ADB underscores role of entrepreneurship in empowering women

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) emphasized on Thursday the importance of entrepreneurship in empowering women in Asia-Pacific.

“Women’s entrepreneurship is important because it helps us move closer to the goal of achieving a more gender equal Asia and the Pacific,” ADB president Takehiko Nakao said during the “Breaking Barriers: Women Entrepreneurship in Asia and the Pacific” seminar at the multilateral lender's 51st Governor’s Annual Meeting in Pasig City.

“Under our new Strategy 2030, ADB will pay increased attention to generating employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for women,” Nakao said.

Despite the progress made over the last two decades in empowering women in Asia and the Pacific, huge gender gaps still remains, particularly in the economic and political spheres, according to the Manila-based lender.

The seminar was attended by International Labor Organization director Graeme Buckley; chief executive officer of Prelo (an Indonesian enterprise offering a retail-sharing e-platform) Fransiska Hadiwidjana; Undersecretary of the Department of Trade and Industry Zenaida Maglaya; president and representative director of Veolia Japan K. K. Yumiko Noda; and president of the Bangladesh Federation of Women Entrepreneurs Rokia Afzal Rahman.

Citing the Asian Development Outlook Update 2015, ADB estimated that closing the existing gender gaps could generate a 30 percent increase in the per capita income of an average Asian economy in one generation or 30 years, and 70 percent in two generations.

The bank said nearly half of its lending has strong gender design elements.

ADB Strategy 2030 places an even stronger emphasis on women’s economic empowerment.

Infrastructure projects will maximize women’s access to markets and opportunities for skilled jobs, it said.

Through enhanced technical and vocational education and training programs, ADB said it will enable women’s access to quality jobs in nontraditional, higher-paying sectors.

ADB noted it will expand integrated support for women entrepreneurs through better access to finance, the adoption of new technologies, and policy and institutional reforms.

It has been adopting innovative approaches involving other partners in promoting women’s entrepreneurship.

In April 2018, ADB received a $12.6 million grant from the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) - a global fund hosted by the World Bank Group - to help Sri Lankan women-led businesses obtain bank loans and improve business skills.

This new source of funding complements ADB’ own financing of $175 million, which was approved earlier to encourage local partner banks to grow their small and medium-sized enterprise portfolios—especially for businesses that are outside Colombo or are women-led.

Nakao noted ADB’s ongoing efforts to improving gender balance within ADB, citing the representation of women among international staff increasing to a record 35 percent in 2017—a step closer to the bank’s target of 40 percent by the end of 2022. —VDS, GMA News