Tuesday, September 28, 2004

[IWS] ILO: AFRICAN WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS: Growing Small Businesses [September 2004]

IWS Documented News Service
_______________________________
Institute for Workplace Studies                 Professor Samuel B. Bacharach
School of Industrial & Labor Relations          Director, Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell University
16 East 34th Street, 4th floor                  Stuart Basefsky
New York, NY 10016                      Director, IWS News Bureau
________________________________________________________________________

SEED Working Paper No. 47
Series on Women’s Entrepreneurship Development and Gender Equality — WEDGE
The Challenges of Growing Small Businesses: Insights from Women Entrepreneurs in Africa [September 2004]
by Pat Richardson, Rhona Howarth and Gerry Finnegan
http://www.ilo.org/dyn/empent/docs/F1534684809/WP47-2004.pdf
[full-text, 134 pages]

Executive summary
This report provides a synthesis of the findings from the Jobs, Gender and Small
Enterprises in Africa ­ a Study on Women’s Enterprise Development (the WED Study),
which was carried out in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Zambia throughout 2002. This was an
action research project and funded as part of Ireland Aid’s Partnership Programme with the
International Labour Organization (ILO) and its InFocus Programme on Boosting
Employment through Small Enterprises Development (IFP/ SEED). The study was
directed by Gerry Finnegan from the Women’s Entrepreneurship Development and Gender
in Enterprise (WEDGE) Team within SEED and undertaken by a partnership of three
nationally-based research groups ­ Julé Development Associates International (JUDAI)
Consultants in Zambia, Zewde and Associates PLC in Ethiopia and the University of Dar
Es Salaam’s Entrepreneurship Centre (UDEC) in Tanzania together with two international
consultants Dr. Pat Richardson and Rhona Howarth from the UK. The primary aim of the
research was to:

Identify ways in which Governments, the ILO, donors, NGOs and the private sector can
improve the prospects for women’s entrepreneurship in the three designated countries and
enhance the contribution of women entrepreneurs to the creation of meaningful and
sustainable employment opportunities and poverty alleviation.

The WED Study involved interviewing 379 women business owners (123 surveyed
plus 5 case studies in Ethiopia, 128 surveyed and within these 15 case studies in Tanzania
and 118 surveyed plus 5 case studies in Zambia). This synthesis report, as the title
suggests, provides an overview of the whole project, its findings and the issues arising
from the study. In particular it provides an insight and contributes to the understanding of
the critical factors impacting on women’s enterprise, jobs and gender in Africa at this time.
The report also provides a very useful list of references for related reports and
documentation, classified by geographical area and focus of interest.

_____________________________
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Stuart Basefsky                 *
Director, IWS News Bureau               *
Institute for Workplace Studies *
Cornell/ILR School                      *
16 E. 34th Street, 4th Floor            *
New York, NY 10016                      *
                                        *
Telephone: (607) 255-2703               *
Fax: (607) 255-9641                     *
E-mail: smb6@cornell.edu                *
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