Abstract
The importance of women’s role in global economic development is indisputable. Workforce participation and entrepreneurial activity by women not only increase a country’s GDP, but also improve health and education outcomes for them and their children. For entrepreneurs and small business owners around the world, access to capital is both challenging and vital for growth. For women in emerging markets, the barriers to funding can be nearly insurmountable. Banks and other institutions have increased the funding for women entrepreneurs. However, simply providing more funds, while an important step, will not solve the problem. Recent research highlights the importance of market-centric, skills-based training programs that address the specific characteristics of women entrepreneurs and the challenges they face. This chapter outlines universal best practices in training adult entrepreneurs and business owners. It then describes the design and delivery of a tested access to capital program designed specifically for women entrepreneurs in emerging markets.
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Notes
- 1.
“Identical” here means not only the same level of participation in the labor force, but similar representation across industries/jobs as well as comparable productivity and pay.
- 2.
Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative: Recent Updates, Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative, accessed January 19, 2020, https://we-fi.org/
- 3.
Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative: Our Mission, Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative, accessed January 19, 2020. https://we-fi.org/mission/
- 4.
OPIC 2X: Invest in Women. Invest in the World, OPIC 2X, accessed January 19, 2020, https://2x.opic.gov/
- 5.
We previously noted that assessing and implementing a growth opportunity ultimately requires knowledge and skills across numerous areas including marketing and sales, leadership, and operations and processes. In this section we focus only on those skills most closely associated with evaluating the financial potential of an opportunity and accessing the required capital.
- 6.
It is important that the example business chosen for the exercises be relevant to local economic conditions and the likely program participants.
- 7.
This framework is used in most countries around the world with local variation. For example, in the U.S., character is in part determined based on a borrower’s FICO credit score. Other developed economies use different credit scoring systems, while in many less-developed countries, individual credit scores do not exist.
- 8.
Again, this process varies by country/region, and should be localized, but there are common global practices.
- 9.
The applications are edited versions of actual loan applications. They are modified to purposely make one an easy approval, another an obvious rejection, and the third much less clear of a decision.
- 10.
Numerous assessment tools are available for this. Two that are widely used are the Dominance Influence Steadiness Conscientiousness (DiSC®) Assessment and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Assessment, but there are many others and whatever is used should be appropriate for local conditions.
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Bliss, R.T., Fetters, M.L. (2020). Access to Capital: Women Entrepreneurs in Emerging Markets. In: Klonowski, D. (eds) Entrepreneurial Finance in Emerging Markets. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46220-8_8
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