Street Business School (SBS) is an entrepreneurship training program uniquely tailored to provide equitable opportunity and to advance the well-being of women experiencing extreme poverty. Women going through SBS training often experience numerous and interconnected barriers to improving their financial situation. These include a lack of formal education, limited access to formal sector employment opportunities, a lack of access to health services, malnutrition, illness, and endemic cultural gender inequality. The highly interactive, experiential curriculum acknowledges the numerous and interconnected barriers women experiencing extreme poverty face to improving their financial situation, building hard skills like bookkeeping, customer care, and inventory, as well as a sense of empowerment, dignity, and belief in oneself.

Data from both SBS and our partners shows that graduates of the SBS training increase business ownership and more than double their income, lifting themselves and their families out of poverty. An independent randomized control trial has verified these results, also demonstrating a reduction in levels of intimate partner violence and an increase in levels of resilience. Without the need for initial or ongoing financial support to open and maintain businesses, graduates are able to sustainably lift themselves and their families out of poverty.

In addition to training women directly in Uganda, where our program began, SBS has certified a network of more than 250 organizations across 34 countries. These partners embed the SBS curriculum alongside their existing program mix, whether they are focused on anti-human trafficking, serving people with disabilities, or providing health services. To date, SBS and our partners have reached more than 76,000 people. SBS training not only increases income for women, but also positively amplifies additional program goals by sustainably addressing poverty in communities.

SBS is committed to continually improving our impact. Our strategic plan deepens support for partner organizations working on intersectional issues while increasing the efficiency of our programming to reach as many people experiencing poverty as possible.

Networking: Access/introductions to potential partnerships: Street Business School seeks multi-year partnerships with large NGOs that are interested in alleviating poverty in their communities as a means of achieving their own missions. Street Business School also seeks to engage with organizations that would champion SBS training/providing implementation support to cohorts of smaller NGOs.

Asia, Africa

Street Business School would like to co-create with other organizations that serve or support (in whole, or in part) women living in poverty. To reach the most women living in poverty, whose incomes would come from working in the informal sector, co-creators may have expertise/expansive reach in Africa or Asia and may have missions that support other SDGs in addition to SDG 1, "No Poverty."

The work of Street Business School applies directly to the Expo theme "Designing Future Society for Our Lives." At SBS, we envision a world where women are able to access the means to support themselves and their families. When we invest in the livelihoods and future of women, we invest not only in their well-being but the well-being of future generations. Interrupting cycles of intergenerational poverty leads to improvements in nutrition, human rights, gender equality, human security, and more.

SBS also believes in working with the most marginalized groups, including women, people with disabilities, and refugees, and believes in a future society where everyone has the ability to meet their most basic needs. SBS works with organizations around the world, which are focused on some of the most critical services for communities experiencing poverty and marginalization, and blends our poverty alleviation programming for the strongest possible outcomes.

As a network-based solution that operates at the forefront of innovative poverty alleviation, and which works within the discriminatory structures resulting in extreme disparity around the world, the SBS program is well-aligned with the Expo theme, with a shared approach to innovation and co-creation that yields sustainable change in the lives of thousands.

Cindy@streetbusinessschool.org