Catalyzing Women’s Entrepreneurship

Access to finance and investment is consistently identified as one of the biggest challenges faced by women entrepreneurs and women-led businesses. Globally, it is estimated that over 70 per cent of women-owned MSMEs are either financially underserved or unserved. With an aim to leverage this potential, close the prevalent gender gap in access to finance and create an enabling ecosystem for women entrepreneurs, the Innovative Financing workstream pioneered and piloted innovative financing solutions, such as gender-lens investment funds, gender bonds, and elevated FinTech start-ups that provide financial solutions to women-led MSMEs, among others.

The Innovative Financing workstream reached a total of 178,998 women entrepreneurs, as well as an additional 637,169 women and men as indirect beneficiaries including employees, family members, and women outside the target countries. As a result of the innovative financing initiatives, the programme unlocked over US$ 90.3 million of additional capital for women entrepreneurs and built momentum for the movement to close the gap in access to finance for women entrepreneurs. 

These results were achieved through several innovative financing mechanisms:

1. Impact Funds: This included Southeast Asia’s first women’-led pure gender-lens investing fund, which secured US$ 42.8 million in investments through support from ESCAP, as well as nine emerging fund managers, who are expected to come to their first close in 2024, following a fund accelerator supported by CWE.

2. Gender Bonds: CWE established the first gender-focused bond series listed at the Singapore Stock exchange, through two issuances, which raised US$ 38.85 million in private capital for women-led MSMEs and benefitted close to 140,000 women entrepreneurs .

3. FinTech: Through two Challenge Funds, the programme supported 15 promising companies, largely Fintech start-ups that provide innovative financial and digital solutions to women-led MSMEs. As a result, 158,113 women-led MSMEs gained access to financial products and services and secured around US$15.6 million in financing for their businesses.

4. Loan Guarantee: A credit guarantee fund, coupled with capacity building for financial service providers on gender issues, was implemented across the programme countries, unlocking US$ 1.31 million in loans, as well as significant changes in the services and operations of the participating financial service providers.

5. Catalytic capital and climate finance for small-scale entrepreneurs: ESCAP collaborated with local partners across Asia-Pacific to empower women entrepreneurs through various initiatives. They trained women in Samoa in entrepreneurial skills and provided seed funding, addressed childcare challenges in Fiji by supporting daycare startups, improved financial resilience of women-led tourism businesses, aided climate-resilient strategies for women entrepreneurs in Bangladesh, and funded climate projects for women-led MSMEs in Nepal.

6. Unconditional cash transfers to over-indebted women entrepreneurs: In 2024, ESCAP partnered with Cambodia's VIR to aid over-indebted women entrepreneurs. They provided 60 women with $250 each to alleviate debt and supported another 25 to start or expand businesses. VIR established a Women’s Debt Support Group for mutual learning and offered training in finance and literacy. These efforts boosted financial knowledge, enhanced business performance, and promoted integration into the financial system, fostering local economic development.

7. Advancing Gender-driven Foreign Direct Investment: ESCAP emphasizes the transformative role of foreign direct investment (FDI) in advancing gender equality in developing countries. At the Feminist Finance Forum, ESCAP launched the Pledge to Promote Gender Equity in FDI, with initial signatories including agencies from Canada, Bhutan, Fiji, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and the Philippines. These efforts aim to harness FDI as a catalyst for inclusive economic growth and achieving gender equality targets.

8. Access to finance and investment through inclusive businesses: In collaboration with FTU-FIIS in Hanoi, ESCAP identified and provided inclusive business coaching to 10 companies in Vietnam, focusing on agriculture sectors like spices and coconut plantations. The coaching emphasized gender inclusion and helped these companies develop gender investment plans. This effort impacted 5,126 people. ESCAP also assisted FTU-FIIS in creating a sustainable coaching strategy, set to launch in July 2024, and developed a regional manual titled “Inclusive Business Coaching: Toolkit for Business Support Organizations.”

An enabling policy and governance infrastructure provides the foundation for a conducive business environment for women entrepreneurs, including related to overcoming the challenges in discriminatory laws and policies, business registration, mentoring and technical skills, access to training, finance and markets. Despite the challenges of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the CWE Programme was the CWE Programme was catalytic in the development and reform of gender-responsive legislation, policies and processes, ensuring they incorporated the specific priorities and needs of women entrepreneurs.

All of the policy work to develop and promote reforms for women’s entrepreneurship and innovative finance was made possible through extensive relationship and partnership building with 7 Government Ministries (5 SME Ministries and 2 Women’s Ministries), as well as several Central Banks. This was particularly important given the critical need for creating national ownership and buy-in for sustaining the work after the CWE Programme ends. In this context, the multi-stakeholder and cross-sectoral Project Advisory Committee (PAC) mechanisms established were instrumental in bringing together relevant ministries, women entrepreneurs and other stakeholders to collaborate on a range of national policies and initiatives for women entrepreneurs. These committees have now been transformed into national platforms led by Governments, thereby institutionalizing national inclusive policy dialogue platforms.

At the regional level, through collaboration with the ASEAN Coordinating Committee on MSMEs (ACCMSME), which is a dedicated group of SME Agencies from the 10 ASEAN countries, the programme was able to convert and scale up the approach tested out at the country level to the sub-regional level. The ASEAN Policymakers Toolkit on “Strengthening Women’s Entrepreneurship in National MSME Policies and Action Plans” provides a framework and methodology for integrating women-responsive policies and provisions in national MSME policies and action plans. It assists policymakers, particularly from the ministries and agencies responsible for MSME development, to self-assess and identify gaps and opportunities for creating an enabling environment for women’s entrepreneurship. The toolkit, launched by the ASEAN Economic Ministers Group in late 2022, marked an extraordinary step for an economic community to launch a gender initiative and the Toolkit was slated as a priority deliverable for implementation. The success of the Toolkit has highlighted the leadership of Canada and ESCAP in all the 10 ASEAN countries to advance women’s entrepreneurship in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. The Policymaker’s Toolkit is being piloted in the Philippines, under the leadership of the Philippines’ Department of Trade and Industry and is now being requested for replication in the Pacific region.

The Catalyzing Women’s Entrepreneurship (CWE) programme has been instrumental in empowering women entrepreneurs across the 6 beneficiary countries through targeted digital skills training initiatives. In collaboration with government bodies and local organizations, CWE focused on enhancing women's knowledge and capabilities in e-business, digital financial management, e-commerce, and digital marketing, aiming to bolster their business acumen while leveraging ICT tools and platforms.

In Bangladesh, the collaboration with the SME Foundation and the Bangladesh Institute of ICT for Development resulted in training activities that benefited 1,538 women entrepreneurs in areas such as financial management, access to finance, e-commerce, and digital marketing. Similarly, in Cambodia, training conducted in partnership with SHE Investments and the National Bank of Cambodia emphasized basic business management, digital financial literacy, and the use of digital tools like the Kotra Riel mobile bookkeeping app.

CWE's collaboration with the South Asia Women Development Forum (SAWDF) in Nepal and with the E-Commerce Development Centre and the Agency for Enterprise Development in Viet Nam further exemplifies the initiative's reach and impact. In Nepal, approximately 1,300 micro and home-based women entrepreneurs are expected to benefit from e-commerce and digital marketing training by June 2024. In Viet Nam, over 2,000 participants have already benefited from training on e-commerce and e-business. These collaborative efforts highlight CWE's role in advancing women's economic empowerment through digital skills training, contributing to the broader goal of gender equality and women's entrepreneurship development.

CWE’s impact extended to the Pacific region, with significant activities in Fiji and Samoa. In Fiji, the collaboration with the Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation focused on providing e-commerce and digital marketing training to micro-women entrepreneurs affected by the Suva Flea Market fir. In Samoa, CWE partnered with the Samoa Business Hub (SBH) and the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Labour (MCIL) to deliver training on software applications, ICT tools for business planning and management, and e-commerce, benefiting more than 400 participants. These efforts underscore CWE's efforts to fostering an enabling environment for women entrepreneurs to thrive in the digital economy.