Finance, Training and Mentoring Vouchers for Rural Women

Abstract

Women in rural areas face significant barriers when starting a business, including limited access to finance, tailored training, and mentoring. To address these challenges, we propose an integrated voucher-based support scheme offering start-up funding, entrepreneurship training, and personalised mentoring. These vouchers would help women cover essential start-up costs, build skills, and gain confidence through individual guidance. Although such programmes exist in several EU countries, they are often project-based. There is a strong need to embed these tools into national policies to ensure long-term, stable support for women entrepreneurs in rural areas.