Essma Ben Hamida (born 1951) is a Tunisian schoolteacher, journalist and entrepreneur. After opening and operating a branch of the Tunisian news agency TAP at the UN Headquarters in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, she returned to Tunisia and together with her British husband, Michael Cracknell, founded Enda inter-arabe in 1990 on the basis of

Enda Third World {{short description, International organisation Enda Third World (Enda Tiers Monde) is an international organisation with diplomatic status based in Dakar, Senegal, Africa. It comprises a group of teams and programmes working in synergy, and descr ...

. As Enda Tamweel, it has since become a highly successful microfinance institution for women, admitting men providing their wives act as guarantors. In 2010, Ben Hamida was honoured as "Outstanding Social Entrepreneur in the Middle East and North Africa" by the

Schwab Foundation The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship is a Swiss not-for-profit organization founded in 1998 that provides platforms at the country, regional and global levels to promote social entrepreneurship.Schwab Foundation for Social Entreprene ...

and the World Economic Forum.

Biography

Born in 1951 in Kairouan, Essma Ben Hamida studied history and geography at the University of Tunis. After graduating, she spent a year as a post-graduate at

Paris-Est Créteil University The Gare de l'Est (; English: "Station of the East" or "East station"), officially Paris-Est, is one of the six large mainline railway station termini in Paris, France. It is located in the 10th arrondissement, not far southeast from the Gare ...

where she studied urbanism but then taught in high school for a number of years before becoming a journalist. In 1970, she moved to New York where she created the first Tunisian press agency office at the United Nations headquarters. Continuing her involvement with the UN, in the 1980s she spent almost nine years in Rome and Geneva working for the International Foundation for Development Alternatives and the Inter-Press Service. She reported on the activities of agencies including the FAO, IFAD, World Food Programme and

World Food Council World Food Council (WFC) was a United Nations organization established by the UN General Assembly in December 1974 by recommendation of the World Food Conference. Its headquarters was in Rome, Italy. WFC's goal was to serve as coordinating body for ...

. This entailed trips to Latin America, Africa and the Middle East where she interviewed people living in deprived communities, reporting back to the UN agencies. After spending 12 years abroad, she returned to Tunisia and, together with her husband Michael Cracknell, founded Enda inter-arabe in 1994 in order to provide easier access to capital through microfinance for disadvantaged women who wished to progress in business. In particular, she encouraged women to become economically independent as she was convinced they had a vital role to play in development. Three-quarters of those who sought financing were women although men were also permitted to participate provided their wives acted as guarantors. This led to fruitful collaboration between men and women and wider acceptance of the ability of women to run businesses. Enda offered additional services for women including discussion fora, literacy courses, marketing and financial management. By 2019, some 800,000 micro-entrepreneurs had benefited from Enda's services, most of them women living in disadvantaged areas.

Awards

Ben Hamida received the distinction of "Outstanding Social Entrepreneur in the Middle East and North Africa of the year 2010" from the Schwab Foundation and the World Economic Forum. In 2019,

Takreem Takreem ( ar, تكريم) is a non-profit organization founded in 2009 by Ricardo Karam to honor Arab individuals or organizations that have contributed to the development of their respective communities and to the betterment of the world in the f ...

honoured her as "Outstanding Arab Woman". In 2020, she received the "Arab woman's award for excellence" from the Takreem Foundation.

References

External links

The Enda Tamweel website
(in French) {{DEFAULTSORT:Ben Hamida, Essma 1951 births People from Kairouan Tunisian women in business Women business executives Tunisian journalists Tunisian women journalists Tunisian women activists Tunisian educators Tunis University alumni Living people 20th-century Tunisian women writers 20th-century Tunisian writers