Niveen Wahish finds out what the World Economic Outlook says about growth prospects for the Middle East and North Africa region and reviews a recent OECD report on what needs to be done to improve the role of women in regional economic growth Women friendly policies, please More needs to be done to encourage greater women's participation in MENA economies, says a new OECD report There is a lot to be gained by the greater participation of women in the economy, but Middle East and North African (MENA) economies are not taking full advantage of this fact. A report released this week by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) shows that today only 27 per cent of women in the region join the labour force, compared to 51 per cent in other low, middle and high-income economies, while only 11 per cent are self-employed against 22 per cent of men. Titled "Women in Business: Policies to Support Women's Entrepreneurship Development in the MENA Region," the report notes that "while MENA governments have made progress over the past decade in closing the gender gap in education, more needs to be done to tackle gender inequality in business." It looks at 18 MENA economies, namely: Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, the Palestinian Authority, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. The report says that governments, the private sector and business associations should implement policies to encourage women's entrepreneurship and higher involvement in the labour force. The report cites some revealing data: "Only one in 10 self-employed women is an employer." Moreover, "women entrepreneurs tend to be more prevalent in the informal sector, which accounts for 40 to 70 per cent of all private sector enterprises in the MENA region." Women's share of employment in the MENA private sector is also "generally very low, averaging only 20 per cent -- and less than half of that in Saudi Arabia, Syria, the Palestinian Authority and Yemen -- compared with 28 per cent in the public sector." The report acknowledges that while MENA governments all need to establish a business climate conducive to increased entrepreneurial activity, to help create jobs for the 2.8 million men and women who join the labour market every year, they need to "take action to level the playing field for women entrepreneurs," and to devise policies aimed at helping women address the specific challenges they face. The report suggests improving policy design and implementation by ensuring that there are enough resources, better coordination of women's entrepreneurship policies across ministries, and giving businesswomen's associations a stronger voice in public-private dialogue. The report also calls for easing access to finance, especially beyond micro-finance projects. It suggests practices in Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Pakistan and Turkey that demonstrate the value of taking specific measures to close the gap in women's access to bank finance. For example, in Bangladesh the central bank issued instructions to all banks and financial institutions setting a quota for the amount of their SME loan portfolio to be allocated to women-owned SMEs. In Malaysia and Turkey, the SME-related banks developed special loan products for women-owned enterprises. In Pakistan there is a bank solely dedicated to serving female clientele. Enhancing entrepreneur financial literacy through training programmes is another recommendation, as well as improving women's ability to develop sound business plans and pitch them to potential lenders. Increasing access to information and business support services is another area that the report highlights. This includes tailoring development services, such as IT services and logistical support, coaching and mentoring to women's needs. The report also underlines the need to close the data gap through the collection and dissemination of gender-disaggregated enterprise data to ensure that policy design and implementation effectively empower women entrepreneurs. The report's recommendations are based on a first ever comparative assessment of policies, programmes and institutions supporting women's entrepreneurship across the 18 MENA economies. It was led by 13 national task forces of the OECD-MENA Women's Business Forum, a network created in 2007 to implement the Ministerial Declaration on Fostering Women's Entrepreneurship in the MENA Region.
