Samira Ben Ousmane

Leading Niger’s foremost women’s economic empowerment organization, driving entrepreneurship, leadership, and policy advocacy initiatives across the country and Francophone Africa. - Led the design and implementation of 13 gender-transformative projects across 5 regions in Niger, reaching 10,000+ women and girls, aligned with national and international gender equality priorities, with integrated economic empowerment and leadership development interventions addressing structural barriers to women and girls’ participation. - Established and scaled up Nigerielles Business Club (520+ women entrepreneurs), providing peer-to-peer mentorship networks, market access facilitation, and linkages to financial services, resulting in 30% average increase in business revenues among members. - Spearheaded an annual international summit on women’s entrepreneurship in Francophone Africa, Le Salon National de l'Entrepreneuriat Feminin SANEF, for 5 consecutive years, promoting investment, trade, and collaboration. - Advocated for gender-sensitive economic policies with national policymakers and parliamentarians, contributing to policy dialogue on women's economic participation, entrepreneurship ecosystem development, and access to finance. - Integrated adolescent girls' components into entrepreneurship programming, providing mentorship, skills training, and safe spaces for 350+ adolescent girls to explore economic opportunities and leadership pathways. - Coordinated multi-stakeholder initiatives ensuring coherence and synergies across partners for efficient resource utilisation and enhanced results delivery, serving on coordination platforms and technical working groups on women and girl’s empowerment. - Built and maintained strategic partnerships with UN agencies, NGOs, and private sector actors to scale gender-responsive interventions.

- Conducted comprehensive evaluation of AAP's monitoring, evaluation, learning, and communication (MELC) strategy across partnership programs in 8 African countries, with focus on strengthening gender-responsive M&E frameworks and systems. - Providing technical recommendations to streamline gender-disaggregated data collection, analysis, reporting systems, and accountability mechanisms, ensuring gender markers are integrated across the program portfolio.

- Designed comprehensive Women in Agribusiness Incubation Program targeting female entrepreneurs in agricultural value chains across Niger, integrating gender-transformative approaches to address structural barriers including access to land, credit, markets, and technology. - Developed training modules covering business development, financial literacy, value chain analysis, market linkages, and leadership skills with gender-responsive pedagogy, participatory methods, and mentorship frameworks.

- Developed strategies to enhance women’s and youth participation in AfCFTA (African Continental Free Trade Area) related opportunities across Francophone Africa. - Led gender analysis of AfCFTA implementation in ECOWAS region, conducting qualitative and quantitative research on barriers to women's participation in regional trade including legal restrictions, lack of market information, limited access to finance, and gender biases in customs procedures. - Developed gender-responsive trade strategies and policy recommendations for ECOWAS member states, integrating gender considerations into national trade facilitation frameworks, export promotion strategies, and small and medium enterprise (SME) support programs.

A2F Consulting is an international consulting firm, founded in 2007 and based in Washington DC that provides advisory services across various sectors globally. Specializing in economic analysis, management consulting, and evaluations, A2F has completed projects in over 80 countries for clients including the World Bank and other major development institutions. As a consultant with A2F Consulting, I was responsible for monitoring stakeholders’ projects in the field, conducting data collection, interviews, and site visits to ensure effective project implementation. This role allowed me to engage directly with key stakeholders, gather valuable insights, and contribute to large-scale development projects across multiple regions - Monitored stakeholders’ projects in the field, conducting data collection, interviews, and site visits to ensure effective project implementation. - Contributed to gender capacity building programs for National Trade Facility Committees (NTFCs) across 8 ECOWAS countries, to strengthen institutional capacity for gender-responsive trade facilitation, policy formulation, and program implementation. - Contributed in research and policy evaluations on women’s economic participation in cross-border trade.

SAMYBEN was a fashion house I founded and operated from 2013 to 2018, where I served as a self-employed designer and entrepreneur. SAMYBEN specialized in unique, high-quality fashion that blended modern trends with traditional influences. During this time, I participated in over 20 fashion shows across Africa and the Middle East and was selected to represent Niger in two international fashion shows. My experience at SAMYBEN sharpened my business acumen and design skills, laying the foundation for my passion for empowering women through fashion and entrepreneurship, which later led to the creation of NigeriElles.

Led a media platform that published quarterly magazine with circulation of 5,000+ reaching audiences across Niger and Francophone Africa, covered topics including women's leadership and economic development, girls education, gender-based violence. Raising awareness of women and girls’ achievements, sharing success stories of women entrepreneurs, and challenging gender stereotypes through compelling narratives and visual storytelling.

- Advisor to the Minister at the 61st Commission on the Status of Women CSW61 at the United Nations in New York City, providing technical inputs on women and youth empowerment in the changing world of work. - Provided recommendations to the Ministry on integrating CSW61 outcomes and international best practices into Niger's national youth entrepreneurship and women's empowerment policies and programs