Issues
Increasing women’s control over decisions that affect their lives is widely acknowledged as central to combating poverty. Investment in women has been shown to have significant knock-on development effects, as women spend additional income on the health and well-being of their families. However, at both macro and micro levels, women’s economic participation is hampered by structural and cultural barriers (See for example World Bank 2007; ILO 2011). Some of the key issues constraining women’s economic participation include:
- Disparities in asset ownership: Gender disparities in asset ownership place restrictions on the economic opportunities of women. Access to land, for instance, can be constrained by law and custom, meaning that women are unable to use it as a production input or collateral for credit. This not only affects individual women, but has a broader impact on economic development. There is consistent empirical evidence that asset inequality has a negative impact on growth in the agricultural sector (Barrett, Manfre and Rubin 2009).
- Social attitudes and norms: The attitudes and behaviours of people in the public arena can curtail the economic opportunities of women. Research from Ghana, for instance, finds that women entrepreneurs were denied business by male customers and suppliers on the basis of their gender (Hampel-Milagrosa 2011). In addition, women’s common triple role – productive, reproductive and community managing – contributes to time poverty and constrains their ability to engage in paid employment.
- Labour market imbalances: Women’s productive role is often stifled due to prejudices and taboos against hiring women. This not only affects the individual, but may hamper economic growth as it restricts total supply, pushes up the price of male labour, and creates artificial labour shortages (World Bank 2007).
- Access to financial services and markets: Women’s lack of collateral, seclusion from the public arena, and lack of mobility can limit their access to market and financial services. For example, women may have access to less information about prices, rules, and rights to basic services (World Bank 2007).
Approaches
The integration of gender issues into private sector development and economic development is essential for pro-poor growth and sustainable development. Agencies have adopted various strategies to leverage private sector development to support women’s and girls’ economic empowerment. Despite growing interest, literature evaluating gender-based upgrading programmes is limited and dominated by a small number of descriptive studies (Coles and Mitchell 2010).
Several bilateral and multilateral agencies are prioritising support for women entrepreneurs in value chain interventions. Assistance typically aims to strengthen the economic opportunities of women entrepreneurs by supporting them in starting, strengthening and expanding their enterprises (ILO undated). The ILO has been a pioneer of women’s entrepreneurship development (WED) and has adopted a threefold approach: creating optimal conditions for women’s entrepreneurs; strengthening institutional capacity to serve the needs of women entrepreneurs; and providing tailor-made tools and approaches to strength women’s capacity to start and sustain businesses (ILO undated).
Women’s entrepreneurship development and gender equality (WEDGE)
The WEDGE Project sought to redress gender imbalances in enterprise development in seven countries, across two regions (Africa and Asia). The programme supported interventions at three levels: creating an enabling environment for women entrepreneurs; improving the capacity of business development providers to deliver services for women entrepreneurs; and improving the income-generating capacity, productivity and competitiveness of women entrepreneurs.
The programme was significantly decentralised, with a Chief Technical Adviser in each region managing the financial and administration arrangements, and preparing country budgets. All countries had a national project coordinator and a national project advisory committee, made up of relevant organisations and social partners. The project paid particular attention to entrepreneurs whose businesses had ‘growth potential’, and emphasised targeting vulnerable groups, such as women living with HIV/AIDS and women with disabilities.
An independent evaluation of the programme found that it produced mixed results. Though the programme contributed to improved support for women entrepreneurs, the full extent of these successes was hampered by inadequate design and weak programme monitoring. Micro-level activities were poorly elaborated, making it difficult to assess whether these efforts had improved income-generating capacity. The slow pace of government policy-making also thwarted business environment reform.
The bottom-up, ‘national focus’ approach was identified as a major strength of the programme. It allowed experience and networks to be shared at the national level, and enabled the programme to respond to national priorities and work with national partners.
Source: ILO (2011)
World Bank experience indicates that women benefit more from business-enabling reforms as their businesses tend to have more problems with customs, business registration, and tax administration than men (World Bank 2007). The Gender and Growth Assessment Tool is an aid to identify key investment climate constraints and develop a roadmap for implementing reform (IFC and FIAS 2005). The tool helps to identify both the long term constraints on women’s engagement – such as gender-biased inheritance laws – and potential short term solutions (IFC and FIAS 2005).
Project activities supporting women’s enterprise development range from offering access to credit or business networks, to training in product development (Nguyen 2012). ICTs have been leveraged by some agencies to support WED programmes. This includes, for instance, the use of mobile phones to convey information about products and markets, or direct support to women’s ICT-based enterprises (Duncombe et al. 2005).
Some experts recommended that the delivery of financial services to women entrepreneurs should be accompanied by supplementary services, such as training, to increase women’s direct control over their resources (OCED 2012).
Businesses and donors can play a key role in enhancing the knowledge and skills of women and girls to increase their economic participation (Heinrich 2013). The clothing company GAP, for instance, has partnered with USAID and CARE International to deliver a women’s advancement programme in its clothing factories. The programme aims to support women garment workers by providing life skills education and technical training.
World Bank Adolescent Girls Initiative
The World Bank’s Adolescent Girls Initiative (AGI) provided demonstrative economic gains for young women. The project targeted eight low-income countries and provided six months of classroom training, followed by six months of business placement and support, including micro-enterprise advisor services and job placement assistance.
Girls are trained in business development skills and jobs skills targeted toward sectors which have a high demand for workers. An independent evaluation of the programme found that there was a 47 per cent increase in employment and earnings among young women who had received the training compared to those who had not.
The Go Beyond employee empowerment programme
MAS Holdings is Sri Lankan clothing company that operates manufacturing plants in seven countries. The Go Beyond programme created a framework to standardise employment development programmes across all plants. Prior to this, the variety and funding of classes for employees were at each plant manager’s discretion. MAS examined best practices at each plant and developed a four point framework of career advancement, work-life balance; rewarding excellence; and community activation. Each site offered English and IT classes and financial management seminars.
A female targeted Women Go Beyond programme was introduced in plants that had high ratios of female employees. It included components such as presentations by noted women speakers, and the selection of a female employee as ‘empowered woman of the year’. Based on the MAS initiative, Gap Inc. and Victoria Secret began their own initiatives recognising women entrepreneurs in MAS plants.
Source: Watson in UN Global Compact and UN-OHCHR (2007)
The provision of flexible working conditions can also help to increase women’s economic participation. Case studies from Vanuatu and the Philippines show that the use of flexible and home-based work increases women’s access to wage employment (Nethercott, Jago-Bassingthwaighte and Jupp 2013).
Improved access to labour saving equipment can also help women participate in the labour market. For instance, the upgrading of automated packing equipment in a fruit and vegetable factory in Fiji reduced weight loads and enabled more women to be employed on the factory floor (Heinrich 2013).
A number of toolkits and guidelines have been produced to support agencies in mainstreaming gender in their private sector development work (Mayoux and Mackie 2007; Senders, Lentink and Vanderschaeghe 2012). Some of key lessons and guidance emerging from the literature include:
- Gender mainstreaming: Gender mainstreaming should take place at all stages of the intervention, from initial design and planning, to implementation and monitoring of projects (Mayoux and Mackie 2007; UNCTAD 2014). Participatory approaches can be useful to identify the specific needs of, and impacts of the project on, women (Mayoux and Mackie 2007).
- Gender appropriate infrastructure development: Upgrading the facilities that small-scale operators depend on can help to increase productivity and improve access to new markets. Infrastructure development should take into account the facilities that women have access to and use (UNCTAD 2014).
- Addressing institutional and household issues: A systematic review of literature on gender upgrading found that programmes can be ineffective when the institutional and household factors that limited women’s access to markets are not addressed (Coles and Mitchell 2010).
- Barrett, K., Manfre, C., & Rubin, D. (2009). Promoting gender equitable opportunities: Why it matters for agricultural value chains. Washington: USAID. See document online
- Coles, C. & Mitchell, J. (2010). Gender and agricultural value chains – a review of current knowledge and practice and their policy implications (ESA Working Paper No. 11-05). London: ODI. See document online
- Duncombe, R., Heeks, R., Morgan, S., & Arun, S. (2005). Supporting women’s ICT-based enterprises. A handbook for agencies in development. Manchester: Institute for Development Policy, University of Manchester. See document online
- Hampel-Milagrosa, A. (2011). The role of regulation, tradition and gender in doing business: Case study and survey report on a two-year research project in Ghana. Bonn: German Development Institute. See document online
- Heinrich, M. (2013). Donor partnerships with business for private sector development: What can we learn from experience? (Working Paper, March 2013). DCED. See document online
- IFC, & FIAS (2005). Gender and growth assessment for Uganda: A gender perspective on legal and administrative barriers to investment. IFC and World Bank. See document online
- ILO. (2011). Evaluation summaries: Women’s entrepreneurship development and gender equality (WEDGE): Phase 3. Geneva: ILO. See document online
- ILO (n. d.). Women’s entrepreneurship development. Geneva: International Labor Organisation. ILO. See document online
- Mayoux, L., & Mackie, G. (2007). Making the strongest links: A practical guide to mainstreaming gender analysis in value chain development. Geneva: ILO. See document online
- Nethercott, K., Jago-Bassingthwaighte, M., & Jupp, A. (2013). Women’s economic empowerment – Practice and policy implications from the enterprise challenge fund: A review of a private sector development initiative funded by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID). Coffey International Development.
- Nguyen, T. (2012). Scoping study of women’s entrepreneurship development (WED) interventions: Knowledge gaps for assessment of project performance. Cambridge: DCED. See document online
- OECD. (2012). Women’s economic empowerment: The OECD DAC Network on Gender Equality (GENDERNET). Paris: OECD. See document online
- Senders, A., Lentink, A., Vanderschaeghe, M. (2012). Gender in value chains: Practical toolkit to integrate a gender perspective in agricultural value chain development. Agri-Pro Focus. See document online
- UNCTAD. (2014). The fisheries sector in the Gambia: trade, value addition and social inclusiveness, with a focus on women. New York and Geneva: UNCTAD. See document online
- UN Global Compact, & UN-OHCHR. (2007). Embedding human rights into business practice II. New York: UN Global Compact and UN-OHCHR. See document online
- World Bank. (2007). Private sector development and gender: Gender and development briefing notes. Washington, DC: World Bank. See document online