Submitted
2020 Mission Billion Challenge: WURI West Africa Prize

Bhutan Association of Women Entrepreneur

Team Leader
Sonam Tobgye
Solution Overview
Solution Name:
Bhutan Association of Women Entrepreneur
One-line solution summary:
Empowerment of Bhutanese women
Pitch your solution.

Bhutan Association of Women Entrepreneurs (BAOWE) empowers economically challenged women and girls by identifying business opportunities and imparting training in  entrepreneurship including financial literacy. It aims at  poverty alleviation, income generation and enhancing livelihood of economically disadvantaged women and girls.

  • Our proposed project focuses on enhancing gender equality through economic empowerment of women farmers in Bhutan. It will do so by testing an innovative community agro-business hub model that was designed by BAOWE but has not yet been tested.
  • The model brings together and links local women farmers, food processors and sellers to aggregate farm produce, turn it into higher value commercialized products and sell it to broader markets.
  • If it was scaled globally, the expected impact of the project will be higher incomes for women farmers and others in the localized value chain and overall reduction of poverty in the district chosen for the project.
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?

Bhutan is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Despite this growth, gender inequality in business and labour force participation has not allowed women to be active recipients of this success. The labour force participation rate in 2018 was 58% for women compared to 74% for men. Bhutan ranks 125th in women’s educational attainment in the 2018 Global Gender Gap Report, with rural women much more likely to lack education. Due to lack of education, women remain concentrated in the agriculture and informal sector, and participation in entrepreneurial and commercial agribusiness activities is low. As a result, women farmers often remain poor, unable to exercise their agency to the fullest. Entrepreneurship, including in the agriculture sector, therefore represents an important path for closing the gender gap in economic participation and empowerment.

  • The target population is a group of more than 200 women farmers
  • Low investment, low returns, high competition and low innovative practices in women run rural agri-businesses are some of the factors that have limited growth in new products, quality, marketing and distribution. This warrants empowering these women through entrepreneurship programs.


Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
  • The target  group of  200 women farmers belongs to communities  deprived of economic development for decades owing to rugged terrain, scattered settlement, poor soil and adverse climatic conditions for agricultural development. The women are semi- literate or completely illiterate, limiting their chances of improving their status.
  • Owing to unfavourable climatic conditions, farmers are unable to produce much of commercially viable crops except for a newly introduced crop called yacon, or ground apple. Due to its low glycemic index, it is a recommended sugar substitute for people with diabetes and other ailments internationally. While it can be eaten raw,  the value is much higher when processed into syrup or beverages. In view of an immense potential to develop agri-business around the product, BAOWE conceived the idea to process the crop (yacon) into syrup, wine and juices for export markets such as India, US and Canada. To this effect, a Self-Help Group (SGH) of 200 women farmers have been formed and encouraged to grow the crop on commercial scale.
  • The solution will primarily address the issue of rural poverty currently prevalent in the region by enhancing their income through sale/export of the finished products both within and outside the country.
Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?
  • Deploying features that encourage contributions regardless of literacy and numeracy levels — including in contexts with limited internet coverage
Explain how the problem, your solution, and your solution’s target population relate to the Mission Billion Challenge WURI West Africa Prize and your selected dimension.

One of the serious problems  is the gender inequality especially in the rural parts where women and girls are mostly semi-literate or completely illiterate with low or no access to credits, technology, innovative practices and entrepreneurship programs. Yet, being a matriarchal society, land ownership mostly goes to the girl child and by default they become head of the family from the early stage.

 Our solution therefore is to empower these women group by training them in different aspects of entrepreneurship such as processing, value addition (pricing, packaging, labelling & branding), and marketing.

Where is your solution team headquartered?
Thimphu, Bhutan
What is your solution’s stage of development?
  • Idea: A plan or concept by an individual or organization.
Who is the primary delegate for your solution?
Dr. Sonam Tobgye- Director (Projects)
More About Your Solution
About Your Team
Your Business Model & Funding
Partnership & Prize Funding Opportunities
Solution Team:
Sonam Tobgye
Sonam Tobgye