ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates why women's owned businesses are the best way to lift women out of poverty in a sustainable way. The more critical key component of the Women's Owned Nilotica Shea (WONS) initiative is business positioning, wherein the WONS women have been positioned to sell a final cosmetic consumer product at high end under a WONS-owned brand. The chapter describes an Intellectual Property (IP) business positioning strategy that is creating an income stream 20 times higher than alternatives. It also illustrates how a representative women's stakeholder organization was formed with a representative constitution and lessons learned. The chapter outlines the training that enabled the rural Ugandan and South Sudanese women to fully understand and participate in their own company. It demonstrates that when women's owned businesses are correctly positioned, their power is dramatically increased. The chapter explains how women will become the transformative change agents for northern Uganda and for western and southern South Sudan.
