PHOTO: Ganesh Dhamodkar on Wikimedia
Entrepreneurial about gender equality
Women in business can lift communities and countries out of poverty
Hong Joo Hahm
Development, Arts, culture & society | Australia, Asia, East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, The Pacific, The World
Asia and the Pacific need more women entrepreneurs. Women's economic empowerment and gender equality depend on it, as does the inclusive economic growth needed to achieve the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, Hong Joo Hahm writes.
Establishing a business can be life-changing. This is particularly the case for women in developing countries, where a business can be a passport to financial independence and a means of breaking out of poverty.
More women in employment gives families financial security. It helps guarantee children a good diet, a solid education, and reliable healthcare. And because women employ other women and spend more on their families, women entrepreneurs create more inclusive economies and prosperous communities. Potential GDP gains from gender equality in the workplace are enormous – up to 50 per cent in parts of South Asia.
But for all this potential, businesswomen face considerable obstacles in Asia and the Pacific.
Representation on company boards is lower than in any other region and women CEOs are precious few. Gender bias runs through inheritance, labour and social security laws. Many women work in the informal economy with no social protection and societal prejudice frustrates women's entrepreneurial potential. Across Asia, women give up to six hours of unpaid care work a day, thwarting educational attainment and career prospects.
For women wanting to start or expand a business, access to finance is key.
As many as 70 per cent of women-owned micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are underserved by financial institutions in developing countries. Women struggle to borrow in a region where land is required as collateral but where very few are landowners. So women-owned enterprises are consistently smaller and concentrated in less profitable sectors.
To overcome these challenges, the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) is launching a new initiative with generous financial support from Global Affairs Canada. Its goal: to support financing for women entrepreneurs and innovators, improve their access to information and communication technology (ICT), and create a policy environment in which their businesses can flourish. It will give 20,000 women entrepreneurs greater access to ICT and finance.
ICT and innovative financing lie at the heart of the initiative. We want to support businesswomen to mainstream ICT across business operations – to make their financial management more robust and their outlook more responsive to new technologies.
We plan to launch 'women bonds' for women entrepreneurs, channeling private sector investment from developed markets to support gender equality in the developing world. We will work with impact investment funds to target women-led investments. We will also encourage financial technology (fintech) solutions through advice on regulatory frameworks, training to help women access fintech services, and new credit lines to support innovators.
Deeper gender analysis of the MSME sector will complement these activities and inform policies that strengthen women's rights and access to justice, reforms that update inheritance and property regimes, and legislation that stops credit being extended according to gender or marital status. For such a broad challenge, we will bring women entrepreneurs and policymakers together to build a gender-sensitive response across policy areas and governments.
The case for investing in women entrepreneurs is overwhelming. They are true agents of change whose innovation can lift communities, companies, and countries. We are committed to improving their prospects, unleashing women entrepreneurs' full potential, and putting gender equality squarely at the heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in Asia and the Pacific.
Hong Joo Hahm is Deputy Executive Secretary and Officer-in-Charge of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).
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