In Mirebalais, Haiti, a line of women in blue aprons embroidered with the word Chakipi stood before Chelsea Clinton, vice chair of the Clinton Foundation.
The Haitian entrepreneurs spoke in Creole about their experience with door-to-door sales of household products like spaghetti, shampoo and corn flakes. And Clinton, who traveled to Haiti along with Clinton Foundation President Donna Shalala and supporters last week, revealed exclusively to Devex that given the results of the pilot in the Central Plateau, the model will scale nationally, while also expanding to Colombia and Nigeria.
“Now the women with their income are buying animals so they’ll have more products to sell, whether it’s milk or eggs,” Clinton said, explaining how, despite challenges ranging from extreme poverty to rampant domestic violence, female entrepreneurship is on the rise in this country. “You know that, to me, is incredibly inspiring.”
Read more stories on social entrepreneurship:
► Social entrepreneurship on the move in East Africa
► The buzz from the 2015 Global Entrepreneurship Summit
► Supporting social entrepreneurship to address poverty in South Asia
► Will a social enterprise movement be the path to Haiti's future?
► More seed capital key to bridge the 'pioneer gap' for social business
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About the author
Catherine Cheneycatherinecheney
Catherine Cheney is the Senior Editor for Special Coverage at Devex. She leads the editorial vision of Devex’s news events and editorial coverage of key moments on the global development calendar. Catherine joined Devex as a reporter, focusing on technology and innovation in making progress on the Sustainable Development Goals. Prior to joining Devex, Catherine earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Yale University, and worked as a web producer for POLITICO, a reporter for World Politics Review, and special projects editor at NationSwell. She has reported domestically and internationally for outlets including The Atlantic and the Washington Post. Catherine also works for the Solutions Journalism Network, a non profit organization that supports journalists and news organizations to report on responses to problems.
