UNITED

NATIONS

E

Economic and Social

Council

ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR EUROPE

Distr.

GENERAL

OPA/AC.21/5

16 October 2001

ENGLISH only

COORDINATING UNIT FOR OPERATIONAL ACTIVITIES

First Forum of Women-Entrepreneurs

Geneva, 22 October 2001

BUILDING REGIONAL NETWORKS

AMONG WOMEN-ENTREPRENEURS

(Note by Secretariat)

Background

Women entrepreneurs have less access to business and professional networks, both formal and informal ones, which are dominated by men. Male entrepreneurs and executives have long had access to associations and clubs, where information was shared and deals were negotiated. They have also had strong informal networks build around social, cultural and sport activities.

Women being generally excluded from these, so called "old boys networks" have been increasingly creating their own networks. Les Femmes Chefs d'Entreprises Mondiales (FCEM), based in the Netherlands, and the International Federation of Women Entrepreneurs, headquartered in New Delhi, are two major international groups. This pattern is also typical for the transition countries.

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The development of the private sector in Eastern Europe and the CIS countries has been accompanied by establishing new, formal and informal, business and professional networks, such as business centres, professional clubs and trade associations. The existing institutions, such as chambers of commerce, took over new functions of facilitating private sector activities. Networking has expanded and diversified both at the national and sub-regional levels, and was especially fast2developping in central Europe. In all countries, however, there is a gender gap in access to business and professional networks, which limits women's business opportunities and women's impact on building gender sensitive institutional systems that could provide support for their entrepreneurial activities.

The gender gap is explained by the traditional pattern of networks in the past. Prior to1989, networks reflected the economic structure and strong position of men in key industrial sectors. Chambers of commerce and other sectoral organizations focussed on energy sector, heavy industry, military-industrial production and some other branches of manufacturing, which occupational structures were male-dominated. Women, despite high levels of education and broad participation in the labour market, clustered in the consumer-oriented industries, such as food and light industry, and in education and health, thus, remaining outside the most influential bureaucratic and technocratic networks. They had also less time to build informal networks due to family responsibilities, which were especially time-consuming under the conditions of the shortage economy.

Now, women entrepreneurs in all transition countries are in the process of building their own business networks. Some of these networks go beyond the local and national levels and are linked to regional and global networks. Networking opportunities remain, however, untapped and should be better used, especially at the regional level.

The role and benefits of networks

Business and professional networks are a key element of market institutions, supporting entrepreneurship and business development. Their role is especially important for start-ups and SMEs, as they reduce risk and provide access to business opportunities, such as public procurements and outsourcing by large multinational companies.

Formal and informal networks support individual entrepreneurs through facilitating their access to information and knowledge, new markets, business partners and financing, as well as through providing business related services. Networks help to build personal contacts, share experiences and get encouragement, when business goes down.

Networks play important role not only in supporting individual entrepreneurs, but also in representing their interests as a group. This includes participation in the process of establishing or adjusting legal systems, labour market norms and standards or taxation and fiscal systems. This role of networks should be highlighted in the context of the transition process, where market institutions are still " under construction", and much remains to be done, especially in the SME sector, which so far got little attention at the policy level in many transition countries, especially in Russia and in the CIS.

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Major benefits from access to networks include:

More information

More knowledge and skills

More contacts

More public awareness

More international linkages

More power

Women's networks have already provided a boost to women's businesses in all UNECE countries. In Canada, women-entrepreneurs came together and organized the first-ever Canada Businesswomen's Trade Mission to Washington D.C in 1997. They also organized Canada/US Women's Trade Summit in Toronto in 1999 to discuss with government officials, how women could tap into the lucrative export markets between Canada and the United States. In Slovakia, due to the support of women's business association, a women-entrepreneur was invited to the Board of the Regional Chamber of Trade Licences as the first and the only woman.

Building networks among women-entrepreneurs

Women's business associations and other NGOs have played a key role in the development of women's entrepreneurship in all transition countries. This process has started as early as in 1990-1992 often through creating self-help groups. Women's business associations have a different character, profile and the scope of activities, membership and contacts. Some operate as local or national groups, but others have already regional and even global character through their links with large international groupings.

The aim of these organizations is to provide information, advice and contacts. They also intend to enforce the cooperation among businesswomen, to provide a customized training in managerial skills and marketing, facilitate access to finance but also to "be close to women entrepreneurs during all difficulties and challenges" and "fight corruption, bureaucracy and organized crime".

These associations aspire also to achieve broader objectives related to the economic empowerment of women, advocacy for equal rights and to change the traditional views on women's role in society. They are thus important actors in promoting and ensuring gender equality in the emerging business society.

Several examples of such organizations include:

Professional and Business Women's Association in Albania, de facto founded in 1992 and in 1994 de jure. It now has over 500 members and 19 branches;

Association of Women Entrepreneurs in Croatia, founded in 2000, which has 62 members and two regional groups;

Association of Business and Professional Women of the Czech Republic, founded in 1990, has 120 members;

Moravian Association of Women Entrepreneurs founded in 1999 by 20 women entrepreneurs in Brno. At present, it has 60 members in three regional clubs;

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The Georgian Association of Women in Business founded in 1993 has 510 members and several regional groups;

The Women's Committee of Abkhasia (Georgia) founded in 1995 has 54 members;

Kaunas Regional Association of Small- and Medium-Sized Businesses (Lithuania) founded in 1997 represents more than 350 SMEs;

International Forum for Women (Poland) founded in 1993 has 130 members and one regional branch;

SEBWA (Central European Business Women's Academy) founded in 1999 by a group of women's business associations from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia (PROSPECTA-CEBWA Club);

Spirit of Enterprise (Slovenia) founded in 1993 has over 200 members and four local groups;

Association of Business Women of FR Yugoslavia founded in 1998 has over 100 members.

Taking the advantage of a regional perspective: Proposals for Action Rapid development of informational and communication technologies (ICT) have opened new frontiers in building business and professional networks at the country, regional and global levels. Virtual networking, via websites and Internet, is inexpensive and could be built fast, sometimes even overnight. There is no loss of working days or travel costs. True, face-to-face meetings remain an important channel of building trust and business relations. At the same time, however, virtual networking offers practically unlimited opportunities for women-entrepreneurs in the ECE region. Women entrepreneurs in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia or Tajikistan could be linked with entrepreneurs in Russia, Ukraine, Poland, France, Germany or in the United States and Canada, all the member- countries of the UNECE.

The Secretariat proposes to strengthen and accelerate the process of building networks among women-entrepreneurs in the UNECE region both through traditional, as well as new channels and means of communication. These networks will operate at various levels – they will link individual women-entrepreneurs, women's business associations, experts and academic community, representatives of governments and international community. It is proposed to:

Hold the Forum of Women-Entrepreneurs as a two-three-day long event in October each year and create an Advisory Council to the Forum;

Establish on-line Network of Women's Business Associations at the UNECE website, which could serve as a consultative body to the Team of Experts on Women Entrepreneurs at the Working Party on Industry and Enterprise Development (WP.8), an intergovernmental body at the UNECE; ansd

Create a cyber market at the UNECE website opened to selected participants with screening and validation of the information. Such a market could be linked with national, regional and global structures of the similar character, which purpose would be to present companies and their products, inform on investment projects, but also to do business.

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