Walmart India, the wholly owned subsidiary of Walmart Inc, has announced the culmination of the second edition of its Women Entrepreneurship Development Program (WEDP 2.0). Sixty-one women-owned businesses (WOBs) graduated from the program in the presence of government officials, academia, start-ups and women entrepreneurs at T-Hub in Hyderabad.
Supported by Walmart, WEDP 2.0 was announced in September 2017 with WEConnect International, Thinkthrough Consulting and Amity University as implementation and training partners respectively.
The idea of the program is to enhance skills and capabilities of women entrepreneurs to be able to build robust and sustainable businesses. WEDP included capacity building training and mentoring through a combination of classroom training, field visits and subject matter experts.
The training modules covered key areas for running a business – marketing, finance, business strategy, operations, legal and compliance, and social networking, among others. They underwent training in professional and personal skills required for building and running a sustainable and successful enterprise.
The WOBs manage businesses of different product categories and are located in Andhra Pradesh, Delhi NCR, Maharashtra, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh.
“WEDP has grown over the past two years and has become our flagship program with a vision of ushering in an inclusive eco-system for women’s entrepreneurs. With each passing year, we aim to further strengthen this vision by continuing to support more WOBs by bringing them into the supply chain and creating a pipeline of diverse suppliers for the industry as a whole through training. It is my privilege to announce that we will we soon launch the third edition of WEDP. I truly believe that women entrepreneurs have an important role to play in nation building and ensuring inclusive growth,” Krish Iyer, president and CEO, Walmart India said in a statement.
Walmart has an ongoing commitment to empower women around the world and help WOBs succeed and grow. In September 2011, Walmart launched the Global Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) initiative, a five-year initiative to use the company’s unique size and scale to improve the lives of under-served women around the world.
Jenny Grieser, Senior Director, Women’s Economic Empowerment, Walmart, said, “The WEDP program is a significant milestone for us as we continue to strengthen our focus on increasing diversity in the global supply chain. The success in India is a result of the efforts of several stakeholders to help build capacity and success for these women entrepreneurs.”
As part of the women empowerment initiative, Walmart committed to source $20 billion from women-owned businesses for its U.S. business and double sourcing from WOBs internationally.