Linking business to markets: Increasing opportunities for women
Our multi-million pound Women’s Economic Empowerment Programme in Pakistan is funded by the UK Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office. We take a closer look at our multi-pronged approach to this work, through a five-part blog series covering:
• Quality training
• Developing entrepreneurship
• Linking businesses to market
• Financial inclusion for all
• Access to decent jobs
Linking business to markets: Increasing opportunities for women
Despite evidence that women entrepreneurs reap significant reward from increased links to markets and business opportunities, there are still major barriers preventing access to trading in South Asia.
Although females are universally recognised as leading accelerators of global growth, male-dominated markets mean that women’s ability to launch and expand a business is severely restricted. In fact, the US-based Asia Foundation reports* that women own less than 10% of small and medium-sized enterprises in the region, and with most business sectors traditionally excluding females, their entrepreneurial potential is even more limited.
However, the situation could be very different. The International Monetary Fund** states that if obstacles to business participation were removed, women would be the drivers of global growth. Fundamentally, this would boost economic stability and GDP, which also has far-reaching social implications. As it stands, women in employment remain vulnerable – often trapped in unskilled jobs, with few rights and unstable earnings.
Improved market access and business infrastructure are accordingly vital to ensure better trading opportunities for women. Although livelihood-based initiatives usually focus on skills training and production, without market access these elements can prove futile, leading businesses to struggle or fail.
But the route into the marketplace is far from smooth. There is huge research to show that it requires expertise, knowledge and a network of contacts, which women in South Asia inherently lack. The high cost of developing professional relationships is another stumbling block in cultivating women's long-term success, as well as deep-rooted fear of prejudice in business.
Our new women’s economic empowerment project has been largely influenced by research done by CERP in partnership with FCDO and Pakistan Skills Development Fund, which sought to highlight both the restrictions and successes of female market linkage in Pakistan. As a result of the findings, the project will incorporate three main actions to help women achieve better market access:
1) Firstly, sales agents will be deployed to assist women entrepreneurs in finding potential buyers and markets for their products.
2) Secondly, we will organise and attend exhibitions which are geared around the sale of their products.
3) In addition, web support and tools will be provided so that women are equipped to sell items online.
With this multi-layered approach, rural women entrepreneurs will be able to break down existing barriers and get right to the heart of markets, which in turn can bring huge benefits to entire global economies and communities.
By Anjana Raza, Head of Pakistan & Technical Lead Education Programme, British Asian Trust.
In the next installment, we will look at how ensuring financial inclusion for all women helps them to build their businesses and working from home opportunities.
