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| Swisscontact experience in promoting women-owned SMEs, 2001 |
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Description
Beginning in the 1980s, most donor agencies and NGOs developed and implemented gender policies that ensured equal access to program services by both women and men. Since there has been very little analysis of international experience in promoting women entrepreneurs, SDC has taken steps to fill this gap, develop strategies, and build lessons learned for professionals interested in implementing programmes that promote women entrepreneurs.
The analysis laid out in this Issues Paper (#6) covers SwissContact programmes where the promotion of women entrepreneurs is either a specific component or an integral part of an SME promotion strategy in Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, Indonesia, Philippines, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, Tanzania and Russia. It shows the different strategies, planning and monitoring tools, concrete instruments used, lessons learned, and results achieved in promoting women entrepreneurs. Hopefully this analysis is a useful input for professionals implementing SMEP programmes intent on increasing the participation of women.
Methods for info gathering
Gender
Summary of results
Purposes and objectives regarding the promotion of women entrepreneurs were different in the investigated countries and there was no homogeneous approach. As gender considerations are relatively new within Swisscontact and Swiss SMEP, a wide variety of different approaches makes sense and can enrich the learning process by comparing different approaches and the results achieved within different cultural contexts.
Budget constraints appeared to be a major reason why relatively few implementation and monitoring instruments were developed. SDC (and most donors) rarely called for public tenders resulting in almost no investment in innovative gender concepts and the promotion of women. Policy dialogue that considers the constraints women face is also needed.
Programmes should have a gender-shaped strategy that targets both men and women. Gender-sensitive planning from the start of a project would save time and effort and it would be relatively simple to apply a portfolio approach to partners, widen sectors, and adapt products to women's needs.
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