Insights from "Women in Action: Leading the Way in Enterprise Development"

Women in Action: Leading the Way in Enterprise Development—Participant Insights

November 13, 2012 | Washington D.C. | www.wlsme.org

On November 13, 2012, USAID, in partnership with the World Bank, held a launch event for their “Women's Leadership in Small and Medium Enterprises” initiative. The keynote featured Steve Radelet, USAID's Chief Economist, followed by a panel of experienced development practitioners including Caroline Freund of the World Bank, Nancy Lee of the Inter-American Development Bank, and Noa Meyer of the Goldman Sachs Foundation. The event provided a forum for necessary dialogue on the benefits and obstacles of female involvement in small and medium enterprises in developing regions.

Keynote speech by Steve Radelet, Chief Economist at USAID

Steve Radelet kicked off the presentations by establishing the critical need to bring women into the workforce and ownership positions around the world. Radelet spoke of the proven benefits of women in leadership. “There is a huge body of evidence that it increases income, productivity, technology, and improves the lives of families.” According to Radelet, there are three types of broad economic advantages in creating opportunity for women:

• Income improvements
• Poverty and inequality reduction
• Positive impact on families

Radelet then affirmed the barriers that need to be addressed to make true improvement in this area. Among the constraints were cultural factors, as families tend to focus on the males instead of females, and the role of information in knowledge networks, as men and women have different access to knowledge about market opportunities and technologies.

Eric Postel, Assistant Administrator of USAID's E3 Bureau, then took to the stage to introduce the panel of SME experts. Postel highlighted bottlenecks in development of opportunity for women worldwide. In many development programs, the only metrics measured are number of loans, number of “bad” loans, and number of workers employed, with little consideration paid toward gender disparities.

Nancy Lee, General Manager of the Multilateral Investment Fund at Inter-American Development Bank

Nancy Lee was the first to speak on the panel and began with an optimistic statement that—with regard to job creation, firm creation, and firm growth—investments in women are some of the most impactful in the developing world.

At the Inter-American Development Bank, efforts toward women are focused on:

• Mainstreaming gender considerations
• Developing women's entrepreneurship
• Directing efforts to women in households

Lee’s discussion focused on the demand and supply in access to finance. Lee referenced what she considered to be a striking statistic: up to 70 percent of women-owned SMEs in Latin America and the Caribbean report un-served credit needs. The IDB has shown that credit score models are skewed to benefit men more than women. According to Lee, revisiting these models and reimagining them with women in mind is a key step for addressing supply concerns in development. With regard to demand, Lee stated it is increasingly difficult to get women to “walk through the door.” Banks must be more motivated to tailor their efforts to women SME entrepreneurs.

Noa Meyer, Program Manager of 10,000 Women at Goldman Sachs Foundation

Noa Meyer began her speech by highlighting the power of women as entrepreneurs. Supporting her statements is her work as Program Director of 10,000 Women. Meyer explained that the 10,000 Women program partners with business schools to identify women-owned businesses. Once identified, they work with academic partners and local NGOs to provide ongoing support services, business advising, and networking opportunities. To fully understand impact, the program conducts extensive M&E follow up for 30 months. Some of the metrics measured are job creation and revenue creation. Segueing into visible results of the program, Meyer emphasized the deep sense of investment women enrolled in the 10,000 Women program feel in paying forward what they have learned. After undergoing training, women recognize that their role in society is to take hold of the knowledge they have acquired and spread it.

Caroline Freund, World Bank Chief Economist for the MENA Region

Caroline Freund finished by offering her views on the unique and severe set of challenges women face in the Middle East and North Africa region. Labor force participation by women is below 30 percent—the lowest in the world. An enormous hindrance on labor force participation by women is rooted in cultural norms and mindsets. According to Freund, there is a pervasive sense in the population that men are the breadwinners. This mentality makes it difficult for female participation in the workforce to improve. To add to the difficulties, research has consistently shown that business climate is weaker in the MENA region, manifested by a lot of red tape. Despite these challenges, and not wanting to leave the audience on a negative note, Freund concluded with what she sees as two positive signs of hope in the region: sharply declining fertility rates, which results in increased agency for women, and a tremendous upward increase in education.

Conclusion

Shari Berenbach, Director of USAID's Microenterprise and Private Enterprise Promotion Office, then closed the session with questions from the audience. Each panelist gave their closing remarks, hopeful about progress for women in business leadership roles. Exiting statements closely echoed a quote Steve Radelet shared earlier on by Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, “You’ll know that we’re making progress when you ask a man to talk about women issues and a woman to talk about high finance.”