MOVE IT FORWARD + is a project aiming to innovate and to support organisations in the field of entrepreneurship support and education, with a focus on women participants and digital entrepreneurship. Indeed, the EU commission reports states that women’s intellectual and entrepreneurial potential, contribution and creativity is still largely an under-exploited source of economic growth. Women still make only a third of business owners in the EU,(34.4% of the EU self-employed and 30% of start-up entrepreneurs - 'Statistical data on Women entrepreneurs in Europe') and, tend to run smaller businesses than men. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitoring (2017) report also shows that the share of young female entrepreneurs is almost two times smaller than the share of men. (5.9% females, 12.5% men). Women are better educated than men in Europe , therefore they are part of the « missing entrepreneurs » in Europe as explained in OCDE reports and policy recommendations. More women entrepreneurs, beyond gender equality, means: jobs creation, robust (and sustainable) economics growth, social progress, impact for communities and economic independence for women. The goal of the project is to develop methodologies and offer new range of activities in the field of collaboration, mentoring and developing relationships with the private sector and, with a focus on women looking to launch (digital) entrepreneurship projects. From the starting point of an existing concept, the Erasmus+ project wants to enhance practices, to enrich from collaboration and partner experiences, and finally to multiply and sustain impact. Move it forward + project partnership is made of six entrepreneurial organisations from six EU countries but the clear goal is to make all results available to a broad number of organisations to benefit from Move it Forward + in other countries, in EU and beyond. The project deliverable includes: - Creation of a Move It Forward platform and network for organisation wanted to act in the field of women entrepreneurship support: - Duplication of collaborative design, duplicate a concept of hackathon, entrepreneurship support and mentoring methodologies - Toolkit to develop sustainability via mentor-ship, involvement of the private sector especially Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) - Piloting and evaluating at national level for more than 200 participants. The project implementation imply active involvement of a large number of participant in the projects and include as six dissemination events and one training activities for adult education staff. The project is designed to have a direct impact on: - adult education organisations - trainers, mentors, facilitators. - women learners and (future) entrepreneurs - broader communities, stakeholders and entrepreneurship ecosystem as well as organisations outside the partnership countries. Move It Forward+ will also offer a website where all the produced material will be made available, as well as social media activities on the theme on (digital) women entrepreneurship. The project clearly also aim to create a sustainability and its results, especially the tool kits and the guidelines, as well as the knowledge gained by organisations and participants, to be used and implemented further after the end of the project.
The primary objectives were to create new learning opportunities and collaborative experiences for women looking to develop entrepreneurial skills and to promote women's entrepreneurship to new social and geographic groups. The partnership wanted to innovate and support organisations in the field of entrepreneurship support and education, focusing on women, in developing methodologies, activities and resources for collaboration, digital entrepreneurship and mentoring to be able to scale the Move it Forward concept, develop new tools and eventually be able to transfer knowledge to new organisations. From the starting point of the existing concept developed by our Belgian partner DLI, this project was created and implemented to develop relationships with the private sector, enhance practices, enrich collaboration and partner experiences, and finally multiply and sustain the impact on adult education organisations, trainers, mentors, women learners and (future) entrepreneurs, stakeholders and entrepreneurship ecosystem as well as organisations outside the partnership countries. All the partners were very keen on participating in the development of a new format that had the chance to grow and scale internationally.
The project was inspired by DLI's “Move it forward-Female Digital Starter weekend” concept, with the opportunity to support scaling at the international level and multiply the impact to support female entrepreneurs in new countries. The main objective was to promote entrepreneurship to more women and support them in their journey. In addition to our respective findings, the following information and reports from the EU commission stated that women’s intellectual and entrepreneurial potential, contribution and creativity are still an under-exploited source of economic growth. In 2019, women still represented only 34.4% of the EU self-employed and 30% of start-up entrepreneurs. Given this data, having more women entrepreneurs would benefit job creation, robust economic growth, and social progress. For WIDE, the topic of women's economic empowerment is a core value and the project fitted perfectly with its development plan and the needs of the target group in Luxembourg. The project’s idea and target group were very interesting and logical for the consortium and their respective country. With some of the partners being gender equality advocates, WIDE and all the partners adhere to Move It Forward’s objectives enthusiastically.