The Challenges of Growing Small Businesses - International Labour ...

III.
IV.
Develop capacities and capabilities of BDS providers in areas such as networking, lobbying,
empowerment, gender equality issues, and decision-making for women entrepreneurs.
BDS providers can encourage the greater uptake of their services through cost-sharing
initiatives (with WEAs and other organizations) and by providing demand-driven services.
V. BDS providers should promote the provision of integrated support across the MSE sector,
and for women entrepreneurs in particular, that meets a range of client needs and avoids
duplication, rather than offering a range of ad hoc provision of BDS.
VI.
While developing more extensive and better BDS provision throughout the country, the
financial sustainability of the BDS services should be a priority.
Enabling environment
(a)
Issues:
A wide range of issues was discussed during the group work. The main points raised were as
follows:
• The bureaucracy of government regulations and red tape, the largely negative attitudes towards
business, and the overall lack of transparency prevent the development of a real public-private
partnership for business.
• There are great differences between the laws and customary practices as regards gender
equality in society, and this impacts negatively on the operations and effectiveness of women
entrepreneurs.
• The licensing procedures relating to business are overly bureaucratic, and obtaining accessible
information about new laws and legislation in a timely manner is a major inhibitor for business.
• Attitudes to business owners, including women entrepreneurs, are in general negative in so far
as they are seen as being unethical.
• Women entrepreneurs’ associations need to be supported to be more, representative, memberbased,
open and effective. There is a need for better networking within and between different
business associations.
• The informal economy needs to be recognized in some way. It is a dominant sector in the
Ethiopian economy and employs many poor people, especially women. Poor working
conditions and little income security for those engaged in the informal economy makes them
very vulnerable.
(b)
Recommendations:
I. As the informal economy is largely dominated by women, it is important that steps are taken
by the Government and BDS providers to improve their economic and social protection
position by:
- Providing some form of “official” recognition to informal workers to protect them from
harassment and provide basic forms of social protection;
- Providing financial and non-financial support to women in the informal economy so that
they can more easily access and navigate the steps involved in formalizing their
businesses.
II.
The Government should take the lead in a number of initiatives aimed at changing the
attitudes of society towards women entrepreneurs and creating a more positive and
constructive environment for their expansion and growth.
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