[Index]
Building Networks Among Women Entrepreneurs
in the UNECE Region
UNECE Forum of Women Entrepreneurs
Palais des Nations, Geneva, 22 October 2001
Geneva, 19 October 2001
The First Forum of Women Entrepreneurs will open on 22
October at the Palais des Nations (Room XVIII) in Geneva. Over 350
participants from more than 30 countries are expected to share their
personal experience in developing own businesses, discuss how to strengthen
business networks among women and to improve their access to technology and
new markets. The majority of participants are women entrepreneurs and
representatives of women’s business associations from countries in
transition, including Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria,
Croatia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Poland, the Republic of Moldova, the
Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Ukraine, and Yugoslavia. Women entrepreneurs
from western countries such as France, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey,
the United Kingdom, and the United States will also participate in the
Forum.
Their companies differ in size and area of activity. They
range from micro- and small- to large-sized enterprises, providing various
services (IT services, advertising, travel, health care) and goods (leather
goods, garments, innovative souvenirs, like candied edible flowers, or
pneumatic tyres).
The Forum will open with presentations by five
successful women entrepreneurs from Armenia (garment industry), Kyrgyzstan
(credit union), Poland (leather goods), Turkey (pharmaceuticals) and
Switzerland (watches). They will tell their personal stories how they managed
to overcome many gender specific barriers in their countries to establish and
develop their businesses. Despite large differences in the overall economic
environment in their countries and the areas of activities, many barriers are
similar. They include limited access to information, business networks and
collateral as well as the traditional attitude towards the gender role and
unfavourable social climate. As a result women entrepreneurs are often
excluded from trade, business associations and informal "old-boy"
networks, which have a negative impact on their access to information on
credit, training opportunities, business partners and on their access to new
markets.
Strengthening networks among women entrepreneurs at
national, regional and global levels is the second theme of the Forum.
Though there is no doubt that women’s business associations and other NGOs
have played a key role in the development of women’s entrepreneurship in all
transition countries, the networking potential remains largely untapped. Many
business associations in transition countries started as early as in 1992-1992
often through creating a self-help group. Their aim is to enforce the
cooperation among businesswomen, to provide customized training in managerial
skills and marketing, facilitate access to finance but also to "be close
to women entrepreneurs during all difficulties and challenges" and
"fight corruption, bureaucracy and organized crime". The panellists
include representatives of women’s business associations from several
countries, including Croatia, Georgia, Romania, the Russian Federation,
Slovakia and Slovenia.
Meeting new challenges is the third key topic of the
Forum. These challenges include, first of all, the improvement in women’s
access to new technologies, especially e-commerce and foreign market so they
could benefit from the process of globalization. The number of women online
has been rapidly growing and reached over 50% of all internet users in the US
and around 40% in Sweden and UK. Women entrepreneurs in countries in
transition, however, are less benefiting from using ICT for developing their
businesses but they have a good potential. They are well educated, as compared
to women in many developing countries, they are also relatively close to the
major world markets. So the Forum will focus on rising awareness of the
benefits and on how to improve women’s access to e-technologies.
The Forum will discuss several proposals by the secretariat
on how to overcome barriers in development of women’s entrepreneurship in
countries of the region through a better use of the UNECE regional framework.
These proposals include, among others, establishing technology and E-commerce
learning centres and a Euro-Asian foundation of women entrepreneurs to
mobilize resources needed to finance these activities, as well as creating an
on-line network of women’s business associations on the UNECE web site and a
cyber-market for women entrepreneurs. The Forum will also consider the
establishment of an award for the ECE woman entrepreneur of the year in
several categories.
For further information please contact:
Ewa Ruminska-Zimny
Regional Adviser on Gender and Economy
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
Palais des Nations - Office 344
CH - 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Phone: (+41 22) 917 1698
Fax: (+41 22) 917 0036
E-mail: [email protected]
Ref: ECE/OPA/01/08