A Better World Volume 1

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Industry and Trade, Cooperatives and Small and Medium

Enterprises found that lack of access to markets, networking

and skills training opportunities significantly impeded the

ability of women to start and run their own businesses. To

address these challenges, these ministries have joined hands

to sponsor domestic and international trade fairs to promote

the products of women-led businesses, provide sector-specific

training programmes, and develop incubators for innovative

business models. These measures will go far in helping to build

a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem for women in Indonesia.

In the Philippines, a national law has been implemented that

requires each ministry to allocate a minimum of 5 per cent

of its annual budget to projects addressing gender concerns.

Implementation of gender-responsive budgeting over the past

two decades has resulted in a number of progressive policy and

legal measures promoting equal opportunities for women and

girls. The implementation of these policies contributed to the

Philippines ranking seventh out of 145 in the World Economic

Forum’s Gender Gap Index 2015. As the highest ranked Asia-

Pacific country, the Philippines has made considerable progress

in closing gender gaps in health and survival, educational attain-

ment, economic participation and political empowerment.

In China, to enhance rural women’s access to credit and

financial services, a state-subsidized interest-free loan

programme was jointly launched in 2009 by the Ministry of

Finance, Ministry of Human Resource and Social Security,

People’s Bank of China and the All-China Women’s Federation.

Benefiting from loans totalling US$42 billion issued over the

past seven years, more than 5 million women have been able

to start or expand their businesses and thereby create employ-

ment opportunities for millions of women in China.

Promoting women’s entrepreneurship

Asia and the Pacific is the engine of global economic growth

and home to the world’s fastest growing economies. Small and

medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of this

growth, accounting for on average 96 per cent of all enter-

prises and over 60 per cent of the national labour force in the

region.

Women-owned SMEs are a critical component in this

landscape and they have enormous potential to contribute to

economic growth, particularly in emerging markets.

To support the creation of SMEs through female entrepre-

neurship, ESCAP has been working with governments and

other stakeholders in the region to foster the adoption of legal

and regulatory measures that remove barriers to women’s

entrepreneurship. Our policy work aims to:

• address discriminatory social norms and ensure gender-

responsive policy in SME development and promotion

• engage financial institutions to increase women’s access

to credit and financial services, and develop standards for

fair and equal treatment of women applicants

• enhance women’s access to market information, social

networks and services through harnessing access to ICT.

Of these policy areas, we as a region must urgently work

together to enhance women’s access to ICT in particular.

Electricity and light from a local biomass plant have improved this family’s quality of life in Badhai, Punjab

Image: Mari Sawai/ESCAP

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