Stories of change - how the Connecting the Dots project has transformed the lives of women in Eswatini and Zambia

Women throughout the world are under-represented in major areas of society; not only government, but also in business. UN Sustainable Development Goal #5 is the empowerment of women and girls. CLGF’s Connecting the Dots project, in partnership with Genderlinks, is empowering women in four Southern Africa countries - Eswatini, Lesotho, Zambia and Zimbabwe - by supporting women in leadership and business, helping to increase the number of women in local politics and in senior local government roles, and supporting women entrepreneurs to better set up and run businesses to increase their incomes and offer them a better quality of life. 

Several hundred women have seen their lives transformed politically, professionally or economically thanks to the training, mentoring and, most importantly, networking with other like-minded women in which they have been involved by taking part in the Connecting the Dots project. 

In each of the countries, networks for Women in Local Government (WLG) and Young Women in Local Government (YWLG) are helping to encourage women’s participation and, alongside mentorship and training, giving confidence to younger women to make their voice heard, stand for election, and seek leadership roles in local government. 

Some 200 vulnerable women, including widows and survivors of gender-based violence, have participated in the Commonwealth Women in Local Economic Development networks. The women have being mentored and received training on how to establish and grow their businesses; some have been put in touch with financial markets and services to help them expand to bring in new products or start new enterprises.

The Covid-19 pandemic hit as the project was getting under way. It posed many challenges to the project:  limitations on physical interactions meant that much of the workshops, mentoring and network meetings had to be done online; the negative impacts on the businesses of many of the women entrepreneurs involved made the project even more crucial to help them through particularly difficult times and on the way to recovery and getting back on track for future development.  

Each of the project countries, held a project summit, supported by local and international project partners  Women who had participated in the various training and networks shared their experiences and their personal Stories of Change on how the project has positively impacted their lives, careers and businesses, reflecting on their challenges, successes and the many lessons learnt throughout the project.

These are some of the stories of change from the women who have participated and how the project has changed their lives:

Women in Local Government

Young Women in Local Government

Women in Local Economic Development

Young Women in Local Economic Development