Economic Empowerment
Economic independence is not a luxury — it is the foundation of a dignified life. The ability to provide for yourself and your family, to plan for the future, to weather setbacks without falling into crisis — these are the conditions that allow people to participate fully in their communities, to invest in their children's education, and to build toward something lasting.
Yet for millions of people across the Global South, that foundation is out of reach. Not because of a lack of ambition or effort — but because of structural barriers that restrict access to capital, skills training, fair labor markets, and the financial systems that most people in wealthier countries take for granted. Poverty is not a personal failing. It is a structural condition. And it requires structural solutions.
The Berhan Foundation invests in programs that disrupt those structures — creating pathways to economic opportunity for individuals and communities who have been locked out of them for too long. We fund initiatives that build real skills, create real livelihoods, and generate the kind of economic resilience that sustains families and communities across generations.
What we fund
Microfinance and entrepreneurship support
Access to capital is one of the most significant barriers facing entrepreneurs and small business owners in underserved communities. Without credit, without seed funding, without access to financial systems designed for people at their income level, even the most promising ideas never get off the ground.
We support microfinance programs and small business development initiatives that provide the financial tools — small loans, access to capital, seed grants — that allow people to start, sustain, and grow their own enterprises. Entrepreneurship is one of the most powerful engines of community economic development. When a business grows, it creates jobs. When jobs are created, families become more stable. When families are stable, communities prosper. We fund the spark that starts that cycle.
Job training and workforce development
Skills are the currency of economic opportunity. But for people in underserved communities — particularly those who missed out on formal education or who live in economies undergoing rapid change — acquiring marketable skills requires deliberate investment and sustained support.
We fund job training and workforce development programs that equip individuals for employment in growing sectors of their local economies. This includes vocational training in skilled trades, apprenticeship programs that pair learning with real-world experience, and career transition services that help people move from informal or precarious work into more stable livelihoods. We prioritize programs that are responsive to actual labor market demand — training people for jobs that exist, in industries that are growing.
Financial literacy and access to financial services
Economic empowerment is not only about income — it is also about the knowledge and tools to manage, grow, and protect what you earn. Many people in the communities we serve have limited experience with formal financial systems: banking, credit, savings, and investment. That gap leaves them vulnerable and limits their ability to build toward long-term stability.
We support financial literacy programs that give individuals the knowledge and confidence to engage with financial systems — understanding how to save, how to borrow responsibly, how to build credit, and how to plan for the future. We also support initiatives that expand access to basic financial services in underserved communities, working with local financial institutions, cooperatives, and community organizations to bring banking and credit within reach of those who have been excluded.
Sustainable livelihoods and environmental stewardship
Economic development that destroys the natural environment on which communities depend is not development — it is a trade of one form of poverty for another. We are committed to funding programs that build economic opportunity in ways that are environmentally sustainable and that protect the long-term viability of the ecosystems communities rely on.
This includes support for sustainable agriculture initiatives, renewable energy projects that create local economic opportunity, and programs that help communities generate income while stewarding their natural resources. We believe that a thriving economy and a healthy environment are not in conflict — and that the most durable economic progress is progress that works with the land, not against it.
Women's economic empowerment
Women face disproportionate barriers to economic participation across much of the Global South — including unequal access to credit, discriminatory inheritance and property laws, the burden of unpaid care work, and cultural norms that limit their economic agency. At the same time, the evidence is overwhelming: when women achieve economic independence, the benefits multiply across families and communities. Children are better nourished and better educated. Household incomes rise. Community health improves.
We specifically prioritize programs that advance economic opportunity for women and girls — removing barriers, building skills, and creating the conditions for women to lead and participate fully in economic life. Gender equity is not a secondary consideration in our economic empowerment grantmaking. It is central to it.
Economic empowerment is about more than income. It is about dignity, agency, and the ability to shape your own future. When a person achieves economic stability, they invest in their children, they contribute to their community, and they become a force for the kind of change that money alone could never buy.
The Berhan Foundation invests in that potential. We believe that every person, given the right tools and the right opportunity, is capable of building a life — and a community — worth being proud of. That belief drives every grant we make in this area, and it will continue to drive our work for generations to come.