Promoting participation of women in the economy is not only good for women themselves, but a necessary factor for growth and poverty reduction in any society.
The event “Gender and Economic Growth in Tanzania: Creating Opportunities for Women”, held at the World Bank headquarters in Washington, D.C. on November 8, 2007, brought together experts to discuss the issue.
Amanda Ellis, Lead Gender Specialist at the World Bank, introduced and moderated the event. Ellis explained that there is a growing recognition that gender equality is good for economic growth and essential for poverty reduction. Gender friendly business regulation leads not only to more business start ups, she said, but also to higher shares of women entrepreneurs and women in the labor force.
Mayra Buvinic, Director of Gender and Development at the World Bank, gave a brief presentation. She explained that the work presented at the event is part of a larger Gender Action Plan developed by the Bank, called “Gender Equality as Smart Economics”. The plan originated from the recognition that much more had been done to support women in the social sectors, such as health and education, than in increasing their economic opportunities. The plan seeks to enhance women’s economic empowerment as a means of promoting overall growth and reducing poverty. Buvinic concluded by presenting a video about the action plan.
Maggie Kigozi, Executive Director of the Uganda Investment Authority, was the first discussant to speak. Kigozi stated that Uganda has become a gender sensitive country, with significant representation of women in government. However, she said, there are issues with women’s participation in the private sector, and this is where she has made most of her efforts for change. She spoke about how her government position at the Uganda Investment Authority, which promotes and facilitates investment in Uganda, has given her the opportunity to grant female entrepreneurs a voice. These entrepreneurs have made a very concrete contribution to Ugandan economy, Kigozi said. She stressed the importance of associations of women entrepreneurs, such as the Uganda Women Entrepreneurs Association. Through such associations the major constraints for women in the private sector have been identified: access to finance, right to land issues, and other legal bottlenecks. Kigozi stated that since she was appointed to her government position she has been able to influence labor laws and facilitate business registration for women. Through this formal coalition between the private sector, the government, and civil society, Uganda now boasts improved access to finance, labor laws, land rights, tax compliance, and entrepreneurship training.
The next discussant to speak was Bede Lyimo, Chief Executive Officer of the Better Regulation Unit in Tanzania. He mentioned that most of his life he has been a civil servant in the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Lyimo spoke about the difficulties of promoting the private sector since the end of the socialist regime in 1995. While privatizing state owned companies, achieving macroeconomic stability, and other sector specific policies have boosted growth in Tanzania, it still has not been enough. In 2000, the government decided to address the regulatory framework to stimulate broad based growth. Lyimo stated that the difficulty of these reforms is that they must not only promote growth, but must to do so inclusively. They must address the needs and problems of the largely rural population, which remains mostly in the informal economy. Lyimo stated that among the strategies implemented were new land laws, a more efficient and accessible justice system, and labor laws updated for the new market economy. He explained that there have been serious efforts to mainstream the issue of gender into the implementation of these policies.
Eva Muraya, Chief Executive Officer of Color Creations Ltd in Kenya, gave the next presentation. Muraya spoke about her experiences as a female entrepreneur in Kenya. She explained the challenges her company faced initially: cumbersome registration, limited access to available credit, lack of capacity to respond to customer demand, competition, slow entry into international trade, lack of technical skills, and huge bureaucratic delays. However, things have changed due to the Gender and Growth Assessments (GGA) done by the Bank and a subsequent program by the African Development Bank launched to help women in business, she said. This allowed Muraya to obtain a loan for new equipment and eventually gain credibility in the market. Muraya pointed out that the African Development Bank’s program comes with a training component as well as other initiatives for access to affordable credit and commercial loans. She stated that although there has been a lot of success at gender mainstreaming, both by international organizations as well as the Kenyan government, much needs to be finalized. She concluded by stating that women owning business and participating in smart economics is essential to achieving the Millennium Development Goals.
Next was the event’s keynote speaker, John Page, Chief Economist for the World Bank Africa Region. Page pointed out that in the recently produced Africa Action Plan one of the main flagship areas is women’s economic empowerment. This is because, he said, women are crucial to economic transformation. Page began by contextualizing his comments in the current economic state of Africa. While Africa has been growing considerably, he said, this growth is not shared equally by all countries. The challenge is to sustain economic growth and to make sure that the benefits are being shared by the population. Page said that Africa needs to move from group of economies that depends on finance from the rest of the world, to one that depends on self generated finance to sustain growth. Also, he said, it is not only important the private sector expands, but that the businesses are owned by Africans. Gender, Page explained, is another challenge. While Africa is not ignoring the role of women in its development, it is also not optimizing it. Here, the major challenge is to get more women into formal sector employment and into ownership of formal enterprises.
Page explained that it has been demonstrated that once women are in the formal sector, their enterprises perform just as well or better than male owned businesses. Thus it is most important to improve the overall climate for these formal sector environments. Additionally, entry into the formal sector may be more difficult for women due to different legal and social frameworks, attitudes, educational discrimination, and so forth. Thus Page insisted that investing in very basic things such as access to education and healthcare are also a very important component of the general equation.
The final presentation was given by Marilou Uy, Sector Director for Finance and Private Sector Development in the World Bank’s Africa Region. Uy addressed how the Bank will support the economic empowerment of women through the implementation of the GGA recommendations. Among these recommendations she mentioned the reduction of bureaucratic barriers to business formation, the elimination legal barriers to female entrepreneurship, the improvement of access to land and finance, the enhancement of labor market flexibility, and making courts an accessible instrument for the enforcement and property rights. These are some of the Bank’s key levers for support of private sector development in Africa region, Uy said. By sharpening focus on gender concerns in these levers, she said, the Bank’s support for the overall private sector will become more effective. The Bank will also continue to scale up microfinance projects which have been extremely beneficial to women.
In the question and answer session, audience members inquired whether increased presence of women in the private sector leads to increased political presence, the barriers to female inclusion due to culture and religion, and the challenges of getting girls through school.
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