Burundian universities commit to practical driven inclusive entrepreneurship education

Three-day MSM training in Bujumbura supports educators to make entrepreneurship teaching responsive to gender and inclusion.

From 11 to 13 August 2026, 28 lecturers and staff members, 14 of them women, from five Burundian universities gathered in Bujumbura for a three-day workshop on Female Entrepreneurship and Inclusion in the Higher Education Entrepreneurship Ecosystem. Dr. Mulu Berhanu facilitated the training, which is part of the K2K project. It helps universities make entrepreneurship education more practical driven while still gender and inclusive responsive.

Day one challenged common assumptions about who counts as an entrepreneur. Participants worked with real cases of women entrepreneurs, from a widow who turned a necessity business into a growing opportunity to a returnee creating local jobs. They examined how gender norms and structural barriers shape women’s businesses. Women make up a  significant number of Burundi’s working population, yet this rarely translates into formal ownership or decision-making power.

Day two moved “from diagnosis to design.” University teams mapped their entrepreneurship ecosystems, found gaps in curricula, mentoring and assessment, and drafted concrete redesigns. On day three, teams turned these into gender and inclusive responsive design challenges, working through empathy, inclusive ideation and prototyping.

Participants rated the training as excellent. “I realized that characteristics commonly associated with successful entrepreneurs are often culturally associated with masculinity,” one participant said. They warned that educators who follow standard definitions of entrepreneurship too closely risk overlooking women who are entrepreneurs in other ways. “I found the training highly eye-opening.” Another summed it up: “I learned that there is no single model of a female entrepreneur.”

Looking ahead, participants committed to sharing the training with colleagues at their own universities, using more Burundian and African cases in class, and testing new interventions with students. Follow-up sessions are planned to track progress and help each university move from ideas to implementation.

About the project
The project is funded by RVO and led by MSM in close cooperation with local partners CTJEBU (Chambre Transversale des Jeunes Entrepreneurs du Burundi) and 3HI Africa, both of which bring strong connections to the Burundian entrepreneurship ecosystem. By building institutional and human capacity in higher education, the project aims to transform Burundian universities into engines of innovation and job creation, laying the groundwork for a more inclusive and opportunity-driven entrepreneurial ecosystem.

MSM's Expert Centre on Emerging Economies

This institutional collaboration project is part of MSM's Expert Centre on Emerging Economies. The department is an expert centre on sustainable private sector development in emerging and developing markets.​ We capacitate managers and professionals from government, private sector, NGOs, and post-secondary education in Africa, Asia, Middle East, and Latin America. We offer consultancy and customized training programs, and we manage complex projects in key sectors, e.g. water, agriculture and health. For more information click here.

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