Financing women entrepreneurship for achieving the SDGs:

The story of Pakistan

By Ambassador

Jauhar Saleem

Importance of Agriculture Sector

• Largest sector of Pakistan’s economy

• Large majority of population directly or indirectly dependent on it

• Contributes 21% of GDP

• Accounts for half of employed labor force

• Provides raw material for manufacturing sector, which produces export goods

• Accounts for over 70% of Pakistan’s export earnings

• 72% of women associated with agriculture sector out of the total women labor force in Pakistan

Women in Agriculture

• High rate of participation by rural women in weeding, seed cleaning, drying and storage of crops

• Women also involved in cotton picking and preparation of processed food

• Many of them use medicinal plants for treating different ailments

• Women also responsible for live stock farming, poultry and production of dairy products

• Many of them spend 12­15 hours a day on agricultural activities

Challenges of Women’s participation in Agricultural Activities

• Women usually ignored, unpaid/underpaid and not counted as labor force

• Lack of access to information, microcredit, training and educational opportunities

• Lack of modern skills/techniques of vegetable gardening, fruit production, live­stock management, food processing and preservation

• Lack of participation in decision making

• Restricted mobility/market access

• Lack of skills in value addition and marketing

The role of ADBP/ZTBL

• ADBP was established in 1957 to advance short/long term loans to agricultural sector

• Converted into ZTBL in October 2002

• Significant contribution in providing credit to agriculturists and landless rural poor through mobile credit delivery

• It is the single largest institution in Pakistan for supply of agricultural credit and transfer of agricultural technologies

ZTBL’s contribution to economic empowerment of women

• ZTBL has always strived to uphold the rights of women and their inclusion in economic activities through different schemes

• Offers permanent employment to women and maintains remuneration parity among genders

• Also provides necessary training and consultancy to rural community through farmers’ training program

ZTBL’s Objectives

• To develop and operate financially and operationally sustainable rural financing institution

• To assist rural communities, particularly small farmers in raising their productivity and income levels through timely delivery of credit and advisory services

• To establish and provide backward and forward linkages to strengthen agriculture value added commodity chains

• To engage in public/private partnership

• To provide a wide range of risk insured products and other insurance coverage

• To open up venues of operations to domestic and international banking industry

Khawateen RozgarScheme

• Provides both production and development loans for women only

• All branches of ZTBL provide credit to women with technical know­how and capacity to pay

• Credit provided for farming, textile and clothing, bamboo cane and related products, livestock management etc.

• The maximum loan limit Rs.200,000 per party with borrowers contribution at 10% of the loan amount

• Loans recoverable within 18 months and 5 years respectively in half yearly installments

Khwateen Rozgar SchemeInnovative Sustainability

• The product specifically designed for women in rural areas

• It is aimed at increasing women entrepreneurship

• Processing of loan easier and efficient

• Loans can be provided against personal surety/guarantee other collaterals, to facilitate landless/poor women

• Interest rates much lower

• Warrants 10% equity participation by the borrower

• Urban women can also avail the facility

Contribution to SDGs in Pakistan

• Total disbursement made under this scheme since it’s inception: Rs161.598 million in 1074 loan cases

• Helps eradicate poverty

• Makes women self reliant

• Encourages women entrepreneurship

• Improves awareness among women and their quality of life

• Encourages small businesses/SMEs

Contribution to environmental dimension

• Majority of loanable items are environmentally friendly such as bamboo and cane making and goat/sheep farming

• Businesses like fish farming, bee keeping, vegetable farming, floriculture and mushroom cultivation help maintain balance of eco­system

• The scheme helps agricultural developments

Contribution to social dimension of sustainable development

• Serves to empower women with special focus on rural areas

• Enables women to enhance their household income

• Makes women self reliant and become earning members of the family

• Women can avail better health and education facilities and provide the same to their families

• Women engage in positive activities

Contribution to economic dimension of sustainable development• Plays effective role in promotion of economic growth

• Enhances availability of credit to the agricultural sector through reliable access to sustainable financing

• Offers special lending program, technical assistance and other products/services

• Promotes career development opportunities

• Encourages professionalism and technical proficiencies of employees

Thank you for listening