Women entrepreneurs in the Middle East and North Africa : characteristics, contributions, and challenges
Youness,Ghada
The importance of women's entrepreneurship for economic growth is increasingly recognized in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Entrepreneurship creates new jobs, essential in a region with a young population and high unemployment. With the lowest female labor force participation rates in the world and ironically women are often graduating from universities in higher numbers than their male counterparts, female entrepreneurship also provides a productive outlet for a well-educated and underutilized talent pool. This International Finance Cooperation (IFC) supported research project and report, undertaken in close cooperation with local partners, is a product of capacity building efforts that help fill the knowledge gap in understanding the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs. The report is the result of a pioneering effort of collaboration between businesswomen's associations and research institutions in five countries in the region. By providing a voice to women's needs for business skills development, better links to business networks, and improved access to financial services, the associations involved in this report have provided an important first step in identifying key challenges. This report comes at a time when stakeholders and partners are looking to further women's entrepreneurship in the region. Many women entrepreneurs some of whom are profiled in the report have kindly offered their time to respond to the country surveys. The purpose of this analysis is to help countries in the MENA region better understand the challenges faced by women and to promote an environment in which female as well as male entrepreneurs can thrive. This will not only benefit the businesswomen themselves, but will contribute to the well-being of their families and communities, and to their countries overall economic development.
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