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FINAL REPORT

Employers’ Organizations and Women Entrepreneurs: How to reach out? Stocktaking Conference 26-28 November 2014

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ACTIVITY SUMMARY

Course Title: “Employers’ Organizations and Women entrepreneurs: How to reach out?” Stocktaking Conference

Dates: 26-28 November 2014

Activity Code: A907544

Duration: 3 days

Venue: Turin, Italy

Working Language: English/French

Number of Participants: 29

Activity Manager: Jeanne Schmitt

Activity Assistant: Rachida Zingara

Funding: ITCILO, DECP, ILO

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION p. 4

2. CONFERENCE DESIGN p. 8

2.1 OBJECTIVES p. 8

2.2 METHODOLOGY p. 9

2.3 PARTICIPANTS’ PROFILE p. 9

2.4 FACULTY p. 10

3. CONFERENCE IMPLEMENTATION p. 12

3.1 CONFERENCE SESSIONS p. 12

3.3 EVALUATION p. 24

4. ANNEXES In separate document

I. LIST OF PARTICIPANTS AND RESOURCE PERSONS

II. CONFERENCE AGENDA

III. EVALUATION RESULTS

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1. BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION The globalization of world economies creates new challenges for countries’ development; their success depending on how smart they are in utilizing their economic and social assets. While most policymakers and academics agree that entrepreneurship is a catalyst for economic growth and national competitiveness, they also need to acknowledge that not all groups in their societies have equal access to this endeavour. When a major part of a population does not engage in entrepreneurship, these economies lose the benefits that would otherwise be provided by new products and services, additional revenues, and new jobs. More specifically, when women do not participate equally in entrepreneurship, society loses out on the value that can be created by half its population. Women are undeniably an important untapped source of economic growth. Over the last decades, in most countries of the world, women have made a remarkable entry in the labour market and the number of women-owned business has increased substantially. However, the entrepreneurial gap between women and men is still high, both in developing as in more advanced economies even if to different extents.

Indeed, women continue to face major challenges when they take part in entrepreneurial activities: as “entrepreneurs”, they face difficulties linked to the business development process (such as lack of training, difficult access to financial resources), but as “women” they must also overcome other obstacles linked to inequalities between the sexes and prejudices in the environment they work in. These may be “hard" obstacles which are, for example, legal (legal status of women, discriminatory access to property, discriminatory access to justice, additional guarantees for women to access financing, greater difficulty in accessing some public services such as customs, tax departments, etc.) or “soft” constraints linked to reconciling work and family responsibilities, to specific difficulties concerning society's attitudes towards women, unequal early conditions, for example, in education and training, etc. Employers’ Organizations, which mission is to advocate for a better business environment and to provide services to member companies, are well placed to provide solutions to the challenges faced by women business-owners’ and managers. However, empiric evidence from ILO and ITCILO research shows that women entrepreneurs tend to be underrepresented in the traditional memberships of Employers’ Organizations compared to larger enterprises, in traditional and formal sectors of the economy. Additionally, only few Employers’ Organizations specifically tailor the services they provide to women entrepreneurs or develop mutually reinforcing advocacy and lobbying strategies with women entrepreneurs and their associations.

Even if the issue of the disconnect between Employers’ Organizations and Women Entrepreneurs is actual and relevant, it is not a typical filed of intervention of training providers. However, in the last few years, the Employers Activities Unit of the ITC ILO has developed a solid expertise in this field. In cooperation with the Dutch Employers’ Cooperation Programme (DECP), it has notably collected numerous case studies and conducted worldwide surveys on current practices in reaching out to women entrepreneurs.

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Project Activities 2011-2014

The ITCILO Programme for Employers’ Activities has organized a number of interregional and regional workshops during which UN/international and business world experts, EOs’ staff and Governing Board members as well as representatives of Women Entrepreneurs Associations have been brought together to discuss and provide practical ideas and tools to face the challenges related to reaching out to women entrepreneurs in their respective countries.

These events were organized as follows:

• Interregional experts seminar in November 2011 (Turin, Italy)

• Training workshop for employers’ organisations in Eastern and Southern Africa in June 2012 (Johannesburg, South Africa)

• Training workshop for employers’ organisations in the Asia-Pacific region in October 2012 (Bangkok, Thailand)

• Training workshop for employers’ organisations of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) in March 2013 (Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso)

• Training workshop for employers’ organisations of the Caribbean region in October 2013 (Kingston, Jamaica)

• Training workshop for employers’ organisations of the Maghreb region in June 2014 (Casablanca, Morocco)

• Stock-taking conference from 26 to 28 November 2014 (Turin, Italy)

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Project results in a nutshell

• 150 Staff and Board members from Employers Organizations and Women Entrepreneurs Associations worldwide being trained;

• Development of worldwide surveys, case studies and training materials; Cooperation with ILO, World Bank, Deloitte, CIPE and other international experts;

• Identifications of good practices and discussion of hands-on peer recommendations on how to effectively reach out to women entrepreneurs;

• Development of concrete action plans by participating organizations which were used to monitor achievements and progress; systematic impact evaluation after 6 months;

• Development of a Guidance Toolkit with videos, infographics and guidance notes on three issues: women in governing board; access to finance and training services.

• Development of a dedicated web based platform for participants to access materials and network.

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Article published on lempnet (http://lempnet.itcilo.org) in Nov. 2014

Employers Organizations working with & for Women Entrepreneurs The Stock-taking Conference of the project "Employers’ Organizations and Women Entrepreneurs: How to reach out?” was organized last week in Turin. Since 2011, the ITCILO Programme for Employers’ Activities and DECP have developed a project called “Employers’ Organizations and Women Entrepreneurs: How to reach out?” which aims at identifying mutual benefits for Eos and women entrepreneurs to work together and ways to do so effectively.

After a first expert workshop and five regional seminars, a Stock-taking Conference in Turin, Italy, from 26 to 28 November in partnership with DECP and the ILO Bureau of Employers Activities.

29 business representatives from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Europe joined in, together with high level experts from the ILO, the World Bank, CIPE, Deloitte, UEAPME and the IOE.

The Conference had four main objectives:

• INFORMATION - Be informed on the progress regarding women entrepreneurs’ economic participation worldwide

• INSPIRATION - Be inspired by projects piloted by other institutions working with business organizations and women entrepreneurs

• STOCKTAKING - Take-stock of the results achieved so far by Employers Organizations in organizing women entrepreneurs, voicing their interests and servicing them – a Knowledge Fair was organised for that purpose

• GUIDANCE - Jointly develop concrete guidance tools on a selected number of topics (governance and membership; lobbying and advocacy; services provision) in order to help EOs and Women Business Associations in the future

During the conference, participants notably worked on developing guidance notes, videos messages and infographics on critical topics for women entrepreneurs’ advancement such as • the participation of women in EOs’ Governing Boards • women entrepreneurs access to finance and • the need for Eos to invest more in women entrepreneurs training

These resources will be shared on the web once finalised.

“It was truly an amazing and inspiring program where I was able to learn and share some very interesting thoughts and ideas! I am sure I will be able to use a lot of the information both at

organizational as well as personal level.” Sabrina Islam, Vice-President, Bangladesh Employers’ Federation (BEF)

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2. CONFERENCE DESIGN

2.1 OBJECTIVES

In order to build on the results and momentum achieved throughout the project “Employers’ Organizations and Women Entrepreneurs: How to reach out?”, the ITCILO Programme for Employers’ Activities, the ILO Bureau for Employers Activities and DECP organized a Stock-taking Conference on 26-28 November 2014 in Turin, Italy.

The conference was conceived as an opportunity to: • Be informed on the progress regarding women entrepreneurs’ economic participation

worldwide • Take-stock of the results achieved so far by Employers Organizations in organizing

women entrepreneurs, voicing their interests and servicing them • Be inspired by projects piloted by other institutions working with business

organizations and women entrepreneurs • Jointly develop concrete guidance tools on a selected number of topics (governance

and membership; lobbying and advocacy; services provision) in order to help EOs and Women Business Associations in the future

• What is the global situation regarding women entrepreneurs’ economic participation today?

INFORMATION

• What are others doing? INSPIRATION

• What are the results achieved so far by EOs in organizing women entrepreneurs, voicing their interests and servicing them?

STOCKTAKING

• How can we support organizational change? Development of tools to guide EOs and WBAs in their future efforts

GUIDANCE

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2.2 METHODOLOGY

The conference included a mix of presentations, panel discussions and group work. All participants from employers/business associations were asked to actively share their experiences. • Keynote intervention on a global perspective on women's economic participation

today, the progress and the remaining challenges

• Keynote intervention and good practice examples on the role of business associations in advancing gender equality and the participation of women in economic decision-making

• Knowledge Fair – Exchanging experiences among participating organizations to the ITCILO project

• Writers’ workshop and peer review sessions leading to the development of a Guidance Toolkit. The aim of the Guidance Toolkit is to help both EOs and WBAs in their lobbying efforts to alleviate business environment obstacles for women entrepreneurs (lobbying and advocacy); provide tailor-made services to enhance to women entrepreneurs their businesses (services provision); increase the voice of women entrepreneurs inside their own organizations (governance and membership strategies). On three issues chosen by the participants themselves, guidance notes, video messages and infographics were developed. The chosen issues were: • Women in governing board;

• Access to finance and

• Training services. The conference was held in English and French with simultaneous interpretation. All documents, presentations etc. as well as the online platform were made available in both languages.

2.3 PARTICIPANTS’ PROFILE

The conference was designed for Employer Organizations staff and/or board members as well as for representatives of Women Entrepreneurs’ Associations having specific responsibility and experience to share regarding membership, governance, lobbying or service provision strategies. Organizations having participated to previous activities and that had expressed particular commitment to work of the issues at stake were invited in priority. Other organizations having expressed interest in reaching out to women entrepreneurs even if not having being

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targeted by the project activities (notably from Europe) were also invited to join the Conference. The group of participants proved to be extremely committed, dynamic and participative, which was instrumental to the success of the activity. It can be regretted that no man took part in the conference. However, the issue was openly discussed during the conference as all participants recognized the need to convince more men that the issue of reaching out to women entrepreneurs is a relevant one for EOs. This goes in parallel to the need to ensure that a balance of men and women is reached in the governing board of EOs and at decision-making levels more generally.

Please see Annex I for the detailed list of participants.

2.4 FACULTY

Inputs to the conference were given by a range of experts with different backgrounds.

The following experts actively participated:

• Ms Jeanne SCHMITT, Senior Programme Officer, ITCILO Programme for Employers’ Activities

• Ms Johanne LORTIE, Senior Programme Officer, International Labour Standards, Rights at Work and Gender Equality (ILSGEN), ITCILO

• Ms Ilka SCHOELLMANN, Senior ADVISOR, ILO ACT/EMP, Geneva • Ms Melissa JOHNS, Advisor, World Bank

List of participating countries per region Europe: Africa:

ALBANIA BOTSWANA GERMANY BURKINA FASO

MACEDONIA BURUNDI MONTENEGRO COTE D’IVOIRE

NORWAY MALI MOROCCO

Asia: NIGERIA BANGLADESH SENEGAL

FIJI SOUTH AFRICA INDIA TANZANIA

PAKISTAN TUNISIA PHILIPPINES UGANDA SRI LANKA ZAMBIA VIET NAM

Americas: Arab States: BARBADOS

LEBANON

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• Ms Madonna JARRETT, Global Policy Leader, Deloitte Ltd • Ms Anna NADGRODKIEWICZ, Director Multiregional Programs, Center for

International Private Enterprise (CIPE) • Ms Helen HOFFMANN, Advisor for Social Affairs, UEAPME • Ms Amelia ESPEJO, Advisor, IOE

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3. CONFERENCE IMPLEMENTATION

3.1 CONFERENCE SESSIONS

The conference was structured around 4 different types of sessions:

The full agenda of the conference is available in Annex II. Some more information on the content of presentations and discussions can be found hereafter:

INFORMATION

INSPIRATION

STOCKTAKING

GUIDANCE

Melissa Johns, Progress made and remaining challenges for women from the Women, Business and the Law Report 2014

Madonna Jarrett, Lessons learned from the BIAC-Deloitte initiative Putting ALL our minds to work

Anna Nadgrodkiewicz, CIPE, Women Empowerment Programs Helen Hoffmann, UEAPME – The Gender Equality Toolkit developed by the European Social Partners Amelia Espejo, IOE Work with BPW International and policy recommendations

Knowledge Fair - Presentation of 8 Good Practice Cases by participating organizations, discussion with ALL and identification of lessons to be learned

Joint development of Guidance Tools (Guidance Note; Video Message and Infographics) on identified hot issues in the fields of Lobbying and Advocacy; Services Development and Governance / Membership

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Opening Session

During the opening session Ms Patricia O’Donovan, Director of the ITCILO, welcomed the participants to the Centre and to Turin and highlighted the importance of this initiative. The Conference is an opportunity to both showcase and support the voice of women as part of the voice of business. She also highlighted the timeliness of the initiative as women economic participation is a major issue both for the ILO strategy of engagement with enterprises and for the discussions on the UN Post 2015 development agenda.

Ms Ilka Schoellmann from the ILO Bureau for Employers Activities stressed the complementarity of the project with the important work done by the Bureau on Women in Business and Management. She notably referred to a study which has been published in the meanwhile1.

Ms Jeanne Schmitt from the Employers’ Activities Programme (ACTEMP) of the ITCILO welcomed the participants and provided information about the overall project “Employers Organizations and Women Entrepreneurs: how to reach out?”. She presented the objectives of the project, the activities undertaken since 2011, the results achieved as well as the particular expectations regarding the Stock-taking Conference.

Ms Schmitt also highlighted the important support given to the implementation of the project from the very start by the DECP (Dutch Employers Cooperation Programme) and conveyed to the participants the words of encouragement of its Director, Mr Ronald de Leij.

A small activity was then organized to give a chance to participants to get to know each other.

Information session

The objective of the session was to map the global situation regarding women entrepreneurs’ economic participation today. Two speakers intervened:

Madonna Jarrett presented the main lines of the BIAC’s 2012 report Putting All Our Minds to Work: the Business Case for Harnessing the Gender Dividend which presented the evidence of how the accelerating trend towards women’s economic empowerment is bringing about change. Between September and December 2013, BIAC conducted a survey of its business federation members and companies to assess changes that have taken place over the past few years (2010 onwards) to advance women into leadership. The findings of this survey including the answers of 250 companies are presented in the Report Putting All Our Minds to Work: An Assessment2.

Overall, progress has been achieved, but is slow.

1 http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/---publ/documents/publication/wcms_334882.pdf 2 http://biac.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/140623_BIAC_Deloitte_Gender_Report1.pdf

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• Nearly half of companies surveyed reported having introduced policy and practice changes in recent years, but the report finds that the current workplace is not fully providing what the female employee is looking for. Some reasons for this could be inherent biases and cultural practices that can contribute to a gender wall.

• In terms of increasing progress, surveyed companies identified influencers with the greatest multiplier effect within the company as those at the top: the CEO, the Board, senior management and managers.

• Accountability is an important driver of change. Active company programs are successful initiatives to advance women’s economic empowerment within business, including monitoring, in the form of voluntary business programs, business self-regulation, and corporate governance practices.

• Regarding external influences, government laws and political leadership are felt to be a stronger factor in change by those surveyed in jurisdictions where there are no quotas, and the media and academia are perceived to be a stronger influence in jurisdictions where there are quotas.

• Survey parties see business itself as the strongest driver of change in promoting women’s economic empowerment within companies, but public advocacy, particularly by women themselves, and ongoing media attention, is also needed. The role of business associations is here important.

• More has to be done to improve women’s economic empowerment, which is essential to achieving inclusive and sustainable growth.

Concerning more specifically women entrepreneurs, Ms Jarett highlighted that the greatest obstacle to the sustainable growth of companies established by women entrepreneurs is access to finance. Even if some issues are also very important such as work life balance, prejudices and mistaken public perception that credibility of women in business is lower than men, lack of business skills and experience etc. Concerning access to finance, the availability of finances is an issue but also women practices themselves ie. women seem to be risk adverse, don’t pitch right, don’t ask for enough funds. In addition capital venturing is typically focussed on areas where there are les women such as high technologies. Solutions to this challenge needs to be multi-faceted and new financing models (Social impact investing; women bonds etc.) but also support measures such as business accelerators.

Ms Melissa Johns presented an overview of the progress made and remaining challenges for women from the World Bank Women, Business and the Law Report 20143. The World Bank report is issues every two years. The 2014 report finds that while 42 economies reduced legal differences between women and men, 128 out of 143 economies studied still impose legal differences on the basis of gender in at least one of the report’s key indicators. The report also identifies 48 law and regulatory reforms enacted between March 2011 and April 2013 that could enhance women’s economic opportunities.

Economies with greater numbers of restrictions on women’s work have, on average, lower female participation in the formal labor force and have fewer firms with female participation in ownership. In emerging markets, 31-38% of formal SMEs have at least one

3 http://wbl.worldbank.org/reports

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woman owner, but their average growth rate is significantly lower than that of male owned firms. Worldwide, less than 50 percent of women have jobs, compared to almost 80 percent of men.

Unequal asset ownership fuels the credit gap – this is a major issue for women entrepreneurs. The report finds that women are less likely to own an account, relative to men, as well as to save and borrow if women are restricted in their ability to work, head a household, choose where to live, and receive inheritance.

Ms Johns finished by highlighting some initiatives related to the promotion of Women’s Leadership. Six economies of the world have established quotas for women on boards of publicly listed companies. This is the case in Norway, Rwanda, Iceland, Belgium, Italy and France.

A lively discussion followed both presentations. Participants highlighted the importance of having such data at hand and in contrast the scarcity of available data at national level on issues relating to women entrepreneurship or women in business. The challenge of collecting data in economies where the majority of activities are informal was also discussed.

Some participants gave further explanations on the reforms put in place in their countries and/or in which their association took an active part such as the creation of credit registries.

Inspiration session

The objective of this session was for participants to learn from projects piloted by institutions working with business organizations and women entrepreneurs and get inspiration for their own activities with women entrepreneurs.

Ms Anna Nadgrodkiewicz, Director, Multiregional Programs at Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) presented examples of good practices concerning capacity-building for women business associations4. She explained the overall strategy of CIPE in engaging with women entrepreneurs and insisted on the fact that CIPE’s programmes focus on building capacity of women’s organizations vs. individual assistance and on policy advocacy. Policy advocacy is understood as a collective effort to influence government policies in a transparent and accountable way (stop, transform or start).

Ms Nadgrodkiewicz took participants on a “tour” of key initiatives implemented recently with the help of CIPE eg. legal reforms in Pakistan making it possible to constitute women chambers; capacity-building programmes for women associations in Zimbabwe and Papua New Guinea; advocacy work in Romania, Nigeria and Bangladesh; regional developments such as the South Asia Regional Women’s Network which combines both advocacy work and a mentoring scheme between organizations.

4 Democracy That Delivers for Women June 20-22, 2011 www.democracythatdelivers.com/women/ Free Enterprise and Democracy Network www.cipe.org/FEDN

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She referred to learning and networking opportunities for business associations related to their advocacy work through the CIPE/World Bank site www.publicprivatedialogue.org and invited participants to give input to the site.

She finally drew a few lessons which can be summarized as follows:

• Women entrepreneurs are a diverse group – there is a need for tailored services, benefit from tiered dues structure

• Women’s organizations are a diverse group (Women’s business association vs. associations of women) and it is important to carry out organizational diagnostics

• Creating a new women’s organization is not always the answer and man should be engaged in women’s empowerment

• Policy advocacy can be a key part of the value proposition BUT don’t jump into advocacy unprepared: first build capacity

• Work with women across the country, go beyond the capital • Cultivate role models

In the discussion, many participants enquired on the financing modalities of CIPE (funded by a yearly US Congress allocation even if independent in its work) and the way in which you can partner with that institution (applications for partnerships can be submitted). CIPE is working with a limited number of countries worldwide. In terms of issues, CIPE is working both with women entrepreneurs but also in some projects with women “intrapreneurs” ie those leading change from the inside of eg. corporations; the fight against corruption is a large field of activity.

Ms Helen Hoffmann from UEAPME presented the Gender Equality Toolkit recently developed by European Social Partners5. The Gender Equality Toolkit is a follow-up action to the 2005 Framework of Actions on Gender Equality signed by the EU Social Partners identifying 4 priorities of work. Based on the same themes, the objective of the toolkit is to provide knowledge and understanding of successful initiatives initiated by national trade union and business associations in Europe. The toolkit is meant to inspire and serve as a catalyst for the design, negotiation and dissemination of effective measures in different enterprises and working environments.

Coming to initiatives focussing on women entrepreneurship (30% of entrepreneurs in Europe are women), Ms Hoffmann reported on activities undertaken in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, France and Greece. These were of different types: Unilateral employers’ initiatives, some partnership with other actors (e.g. other employers, women’s professional organisations, public agencies) and diverse themes: specific aspects, e.g. training, mentoring, networking, awareness raising, lobbying (i.a. legislation, work-life balance), but also comprehensive advice incl. on finance.

5 http://erc-online.eu/gendertoolkit/#/

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The toolkit includes a database of 100 best practices as well as a brochure and video material. A video interview with Ms Catherine Foucher, President of the “Commission Nationale des Femmes d’Artisans” CAPEB, France, was presented6.

Ms Amelia Espejo from the IOE presented the work undergoing BPW International and the main content of the Policy Recommendations of the IOE published beginning of December 20147. According to Ms Espejo, International Federation of Business and Professional Women (BPW International) is one of the most influential international networks of business and professional women with affiliates in over 100 countries in five continents.

IOE and BPW International work together in order to create a networking platform of employers’, business and professional women organisations to share knowledge and jointly promote workplace diversity, gender equality and women’s empowerment. They worked together to develop a set of recommendations on women empowerment, which is the basis for their joint advocacy work notably in UN circles.

Stock-taking session

On the second day of the Conference, a Knowledge Fair as organized to take stock of the maximum of initiatives led by participating organizations in the available time. A Knowledge fair is a space to present and discuss best practices and new ideas, broadcast recent achievements.

The objective of the session was to encourage all workshop participants to share and discuss practical tools and best practices in past and on-going initiatives which aim at advancing the position of women entrepreneurs in economic life, through more efficient employers organizations.

The Knowledge Fair allowed participants to benefit from each other’s experience and explore possibilities of replication in their own organization in the future.

8 mini sessions were organized in which experiences were show cased (2 sessions ran in parallel).

Round 1

Supporting Women Entrepreneurs to develop a strategic plan and lobbying agenda - the collaboration between FCEF and WEBC in Fiji

Coaching women to get on governing boards - Female Future Programme in Uganda

6 http://erc-online.eu/gendertoolkit/#/priorities/promoting-women-decision-making/ 7 http://www.ioe-emp.org/policy-areas/womens-entrepreneurship/womens-entrepreneurship-publications/page/1/?297=&cHash=8f1ed22b9e262448c94ff7145eddaae8

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Round 2

Lobbying for greater financial inclusion of women entrepreneurs – the joint campaign of ZFE and ZFAWIB in Zambia

Coaching women to get on governing boards - Female Future Programme in Norway and Kenya

Round 3

Opportunities for women entrepreneurs in the Support programme to economic growth programme – a programme implemented by the CNPM in Mali

Creation of a cooperative to help women entrepreneurs access to finance – a service rendered by NECA and NNEW in Nigeria

Round 4

Helping women entrepreneurs network internationally – the creation of the ASEAN women entrepreneurs network

Helping women entrepreneurs create and grow their businesses – the Free Women Project in the Philippines

After each presentation, participants were invited to write down learning points ie. ideas they would like to take back and implement in their own context. The list of the learning points collected is reproduced below:

Fiji

• Funds mobilization strategies using women with influence in society

• Social evenings with informal sector WE • Strategies to formalize the informal sector • Strategic use of technology • Partnership with Telco’s for free text messages

(tips etc.) • Low entrance level fees (inclusiveness) • Inclusiveness regarding ethnical background as

well and education levels • Awareness-raising process important • Work with Parliament members (role models) • Takes into account ways through which women

finance their activities ie. interest rates, tax reliefs, no guarantees

• Conduct a needs analysis. • Develop a strategic plan incl. a strategy to find

partners • Partners with foreign agencies. E.g. US Embassy • You should be the media often

Female Future Programme (FFP)in Norway, Uganda and Kenya

• Sustainability of the FFP after end of donor funds is a challenge. Entrance fee for the FFP can be high

• FFP goes hand in hand with lobbying activities to promote women leadership

• Recognition of FFP training by public institution • A legal module could be included • FFP creates a brand for quality in education and

training (NHO) • Copyright issues to be examined • FFP fights against Stereotyping • Supposes direct/good quality contact with

companies • Reinsuring and talking to companies. • Challenge: convince organizations and

collaborators to stay on for several years (continuity)

• We need to brand our EOs to attract such training participation

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• Creating a successful story • Government involvement is key • Combination of advocacy and services provision

for members • Advice and informal advice important • Providing legal consultancy to women

entrepreneur eg. labour advice etc. • Training of trainers, guidance on how to start up

business, reaching out via members • Everything is possible if you have a vision of will • Partnership with other organizations • Convince leadership of EO to support women

entrepreneurs and advocate for them

• A service responding to company needs as per the legal mandate for board composition

• How do we find ways of avoiding to be labeled as elite?

• Good policy on gender parity in management positions filtering down to demand for progress by employers

Zambia

• Advocacy initiative for better access to finance • Evidence based lobbying : Survey into demand

side and supply side – what is the state of play? • Articulate the business case • Cooperation with other business associations • Active partnership with Bank of Zambia • Lobbying the Central Bank to engage

commercial banks to create a softer lending space for women entrepreneurs

• Convincing financiers that women entrepreneurs are an untapped market

• Positioning women as a niche market for commercials banks

• Advocacy for tailored services from Banks • Transformation of status • Working on wider economic fundamentals • Promote the banking and financing sectors in

(our) membership to provide financial literacy to WE

• Employment opportunities and wealth creation for women and youth.

• Service of matching WE with commerce banks (needs analysis required)

• Financial inclusion of women is a serious problem also in Macedonia

Mali

• Original method of positive discrimination in favour of women – from the overall funding and all other conditions equal, larger percentage of credits should be given to women

Nigeria

• Success factors = Cooperation, Networking • Cooperative networking platform for the

women is something new for me • Facilitating access to funds to improve women’s

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• Reputable EO to be a partner with Donor Agency

• Practical recognition of gender differences and practical solution to redress situation

• Sustainability of donor funds? • Promotion and awareness of “Green Industries”

very important!

business for members • The guarantee scheme is worth exploring • Doing treasury bills because they are safe • Cooperative as an alternative to bank lending • Explore on Islamic banking to tap that category

of business women • Different categories of members enable

mentorship programme to be set up • It is possible to start with meager resources and

then grow • Inclusiveness for women who are in the

informal sector

ASEAN women entrepreneurs network

• Large coordination effort • It should run bottom-up and top-down • AWEN – Independent operation? • Finding sustainable funding channels to reduce

dependency on donors • Regional cooperation easier where regional

institutions exist • Suggestion: a strong follow up is needed to get

response from member organizations • Options: capacity building for institutions or

capacity building of WE’s/WE association. Focus on one initiative for developing a strategy

Philippines

• An original way to support women entrepreneurs = through franchising

• Franchise is a good concept • Transformation from micro to small

entrepreneurs • Catapult a business in a very short time

Attention given to protecting franchised women interests and rights

• Putting an accent on intellectual property registration is very important

• Continuous education and training • Sustainability of the business over a longer

period of time

It was decided to display the good practices presented during the session on a specific webpage to facilitate dissemination of these good practices. Participants were invited to send information on other relevant projects to complement the existing one and gradually develop a freely accessible compendium of good practices.

Guidance session

The afternoon of the second day and the morning of the third day of the Conference were dedicated to the development of a Guidance Toolkit. A Guidance toolkit is a set of “job aids” that should be used by the participants to raise awareness of colleagues on the importance of selected challenges faced by women entrepreneurs. Moreover, they will be used, including by the ITCILO, in activities with other business associations.

Participants were asked to select issues particularly important for women entrepreneurs and related to lobbying and advocacy; membership and governance as well as services

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provision. On these key aspects, they were asked in groups to respond to the following questions:

1. What are the main Challenges? 2. What are the Key Facts and Figures? 3. What does Business aim for? 4. How to make Progress? During the discussions, participants shared their own national experience on the topics but also referred to the presentations made during the Information and Inspiration sessions of the conference as well as to the good practice cases presented during the stock-taking session of the conference.

The groups decided to work on the following issues:

• Lobbying and advocacy: Access to finance for women entrepreneurs • Membership and Governance: More effective and increased women representation

on employers’ organization boards for better guidance of EO members • Services provision: Enhancing women capacity through the provision of training

Tools were then developed in each group to help raise awareness of other colleagues working in either employers’ organizations or women business associations on the importance of the selected topics for women entrepreneurs’ development, and hence economic and social development of the country.

Three types of tools were developed on each topic:

A guidance note The objective of the guidance note is to summarise the main challenges, business concerns and available data on a particular issue regarding women entrepreneurs. Its aim is to help both EOs and WBAs in their lobbying efforts to

• alleviate business environment obstacles for women entrepreneurs (lobbying and advocacy);

• provide tailor-made services to enhance to women entrepreneurs their businesses (services provision);

• increase the voice of women entrepreneurs inside their own organizations (governance and membership strategies).

• It also gives concrete guidance to organisations on how to make progress (tips or list of do’s and don’ts).

An Infographic Infographic is information represented in graphic format. It combines two powerful mediums of communication, mainly text and images to deliver the requisite information to the reader. But, an infographic doesn’t just deliver information to the target audience; it does so in a manner that is highly engaging. In a world where, people are inundated with information, an infographic is a great way of catching the attention of the target audience, and making an impression on them.

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A Video Message Video is quickly becoming the preferred medium for most people. It can be watched relatively passively, yet so much information can be communicated in a short time. Given that 75% of communication is non-verbal, video is an opportunity to carefully cultivate what you get across in the way you look, the way you act and the way you say things. Increasingly you can also easily share videos them through social media, video-sharing websites and embed them into websites. It improves the dissemination and impact of the messages.

The working groups were mixed in terms of languages and support material was made available in both English and French. An interactive methodology was applied so that each group could build “task teams” that worked in parallel on the different tools, while ensuring that there was coordination on the content of the displayed messages. Emphasis was put both on the content development, which can bring some challenges in an interregional context, as well as on enhancing methodological skills (structured and evidence-based lobbying; messaging and sequencing of video messages; use of an internet based graphical software8 etc.)

The concrete realization of the tools was facilitated by the presence of a video specialist and camerawoman (Ksenia Livada) as well as an infographist (Fabrizio Furchi).

Participants agreed to use the developed Guidance tools in their own work to raise awareness of colleagues on the importance of reaching out to women entrepreneurs. The ITCILO also engaged itself to showcase and use the guidance tools in its own activities with other business and employers’ organizations.

The draft tools were presented and commented upon in plenary session before their finalization. The Guidance tools were translated in French and English after finalization to ensure the widest possible dissemination.

8 http://piktochart.com/

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The Video Messages were made available on the Conference platform:

• Video Message on Access to Finance • Video Message on Women on Boards • Video Message on Training services for women

entrepreneurs

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3.2 EVALUATION

In the context of the ITCILO activities, evaluation is an important tool that allows for monitoring and introducing adjustments in the design, implementation and follow-up of an activity. An end- of activity evaluation was conducted at the end of the conference. It aimed at measuring participants’ satisfaction and providing experts and organizers with suggestions for changes and possible improvements in the future. The questionnaire form poses open and closed questions with a 5-point scale ranking answers from 1 (minimum) to 5 (maximum) for closed questions. The number of returned questionnaires counts was 29 out of 29 participants, hence 100%. In terms of general results, the overall quality of the conference scored 4.73 which is an excellent score, meaning that 100% of participants were either satisfied or absolutely satisfied with the overall quality of the conference. Participants also expressed greatest satisfaction indicating that the conference had achieved its objectives and had met their expectations; in fact the conference received a very positive mark on both questions “How likely is it that your institution will benefit from your participation in this activity?” as well as to the question “How likely is it that you will apply some of what you have learned?” scoring respectively 4.65 and 4.69. The materials used during the activity were considered appropriate by participants at 4.56 while the learning methods were appraised by the participants at 4.54. Participants reckoned that the contents of the conference served the objectives at 4.62 and considered the activity’s objectives achieved at 4.42. The participatory methodology, the exercises and group sessions were considered innovative and useful by the participants. The overall quality of the resource persons satisfied participants at 4.35. The question on the integration of gender issues scored 4.46 out of 5. On all the above-mentioned issues, the Conference satisfaction results clearly exceeded the average activities scores of the Centre, demonstrating that it responded to a well-defined need within the participating organizations in a very efficient way. In their written comments, participants stressed the innovative and hands-on aspect of the Conference as being crucial. They particularly appreciated the focus on joint development of practical tools which enabled to have focused discussions in an interregional context but also to learn concrete skills that can be re-used at national level. Please see Annex III for the summary of the evaluation results.

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