women in rural areas in order to increase their entrepreneurial, employability and employment opportunities, at the same time extending the benefits of ongoing digital transformation process to support the one of the most unprivileged groups – the women in rural areas in Serbia.

Within this project, 120 women from the municipalities of Ivanjica, Knić, Kuršumlija, Ljubovija, Paraćin and Majdanpek will be trained to develop computer literacy and digital entrepreneurship skills, with the aim of empowering them to become involved in business flows through employment and self-employment. Within the project, the Conference “Empowering women from rural areas for digital entrepreneurship” will be held and Conference conclusions and recommendations will be delivered to local governments, women’s organizations, political and economic stakeholders, as well as to the media, with the purpose of informing the general public.

This project is supported by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) under the project “Support to Priority Actions for Gender Equality in Serbia”, funded by the European Union.