Women’s entrepreneurship development:
Ten years partnering for women's entrepreneurship: Supporting Job Creation and Economic Empowerment!
The ILO and Gender Equality
ILO since founding committed to promoting the rights of all women and men at work and achieving equality between them
International Labour Standards GC
Principle 6: elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation
Targeted programmes and interventions aimed at redressing existing inequalities in the world of work
Setting the stage – The opportunities
25% to 33% of all private businesses owned by women
190 million women entrepreneurs in 59 countries (GEM, 2010)
If women entrepreneurs in the US started out with same capital as men, 6 million jobs in five years would be added — 2 million in the first year alone. (Center for Women’s Business Research)
Failure to achieve MDG target 3 on the promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women could reduce per capita income growth rates by 0.1–0.3 percentage points.
Setting the stage – The challenges
Some constraints faced by many women entrepreneurs:
Access to & control over financial & productive resources
Access to collateral (access to land)
Access to training, info, markets– occupational segregation
Household responsiblities– reduced mobility
Cultural norms & attitudes towards women as entrepreneurs
Link with WEP principles
UNGC-UNWomen WEP Principles (2009)
ILO-WED Strategy (2008)
Provide a set of considerations to help private sector focus on
key elements integral to promoting gender
equality in the workplace, marketplace and
community
Unleash the economic potential of women’s
enterprises to contribute to employment creation,
gender equality, economic growth, and
poverty reduction within the framework of the Decent Work Agenda
ILO WED outreach- 25 countries
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Belarus
Cambodia
Cameroon
Ethiopia
Kenya
Kyrgyzstan
Lao PDR
Lebanon
Lesotho
Malawi
Mali
Mozambique
Nigeria
Palestine
Rwanda
Senegal
South Africa
Tanzania
Tajikistan
Uganda
Uzbekistan
Viet Nam
Yemen
Zambia
10 achievements
1. Activities in over 25 countries
2. In 2 recent projects, over 110’000 people reached (80% women)
3. National and international networks of trainers built
4. 13 + tools for women’s entrepreneurship (in 22 languages)
5. Implementing a rights-based approach in enterprise development
6. Changing societal attitudes at the household level: 11% increase in men’s household chores - Vietnam
7. Month of the woman entrepreneurs celebrations in nine countries
8. Strengthened advocacy and networks of women entrepreneurs
9. Local supply of services to women entrepreneurs increased (22% increase with partners in Southern Africa)
10.Beneficiaries include some of the most marginalized and hard to reach: women with disabilities and women with HIV/AIDS
The ILO WED programme
•Making the policy and regulatory frameworks more gender sensitive and bringing women entrepreneurs into policy dialogue
•Promoting women entrepreneurs as role models
Foster an enabling environment for
women’s entrepreneurship
•Training tools to support women entrepreneurs to grow their businesses and strengthen their access to training & supports and other inputs.
Capacity building for national stakeholders
•Support government to produce policies that take women entrepreneurs’ needs into account – involvement of women entrepreneurs’ associations in advocacy.
Provide policy guidance and
research-based recommendations
•Building projects based on situational analysis, consultations and delivering through local partners
Design projects and approaches with local
stakeholders
WED programme: levels of action
Micro training & supports
Meso capacity of
institutions to promote WED – gender mainstreaming
Macro enabling
regulatory & legal environment – policy advice & assessments
Meta attitudes and cultural
norms – promotion of WEs
Gender mainstreaming of PSD & all relevant policies & programmes
Tools & levels
Micro GET Ahead, IYES,
SIYB, EYB, Action my business growth
Meso FAMOS self check,
WED Capacity building, women entrepreneurs’ association CB
Macro WED
assessments, gender sensitive value chain
Meta month of the woman
entrepreneur, working with men
Clustering services
Gender Equality and
mainstreaming
Access to info, markets &
productive inputs
Advocacy, Networks
& Voice
Photo
: Thom
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avis
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/Panos P
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Gender sensitive Management training, financial services & Financial Literacy
ILO WED in action . . With WEs
South Africa- Fuse, Coca Cola Fortune & ILO www.youtube.com/watch?v=URmcNVKAPOs
Policy recommendations
Fostering social dialogue inclusive of women entrepreneurs ◦ National WED assessments (19 country assessments)
◦ Scoring of various dimensions covered
Request for Assessment & training of national assessors
Desk study & interviews,
situational analysis
Validation workshop
& finalisation
Launching
Dissemina-tion
Develop action plan
Remove systemic barriers
Two pronged approach is key: targeted
approach and removing systemic barriers
Rights based approach – women knowing
their rights and claiming them
Working with existing structures to gender
mainstream (including people with
disabilities)
By doing so….more chance of sustainability
Remove systemic barriers
Barriers are a challenge to move
Find champions and work together
Set achievable goals & milestones with
partners so progress can be seen,
measured and momentum maintained
Change takes time, partners and
resources
Why partner on WED
Intersection between private and public sector interest
A question of efficiency & doing what you do best
Joining efforts can achieve better impact
Sustainability is hard to achieve alone
Build momentum to support women’s empowerment
Ideas for collaboration
1. Core Business/Supply Chain approach – supporting women entrepreneurs along the supply chains & in value chains through capacity building
2. Social Responsiblity approach – contribute
to national development priorities (link to ILO Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy – ILO MNE Declaration)
Ideas for collaboration
A few countries where we are currently seeking partners for new projects on
WED, based on country requests
Mali Algeria Cambodia Kyrgyzstan
Rwanda Egypt Lao PDR
Cameroon Yemen Mongolia
Burundi Sudan Nepal
Togo Iraq Viet Nam Bolivia
Cape vert Palestine Colombia
Senegal El Salvador
Your ideas and Q&A
Thank you
For more information: www.ilo.org/wed
Facebook: ILO-WED
Contact: Joni Simpson
Your ideas and Q&A
For more information on the ILO Helpdesk for Business, the ILO MNE Declaration and the joint ILO/UN Global Compact webinars
on the GC Labour Principles : www.ilo.org/business
Contact: Githa Roelans