Norwegian Church Aid (NCA)

Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) is also one of the few humanitarian organizations supporting survivors of GBV
through their economic empowerment initiatives. It believes that women, the victims of GBV, can be
resourceful economic agents, who can overcome gender-based barriers and can advance in every field, not
only to re-integrate themselves, but also to play a vital role in ensuring economic security of their families.
For this project, NCA engaged the services of Mera Maan to select 50 GBV Survivors from two districts of Pakistan i.e. Hyderabad and Mansehra, to use as case studies for their economic empowerment program. The objective was to identify the economic growth opportunities, in the selected districts, for the 50 GBV survivors and to put them through an extensive 6-day Enterprise Development Training, so that they could start their own business for their survival and self-sufficiency. The objectives for the 6-day training were to enable participants to:

• Understand basic concepts of Enterprise Development;
• Understand the steps that will allow for the effective setting up of a micro or small business, including identifying and screening business opportunities, mobilizing resources through a market survey, setting up and running a business using the 6 Ps of marketing, costing and pricing and maintaining records;
• Internalize the realities of setting up a business (Business Creation Exercise);

The following were the deliverables of the assignment:

1. Developing Enterprise Skills of 50 identified women in district Mansehra and Hyderabad.
2. Developing cluster of 10 enterprise groups comprising of 5 survivors.

Regular documentation for approximately 16 selected women, so that progress and patterns could be noted for future scale-up.