An incubation programme aimed at supporting, developing and upskilling female entrepreneurs in the water sector has gained traction since its launch in June 2017, multidisciplinary engineering consulting firm GIBB says.

The GIBB incubation programme was borne out of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the South African Water Research Commission (WRC) and forms part of the Women in Water Incubation Programme launched by the Department of Water and Sanitation.

The initiative aims to create a supportive development environment for female entrepreneurs, upskilling them in management and ultimately producing independent, sustainable water and sanitation enterprises.

To date, three women-owned and -run small businesses, namely Prana Consulting, MIH Projects and Nzuza Architects, are already benefiting from the programme to unlock skills and opportunities in the underdeveloped sector.

“We need to draw more women-owned businesses into the business field and this incubation programme allows us to do that. By empowering these businesses, we create partnerships that will benefit large and small organisations in the sector,” says GIBB group CEO Richard Vries.

The group points to the fact that R300-million has been spent on outsourcing work to companies – R100-million of which was secured by mostly black-owned companies. Women-owned enterprises, however, received less than R20-million of the total spending.

“Clearly more needs to be done. We can do that by drawing more women-owned businesses into the business field, and this incubation programme gives us that opportunity. By empowering these businesses, we create partnerships that will benefit both of us in a quid pro quo relationship,” he says.

GIBB’s role in the MoU includes providing its enterprise development (ED) partners with support to strengthen current and future suppliers in its value chain.

Overall, the company aims to place 90 women into the programme – 45 in the entrepreneurship incubator project and 45 in a mentorship project.

The Women in Water Programme has further revealed a need for support in obtaining ISO 9001 certification, an ambition GIBB aims to fulfil through the establishment of a support process to prepare ED partners for certification by assessing systems at incubator companies, identifying gaps and developing a roadmap towards certification.

An ISO certification will bolster a company’s efforts in securing work on larger projects.

“The gap analysis and guidance we received from GIBB on quality management processes has been invaluable,” adds Prana Consulting’s Refilwe Lesufi, one of the early beneficiaries of the programme.

Lesufi believes that a commitment to ISO certification can generate a company culture of “doing things right”.

“The GIBB peer review of our company has added a lot of value to our output. We have seen real benefits from our relationship in terms of support, mentorship and knowledge sharing. The WRC has also helped us form partnerships with players in the industry,” she explains.

Through the WRC, Lesufi’s company was invited to attend the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Reinvent the Toilet expo, in Beijing, recently, showcasing innovations in sanitation.