Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) Brunei

The Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) is a global U.S. Department of State initiative (Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs) under the White House Women's Global Development and Prosperity Initiative, active in more than 100 countries with over 25,000 alumni. In Brunei it is funded by the U.S. Embassy and delivered by Darussalam Enterprise (DARe) using the DreamBuilder online curriculum developed by Arizona State University's Thunderbird School of Global Management. A follow-on IDEAS project, run through DARe with NGO partners, aims to train 242 women entrepreneurs across 15 cohorts in e-commerce, digital marketing and business-model development between June 2024 and December 2025.

Since the first cohort launched virtually on 23 October 2021, a cumulative 66 women have graduated across four cohorts, with the format shifting from a six-month, 13-module course to a two-month course by the fourth cohort in October 2024. The first cohort selected 30 of 186 applicants; the fourth selected 27 of over 100 applicants. The top three graduates in each cohort win up to US$3,000 in seed funding plus access to DARe's financing, consultancy and certification ecosystem.

The global AWE model has an independent U.S. Department of State evaluation of its 2019 cohort showing positive business-survival and revenue outcomes, but no Brunei-specific outcome evaluation has been published, so local effectiveness beyond graduation counts and seed funding disbursed is not yet independently verified.