With three focuses—economic, environmental, and social—sustainability aims to improve current conditions while leaving room for those in the future to do the same.  With sustainability, companies see the big picture and how corporations and communities can positively impact each other.

As we celebrate 10 years, AWiB’s 2020 theme is “Sustainability.”  AWiB’s partners have committed to the sustainability of a necessary movement, supporting a leadership organization unleashing potential of women leaders in Ethiopia.  Our partners sincerely connect with our vision:  a catalyst for Ethiopian female leaders to connect, emerge and grow together.  Positive, community action resonates.

We thank our partners who have come on board!  Five have been with us for more than three years, CBE since 2013.  We introduce our newest partners:  Peniel Industry PLC and UNWOMEN.  UNWOMEN has been supportive of AWiB on different projects as a sponsor.

AMBA Pharmaceuticals PLC

AMBA was established in 1994 by Ambanesh Kebede, CEO.  It imports and distributes pharmaceutical medicines and products, medical supplies and devices, dermatological products and food supplements.  It represents multinational companies from Europe, the Middle East and the U.S.

With over 500 clients throughout Ethiopia, AMBA Pharmaceuticals is known to provide quality products with excellent customer service through its well-organized sales structure.  AMBA’s mission is to provide healthcare products that are proven of their quality, safety and efficacy at affordable prices.  AMBA Pharmaceuticals serves pharmacies, hospitals, drug shops, vendor NGOs and wholesalers—providing doorstep delivery.

Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE)

CBE is the oldest bank in the country’s financial sector.  In its 70 years journey the bank has been the major finance provider for various investment and development endeavors of the public as well as the private sector.  CBE is well known for pioneering the introduction of new banking services and technologies developed to make banking services more convenient to customers.

CBE’s vision is to become a world-class bank by 2025.  Promoting saving, strengthening its liquidity, increasing its credit disbursement to remain as the leading finance provider in the country, expanding banking service throughout the country and bringing the service closer to customers and introducing technology are listed in its priority agenda.

The major accomplishment of the Bank is observed through extensive research to avail bank products that suit various segments of the society, especially those in remote areas.  Commercial Bank of Ethiopia—The Bank You Always Rely On!

Impala Communication

Impala is a media agency providing world-class service in communication strategy, message and content development for all media platforms available today.  The company has the unique advantage of being a one-stop solution for clients’ communication needs.  Impala’s work includes managing budgets and creative deliverables to lead all phases of nationwide and international campaigns.

The vision at Impala Communication is to change the narrative of Africa that is seen by the rest of the world as a failed continent…. As a communication company, Impala strongly believes it has a duty to change the narrative of Africa, especially Ethiopia, bringing out the best that the country can offer to the rest of the world:  diverse culture, rich history and its endeavors to take its people out of poverty.

Peniel Industry PLC

Led by CEO Birtukan Abebe Fetensesa, Peniel Industry PLC is a crown cork manufacturing company, which was created in 2014 as part of ALBA Business Plc’s diversification and business development strategy.  (ALBA, an aluminum manufacturing company established and led by Birtukan, operated for more than 17 years and reached a capital of 30 Million Birr.)

Peniel has a capacity of one billion crown caps per year using state-of-the-art equipment.  The vision is to make the company the leading crown cork manufacturer in the country by implementing quality and food safety management systems that enable Peniel to be competent in price, quality and quantity.  With values of consistency and quality, the factory has the latest international standard system for operation management.  Peniel currently has a net worth of more than 175 Million Birr and operates with a well-organized, professional management team.  Out of 67 employees, 17 are women.  The company provides training and coaching based on employees’ specific needs—from finance to counseling.

Peniel as a company is community-service oriented.  It empowers economically or spiritually those who are in need and their families.

As Peniel partners with AWiB, Birtukan sees AWiB as a platform for women who are seeking each other’s support and is doing a tremendous job.   She believes AWiB has a great growth potential by reaching out and engaging more diverse community members.  Therefore, she sees the viability of partnering with AWiB as a way of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and encourages businesses to do so.

Birtukan asserts women—especially businesswomen—need to come with the intention of togetherness.  “When we are together, we can achieve.  We can share stories, experiences, information and new ideas to the starting entrepreneurs, especially the youth.”

Yetem Trading PLC

Yetem is a family-owned cosmetics house that supplies and distributes different brands of cosmetics for over 18 years.  Yetem, driven by a good will and sense of high quality, always delivers the best of cosmetics that enhance the livelihoods of its esteemed customers.  By understanding the needs of its extensive customers from all over Ethiopia, Yetem has created an assortment of collections that has gained it a reputation to be the leading name in the cosmetics sector.

By building a sustainable supply and distribution chain, Yetem is now able to reach all over Ethiopia by distributing to major cities like Hawassa, Dire Dawa, Bahir Dar, Mekelle, Gonder and other cities.  Yetem is now the leading cosmetic house in Ethiopia with more than 10 reputed brands like Lolane, Algabo, Perfect, Ec1, Karis, Afrochick and more.  CEO Ekram Akill leads the company.

UN WOMEN

UN Women is the global champion for gender equality, working to develop and uphold standards and create an environment in which every woman and girl can exercise her human rights and live up to her full potential.  We are trusted partners for advocates and decision-makers from all walks of life, and a leader in the effort to achieve gender equality.

UN Women Ethiopia country office with its triple mandate of (i) supporting the strengthening of global norms and standards; (ii) promoting more effective coordination, coherence and gender mainstreaming across the UN system in support of commitments for gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE); and, (iii) supporting the FDRE, upon request, to collaborate in the translation of global norms and standards into Ethiopian legislation, policies and development plans at both national and local levels as part of its operational activities, has been pushing the agenda of GEWE in Ethiopia for the past decade in the Country.

UN Women has been serving as a knowledge hub for gender equality and women’s empowerment issues by producing research, policy and awareness creation materials.  The Gender Gap Analysis of The Public Finance Management System of Ethiopia (2018), the Gender Statistics Report 2017 and the Assessment Report on the Gender Responsive Budgeting are just a sample of the research products UN Women has supported that are serving greatly as reference tools for policy makers, researchers and advocates of women’s rights.  It has initiated and collaborated with partners in joint programming for GEWE in the Country including the Joint Program on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment that ran from January 2011 – June 2018 and the Joint Program on Rural Women Economic Empowerment launched in 2014 and running to date.  Through these joint programs, UN Women has been able to support GEWE initiatives in the Country together with other UN Agencies and development partners.

Besides its normative level engagement to support national and local efforts in acceleration of progress towards normative GEWE, UN Women has on-going program portfolios on various GEWE issues that it is implementing in partnership with governmental as well as non-governmental organizations.  This includes Ending Violence Against Women and Girls, Women in Leadership and Governance, National Planning and Budgeting, African Girls Can Code Initiative and Making Every Woman and Girl Count. Furthermore, UN Women Ethiopia, through representation to the African Union (AU) and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), aims to support a gender responsive development and implementation of policies and legal frameworks for the African continent.  The organization’s regional level mandate enables UN Women Ethiopia’s Liaison Unit to develop and strengthen strategic partnerships for the promotion of women’s rights, gender equality and women’s empowerment in regional policy processes and programming.  Communication and advocacy tools that aim to address and promote attitudinal change towards gender equality and women’s empowerment support these programming initiatives.

These national and regional initiatives have resulted in a number of remarkable achievements that contributed towards the promotion and protection of the rights of women and girls in the Country.  So far, the Office has contributed to capacity building of gender machineries and mainstreaming of gender in various sectors of the government; increased economic empowerment of women, especially of those who are most excluded; prevention of violence against women and girls and expansion of access to victim/survivor services, promotion of gender-responsive planning process in the national planning and budgeting processes for stronger institutional accountability to gender equality commitments and advanced the effective participation and equal representation of women in leadership and decision-making in Ethiopia.

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