Women, Education and Business Sustainability in African Entrepreneurship: The Case of Agribusiness Women Entrepreneurs in Uganda (Kampala and Wakiso)

Résumé

This thesis examines the level of education, socio-economic factors, business challenges and opportunities involved in women's entrepreneurship in Uganda with the aim of contributing to the field of business sustainability in an African context. The thesis specifically sets out the contributions of women to the Ugandan economy through agribusiness entrepreneurship despite the distinct challenges they face in developing these activities. The thesis aims to do the following: First, to understand the nature of the business environments in which Ugandan agribusiness women entrepreneurs operate and how these environments condition their business objectives, practices, and business sustainability; second, to analyze the relationship between the educational attainment and women's choice of business start-up and entrepreneurship; and third, to elucidate the extent to which education, among other factors, influences women's resilience in times of economic hardship.Uganda provides an excellent context to discuss the varying levels of women's economic empowerment and efforts towards gender equity and equality given its long history of female entrepreneurship. Empowering women economically has been a priority of the Ugandan government in its quest to achieve global sustainable development goals. However, contradictions arise that hinder the progress of women and that require in-depth study. Using both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, data was collected from 126 women entrepreneurs. Key research questions were asked which mainly included what are the socio-economic factors that enabled business survival/sustainability, how women sustained their business ventures in the midst of economic stresses such as the COVID 19 pandemic; - what was their educational level in relation to the type of business and what business challenges they faced and how they overcame them to achieve survival. Several are the results of the thesis; On the one hand, although the socioeconomic factors that make it possible for women to create businesses are multiple (for example, age and social networks), formal education has the opposite effect; Secondly, the personal character of women encourages business resilience in times of economic crises given previous life experiences. Thirdly the educational level of women motivates the choice of the agribusiness sector and finally, due to macroeconomic policies such as trade liberalization, there are controversies that arise between women's education and entrepreneurship that negatively affect women's businesses.The thesis concludes that while socioeconomic factors, such as formal education, should have a positive impact on women's entrepreneurship in developing countries, policymakers should establish, implement, monitor, and evaluate policies that support both to ensure a sustainable economic development since in many circumstances, the policies pose contradictions which negatively affect the intended outcomes.