Dr. Anita Spring will give a lecture titled “Empowering Women in the African Entrepreneurial Landscape” from 5-6 p.m. Thursday, March 14 in WA-104.
Dr. Spring will discuss women in the entrepreneurial landscape in Africa and focus on the large range of strategies and outcomes of women’s economic activities. This presentation is based on her 10-country study in Ghana and Senegal in West Africa; Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda in East Africa and Botswana, Mozambique and South Africa in Southern Africa.
Women entrepreneurs range from vendors to small business owners to owners and managers of medium and large-scale companies and work in a variety of sectors (agriculture, manufacturing, telecommunications, business services, etc.). A new type of women entrepreneurs (younger than traditional businesspeople, well-educated and well-traveled) view themselves as players in the global economy and have financial accountability and transparency, good business ethics, efficient management and organization, and use of the latest technology.
Dr. Spring is a professor emerita in the Department of Anthropology and affiliate faculty for the Center for African Studies, Center for Latin American Studies, Transnational and Global Studies Center, Center for Women’s Studies and Gender Research and the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Florida. She has worked as a consultant for the United Nations and project director in Africa for both the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). She has written extensively about international agricultural development, food security, entrepreneurship and women/gender in development. Dr. Spring has directed UF’s Sub-Saharan Business Environment Project since 2010. Her latest research includes the African business environment and entrepreneurship, China and Chinese people in Africa, food security and sovereignty in Africa, women and land and international land grabs.
For more information, please contact Vilma Fuentes at 352-395-5030 or vilma.fuentes@sfcollege.edu.