Financial Inclusion and Entrepreneurial Empowerment among Migrant Women Entrepreneurs in Belgium
A consultancy report exploring how participation in #SheFUND, SheDIDIT’s interest-free loan programme, contributes to migrant women entrepreneurs’ skills, confidence, entrepreneurial identity, and perceived legitimacy.
Executive Summary
The central case, in brief, before the evidence that supports it.
This report presents the findings of a qualitative study commissioned by #SheDIDIT and supported by the European Microfinance Network (EMN). The study examines how participation in #SheFUND shapes the skills, confidence, entrepreneurial identity, and perceived legitimacy of migrant women entrepreneurs in Belgium. It draws on semi-structured interviews conducted with funded entrepreneurs, applicants who were not selected for funding, coaching program participants, #SheDIDIT staff and coaches, and the funding partner. #SheFUND is an interest-free loan program delivered through MicroStart and embedded within #SheDIDIT’s broader ecosystem of coaching, community, and entrepreneurial support. Since its launch in 2023, the program has run 3 editions, selected 7 beneficiaries across 49 applicants.
The central finding of this study is that #SheFUND should not be understood only as a loan product. Its transformative value lies in the full process through which women prepare, articulate, defend, and reposition their entrepreneurial projects. Across participants, the study finds that the program generates capability gains, strengthens confidence, supports entrepreneurial identity formation, and increases perceived legitimacy. These effects are visible not only among funded entrepreneurs, but also among women who applied, pitched, received feedback, or participated in the wider #SheDIDIT coaching ecosystem. Based on these findings, the report recommends that #SheDIDIT: treat community as a funded program output; standardise feedback for all #SheFUND applicants; address coaching capacity through group and peer formats; develop a pre entrepreneurial pathways; create a scale-up support after program completion; and make soft skills support a visible and evaluated component of coaching.
The study shows that #SheFUND produces more than access to finance. It produces confidence, legitimacy, social connection, entrepreneurial readiness, and a stronger capacity to navigate the Belgian entrepreneurial ecosystem. These outcomes are especially important for migrant women entrepreneurs, whose barriers to business development are not only financial, but also social, institutional, and mindset-related.
Following this executive summary, the report proceeds across nine chapters. Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the context and the research purpose. Chapter 2 describes the #SheFUND program in detail, including its underlying Theory of Change. Chapter 3 explains the research approach. Chapter 4 presents six key findings. Chapter 5 sets out additional emerging insights on demand at the edges of the #SheFUND journey. Chapter 6 presents a comparative analysis of the funded and not funded participant experiences. Chapter 7 presents six recommendations for #SheDIDIT. Chapter 8 sets out implications for the broader field. Chapter 9 concludes.
Key Findings
Community Is the Core Differentiator
Every participant, regardless of funding outcome, identifies belonging to a space that understands their intersectional experience as the single most impactful aspect of engagement. Community is not a peripheral feature. It is the foundation that makes the rest of the intervention effective.
Coaching Value Extends Beyond the Funded Cohort
The #SheFUND coaching curriculum delivers genuine technical value, but participants consistently point to something more transformative: a coach who listened without judgement, and a moment of recognition that made their ambition feel real. This value does not depend on being selected for funding.
Feedback Quality Shapes Applicant Outcomes
For non funded applicants, the quality of feedback after the pitch determines whether the experience empowers or erodes. A poorly managed non-selection risks undoing the confidence that the coaching phase worked to build.
The Loan Funds What Coaching Alone Cannot
Physical-product businesses face a hard financial floor before they can generate any revenue: minimum order quantities, tooling, packaging, and samples. No amount of planning, discipline, or business acumen substitutes for the capital itself.
The Loan Functions as Protected Capital
For founders who are also primary caregivers or sole earners, the loan is experienced as money that is functionally ring-fenced from the household budget — money they are permitted, practically and psychologically, to spend on the business without it costing their family something else.
The Loan Fills a Financing Access Gap
For migrant women without an established Belgian credit history, collateral, or professional network, conventional lenders are rarely a live alternative. The loan functions less as competitively-priced credit and more as the sole bridge between a validated idea and its execution.
Key Recommendations
Name community as a core program output and fund it accordingly.
Standardise and strengthen #SheFUND feedback for all applicants, funded or not.
Address the coaching capacity structurally through group formats and peer coaching.
Develop a pre-entrepreneurial pathway for adults, mirroring the YouthPreneurs model.
Create a post-graduation offer for scaling entrepreneurs who have outgrown the current coaching offer.
Formalise soft skills training and psychological support as a named, visible, and evaluated feature of the coaching program.
