Strengthening the Regional Network of Women Entrepreneurs through enabling their access to global markets. In partnership with governments and NGOs, UNIFEM seeks to promote exchange of information on marketing, technology exchange and trade development among women entrepreneurs from South Asia & other parts of the world.
In India, the intervention enables women entreprenuers from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan to participate in the India International Trade Fair (IITF), an event that UNIFEM has been supporting annually since 1996. This has led to the formation of a forum – the South Asian Women Entrepreneurs (SAWE). As the GOI had declared 2001 as the Women’s Empowerment Year, UNIFEM made special efforts to include women artisan producers and entrepreneurs in the IITF. It supported the initiative to bring women entrepreneurs together on common platform to explore new marketing linkages & exchange of technology within & outside the country, to enhance their capacity, and to facilitate market linkages and business alliances. The IITF Fair is visited annually by over 3 million general public and about 15,000 business people. UNIFEM supported the participation of about 200 women artisans, producers and entrepreneurs from the SAARC Region in the India International Trade Fair, held annually in New Delhi. Through experts, it provided technical inputs, business counseling, ICT training and design support leading to increased export orders, formation of business alliances and improved awareness on possibilities of e-commerce.
To promote cross regional learning with micro credit as a tool of empowerment, UNIFEM was an active partner in the A-P Micro Credit Summit – Meeting of Councils in Delhi on 1-5th February 2001. It facilitated the participation of grassroots women leaders, practitioner NGOs and key resource persons from South Asia and organized a workshop on “Women’s Empowerment and Microcredit”. Here it pilot tested a resource package, a training manual on women’s empowerment and micro credit, jointly developed by UNIFEM and UK Open University. Best practices from the region, like PCRW Nepal, Kashf Foundation, Pakistan and Rashtriya Mahila Kosh (RMK), India, were presented. The workshop focused on micro finance as an entry point in women’s empowerment and examined the impact of micro finance in mainstreaming gender in the banking system. The dialogue was continued through an Electronic Discussion Forum, which was active for a specific time frame. The agenda for the next Summit in Mexico scheduled for 2002, has included women’s empowerment and micro-credit as a major theme both for its workshops and technical training sessions.
An Action Approach to Sharing, Improving & Preparing Pictorial cum Demonstrative Learning Manuals of EIGSEP & its Further Wider Outreach amongst NGOs, Women Groups and Other Development Agencies
The initiative reinforces the impact of the pilot initiative, Entrepreneurial Linked Income Generation for Self-Enterprising People (EIGSEP) in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, which strengthened low income women’s economic capacity as entrepreneurs & producers with technical training, financial linkages and entrepreneurial skills.
Regional Training Workshop on “Access to Global Markets”, Second Asian Crafts Festival and Campaign for “Rights of the Artisans to Livelihood and Fair Trade” (Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan)
In 2001, UNIFEM supported the initiative in New Delhi, to create opportunities for women producers and micro entrepreneurs to explore market linkages, simultaneously building their capabilities in the field of market intelligence, resource management and in the use of ICT to enhance their positions globally. It enabled the setting up of a South Asian network of women artisans and Primary Producer Groups (ARTRAC), which was able to bring grassroots artisans and their associations closer to domestic and international markets through the use of ICT, product design support and business management training. Direct returns to artisans were facilitated and market links through interactions with Buyers were enhanced. The Campaign brought about an increased awareness among stakeholders and the general public about the rights of artisans to livelihoods, about Fair Trade norms and about buying artisans’ products from genuine Fair Trade outlets. A comprehensive document on the event with case studies on participating artisans and their recommendations for future activities has been produced, as has a Public Affairs Project Report on the Campaign for Right of Artisans to Livelihood and Fair Trade.
The Second Asian Crafts Festival catalyzed participating countries in holding crafts festivals in their countries, with WINNER Bangladesh holding a regional event.
Nepal: Capacity Building of Women in Aama Samuha in Jamuni
UNIFEM is strengthening Aama Samuha, an NGO of women cotton farmers, which resulted from UNIFEM’s previous initiative. It is working to enhance the capacity of its members in various aspects, which include appropriate technology to increase productivity of and returns from cotton farming and beginning a banana plantation programme as an alternative to cotton farming to ensure round-the-year productivity. The programme also focuses on leadership & gender training, on improving the organizational capacity of women farmers & expanding their choices.
Nepal: Regional Conference of Women Producers and Entrepreneurs
To promote entrepreneurship development among women in Nepal, UNIFEM supported a Regional Conference of Women Producers and Entrepreneurs. The conference brought together women entrepreneurs and grassroots women producers on a common platform leading to a sharing of ideas and experiences. It led to the development of new perspectives, identification of new markets, promoting skill and technology transfer and fostering networking and linkages.
Nepal: National Seminar on Women Entrepreneurs
UNIFEM supported a national seminar, in which diverse Ministries of His Majesty’s Government of Nepal were present. The Seminar initiated dialogue and consultation in the region in preparation for the setting up of SAFTA (South Asia Forum for Trade Agreement) by 2005, especially in the context of the fast-approaching deadline of 2005 for accession to WTO. The seminar enabled women entrepreneurs and small grassroots producers to convey their issues and concerns to policymakers, who assured them of their cooperation in dealing with changes, brought about by the processes of globalization and liberalization.
Background: With DEVNET Association, Rome, Italy, and local NGOs, UNIFEM is supporting this pilot project to demonstrate how women running small and micro enterprises in developing countries can benefit from Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) so as to fit in the globalization economic era. WINNER II aims to create synergy for sustainable trade activities among women entrepreneurs in Albania, Bangladesh, Ecuador, Nepal, Philippines, Romania, China and Zimbabwe. It also aims to facilitate their access to the global market place as well as establish linkages with industrialized economies in Europe and elsewhere.
Phase I has
involved improving ICT managerial skills of women in the Small Medium
Enterprise (SME) sector and promoting women’s role in the management of
SMEs. It encouraged their participation, through the use of telematic
means in Internet and in the framework of global economic integration
Phase II involves consolidating the
electronic commerce experience of WINNER trainees by continuing the
training on E-commerce and International Trade, adapted to the local
context. It includes, developing tools to facilitate participation of
women, organizing a long distance training programme, using multimedia and
multilingual CD-ROMS and other systems to participate in the mainstream of
SME globalization. It aims to strengthen the international trading skills
acquired by WINNER trainees with post-training support and building a
WINNER Intranet, which allows a flow of information, inquiries and
encourages exchange of best practices and experiences aiming WINNER
countries. It is developing an entrepreneurial management (EM) training
course in CD Rom and setting up a WINNER Electronic Help Desk to suit the
needs in each country. An Electronic Market Space is being developed to
strengthen business relations between WINNER beneficiaries and their
international partners and mechanisms to support monitoring and assessment
of the impact of WINNER II.
In Nepal, WINNER
Phase 1 has been successfully completed, having catalyzed regional
networking amongst women entrepreneurs, identification of new markets and
the promotion of entrepreneurship, technology transfer, and prospects of
global business. Phase II has commenced, which includes training and the
setting up of electronic market sites, to cater to WINNER members
globally.
In Bangladesh, Phase 1 began in
2001, and this has included in participation in several Global Trade Fairs
and markets including those in Montreal and Geneva, besides its own Market
Meets in Dhaka. Export orders and retail sales worth several thousands of
dollars have been generated during these events.
In order to ensure sustainability, WINNER Bangladesh and Nepal have set up Help Desks managed by local organizations. These Help Desks provide sustained technical support and business services to women who have undergone WINNER training. WINNER members from Nepal and Bangladesh participated in the UNIFEM supported Second Asian Crafts Festival organized in New Delhi by Spandana in 2001.