500 women trained through the Women Entrepreneurship Development Program

The Women Entrepreneurship Development Program (WEDP) is run with the Women Development Department, Government of Balochistan. SIA delivers province-wide training, incubation and seed grants for growth-oriented women-led enterprises. Its first phase trained 500 women from across the province, 100 enterprises have been incubated, and PKR 20 million has been awarded in seed grants.

Why a programme for women

Many women in Balochistan already make and sell things: clothes, embroidery, food, crafts and services for their neighbours. What they often lack is the rest of a business around that skill, such as pricing, record-keeping, finding buyers beyond the street, and the confidence to ask for a fair price.

Women who want to earn also face barriers that have little to do with business. Travel can be hard, care work takes time, and phones, bank accounts and markets are not always within easy reach. SIA designs its programmes first for women, youth and the communities others can’t reach, and training for women has to take those barriers into account from the start.

From training to a next step

WEDP is now the foundation of the Pathway’s Women-led enterprise track, alongside rural microenterprise training, so that women who complete it have a clear next step into Incubate.

A woman whose business has started earning, or is ready to, can apply to Incubate in the Women-led enterprise track. The 100-day sprint comes with a seed grant of PKR 100,000 to 500,000. If she is still at the idea stage, Ideate is the better place to begin, and the team will route her there. Nobody is turned away for applying to the wrong stage.

Applications can be made in Urdu or English, online or on WhatsApp, or with a voice note in Urdu, Balochi or Pashto. Travel and childcare arrangements depend on the hub and the cohort, so applicants can tell the team what they need when they apply, or ask on WhatsApp.

What is measured

“500 women trained” is a published total for Phase 1. For programmes like WEDP, Under its new MEL framework, SIA will track learning results, such as skill gain and behaviour change six months after training, and enterprise results, such as whether businesses survive, grow their revenue and support jobs. Follow-up results will appear on the Live Impact Dashboard once they have an agreed definition and source, like every SIA figure. How we measure explains the four levels.

Stories in their own words

This part of the site is called Stories of change because it should carry participants’ own words. SIA publishes a name, a quote or a photo only with written consent. If you took part in WEDP and would like to share what changed for you, get in touch through the contact page or on WhatsApp, and the team will explain how your story would be used before anything is published.

Taking part in a future phase

Future phases are decided with the Women Development Department, Government of Balochistan. To hear about the next intake, register interest in Incubate or follow SIA on Instagram and LinkedIn.