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Sleeping giantess awakes

Empowering women entrepreneurs is good for development and business. Tune in to World Bank Live on October 11, 2012 10:30 a.m JST. to hear Liberia President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and World Bank Group President Jim Kim talk #womenbiz at this year's Annual Meetings.

I’m in Tokyo. The changing colours of the autumn leaves, which would normally preoccupy the nation and its visitors, have been replaced – well, in Tokyo anyway – by fluttering street banners announcing the fact that the city is hosting the 2012 IMF/World Bank Group Annual Meetings. There’s a throng of people – 20,000 is the number bandied about – representing government and private sector delegations from around the world, and they are all here to discuss the status of international economic and financial developments for inclusive growth.

As Director, Women’s Markets, Westpac Group and because of our leadership as a corporation and a country in promoting women’s access to finance, I’ve been invited by the IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, to attend a number of events focused on women in the private sector. Supporting women-run businesses is good for the economy (Credit: Ericsson Beach, Flickr Creative Commons)

In many developing economies, between 30 and 40 percent of the entrepreneurs running small or medium sized businesses are women.

Cultural and legislative barriers, such as preventing married women from opening bank accounts, or restrictions on women’s work, are becoming less overt in many places. However, women entrepreneurs – be it in first, third or the developing world nations - often find it difficult to raise capital to grow their businesses and for all sorts of reasons.

Hargeisa: Actively Building a Regulatory Framework for Small and Medium Firms

As highlighted by the 2011 Wor ld Development Report, the World Bank Group (WBG) has a strong mandate to work on fragile and conflict-affected states (FCAS). And reforming the investment climate so that it’s more conducive to economic growth is an important element of the WBG’s advisory work in fragile and conflict-affected states and territories. With this in mind, we published Doing Business in Hargeisa 2012 which provides a baseline on the Doing Business indicators for Hargeisa. The report is important for local policymakers as it provides micro-level data comparable globally as well as an assessment of the business climate.

Banking on Women in Egypt

Empowering women entrepreneurs is good for development and business. Tune in to World Bank Live on October 11, 2012 10:30 a.m JST. to hear Liberia President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and World Bank Group President Jim Kim talk #womenbiz at this year's Annual Meetings.

Research has shown that gender equality makes good business sense, and is key to promoting economic growth. But women continue to be excluded from the economic sphere. This is certainly the case in Egypt, which could use an economic boost in a time of transition—especially as millions of fam Access to finance is changing lives of Egyptian women, and their families for the better. (Credit: World Bank) ilies that rely on the slumping tourism industry are having trouble making ends meet.
Indeed, our research has found that would-be Egyptian women entrepreneurs face many obstacles. For one, being approved for financing can be a challenge for Egyptian women entrepreneurs. Businesswomen in Egypt are also disadvantaged when it comes to the cost of finance. Banks have stricter collateral requirements for loans to women entrepreneurs, which are perceived as higher-risk. Providing collateral is also an obstacle for many women who are under the guardianship of male relatives and unable to independently manage their assets.

Greening the Silicon Savannah

Palo Alto and Bangalore may soon have to make room for Nairobi at the top of the tech startup world. Kenya, the setting for such success stories as M-PESA, is making a name for itself as the center of the “Silicon Savannah Wanted: entrepreneurs who are primed to make waves in climate tech. (Credit: International Rivers, Flickr Creative Commons) ”. This growth is supported by incubators, investment and policy – an ecosystem of actors committed to capturing opportunities in a promising field.

Today, the Climate Innovation Center (CIC), the first of its kind in the world, opens its doors to Kenyan startups hoping to also make waves in climate technology sectors. infoDev’s feasibility studies estimate that such companies can create up to 4,600 direct and indirect jobs over 5 years and over 24,000 within 10 years, but they require substantial support to realize this potential. To this end, the World Bank’s infoDev, in partnership with the governments of Denmark and the UK, engaged with Kenyan entrepreneurs, policymakers and financiers to determine what climate technology ventures need in order to flourish as their counterparts in other industries have done. In short, they seem to be: financing, business advisory services , networks and policies that support innovative entrepreneurship.

Why does the legal environment matter for women’s access to capital?

When asked about what she thought was key in advancing women’s rights, Cherie Blair, lawyer and founder of the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, replied, “I believe that actually financial independence is very important so we need a financial framework that recognizes women as equals, that enables them to have access to finance, access to capital to have their own financial independence.” For women in the developing world, property rights can be a factor in getting access to finance. (Credit: World Bank Photos)

And this brings to the table another question: What are the hurdles that women face when trying to access capital?

For many women entrepreneurs across the world, getting a loan to start or expand their business can prove challenging. This is particularly true in the developing world where banks often require borrowers to pledge their home or land as collateral. Women, who tend to lack such assets, are placed at a disadvantage. Legal restrictions on women’s property rights can exacerbate the problem.

MicroForester: Seeding social entrepreneurship while planting trees

In May 2012, Alexander Shakaryan’s MicroForester, which is an online platform to stimulate reforestation in designated parts of the world, received the runner-up prize of infoDev and Nokia’s m2Work Challenge. The m2Work competition was a global call for innovators to design jobs that anyone could do from a mobile phone. Three months later, the Armenian developer assesses next steps for his fledgling company.

As an entrepreneur, winning a competition is only the beginning of the tougher part of the journey, which is creating a real company from an idea. You can win a competition with just an idea, but winning investors and customers depends on lots of other things like money, connections, and fame. The m2Work competition was good for local fame, and the m2Work Hackathon will help as well, but more importantly the events show us who the entrepreneurs are and how to help us on our own tough journey.

The m2Work hackathon is planting the seeds for innovative entrepreneurship (Credit: ILRI, Flickr Creative Commons) A few months ago I received an email from the Enterprise Incubator Foundation (EIF) about the m2Work contest. Inspired by the idea of microwork and driven by my love for nature, I had an idea for an app to allow people in different corners of the world to use their phones to earn money by planting trees. That was MicroForester.

Since the competition we have put together a great team of developers. We have developed an application for mobile platform iOS. The first trees have already been planted with MicroForester in Yerevan, Armenia. We have a sponsorship agreement with a local leading food industry company, and we also have mining companies interested in financing the project. We have a signed Letter of Commitment with the American Institutes for Research for a future USAID-funded reforestation project in Cambodia.

An analogy about cars, trust and financial capability

Imagine you need a car to commute long distances to your workplace or the closest supermarket, to visit your parents and to bring your child to school. Therefore, you want to spend the money you have been able to put aside on a large purchase: a new and reliable car. However, you do n Financial education enables the unbanked to participate in financial markets. (Credit: The Advocacy Project, Flickr Creative Commons) ot know how to drive, nor how do you have even a basic understanding of any technical aspects of a car, not to mention any knowledge about how to maintain a car.
Also, imagine that everything you have heard so far about car dealers from your family, friends and neighbors is that they have a very bad attitude, do not act in your best interest and try to sell you overpriced vehicles with hidden fees and features you do not need. Given your lack of knowledge of how to choose and use a car and your lack of trust, would you still feel confident about approaching a car dealer? Most probably not.

This analogy also applies to one’s participation in financial markets. Especially in developing economies, where most globally unbanked people live. If you do not have knowledge of features and risks associated with financial products, do not know how to choose and use these products, lack any basic understanding of inflation, interest rates and compound interest, it is unlikely that you will participate in financial markets, or that you will benefit from them if you do. A lack of trust in financial service providers will do the same.

Moving Forward to Recover Arab Stolen Assets

In Arabic

In French

In December 2010, the Arab Spring began with a call for a change, which ended up becoming a reality in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. The restoration of justice is now a priority focus in all these countries. In the minds of many citizens, justice means the return of funds looted by officials over decades of high-level government corruption. The tenor of recent news reports shows that throughout the region, the public’s patience for the process is wearing thin. Arab Spring countries are now focused on restoring justice and recovering stolen assets, which can be a long and difficult road to travel. (Credit: Amine Ghrabi, Flickr Creative Commons)

But the reality is that the asset recovery process is a long and often difficult road, one that must be traveled even long after the euphoria of regime change has dimmed. We know that from our engagements with client countries, and from many headline-making cases. For example, according to StAR’s Asset Recovery Watch, although former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos was deposed in 1986, the attempts to recover his allegedly stolen wealth continue to the present day. Meanwhile, a new case against Nigerian Dictator Sani Abacha, who died in 1998, was launched in Luxembourg just this year.

What banking regulators might be usefully discussing at Capetown

As regulators from across the developing world prepare to gather at the Alliance for Financial Inclusion’s annual Global Policy Forum which will be held in Capetown on 26-28 September, may I offer some thoughts on where we are at in the excellent financial inclusion journey and what is required to take it forward.

Financial inclusion by halves
Half the world is unbanked. In developing countries, half How can we move financial inclusion forward and bring more financial services to the people that need them? (Credit: Austin Yoder, Flickr Creative Commons of accounts are inactive. And half of the active ones have the equivalent of just a few days of household income. (How do I know this is roughly the picture? I make it a point to throw that into conversations with bankers and mobile money operators, and eyes are cast down. The global Findex survey, though it is silent on account balances, does reveal a large gap between those who say they have an account and those who say they save in it.) Getting banked is hardly a quantum leap for most people in the informal sector.

Tags:
financial inclusion

The struggle for survival for Caribbean cleantech SMEs

They had to do something different, something memorable, which would make people realize just how tough it is for small businesses in the Caribbean to survive, “So we held a funeral”. Rosalea Hamilton, the President of the Jamaica-based MSME Alliance explained that they staged a funeral to mourn for the death of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Jamaica. The objective was to draw attention to a petition presented to the Prime Minister on ways to support the sector. As the poster for the event underscored, if nothing changed to help Caribbean entrepreneurs, their ventures were as good as dead. Life isn't a beach for cleantech SMEs in the Caribbean, which face high energy costs, lack of financing and other challenges. (Credit: Clive Gutteridge, Flickr Creative Commons)

According to Rosalea, one of the top challenges facing businesses in Jamaica is the cripplingly high electricity costs, which can account for 25% of a business’s expenses. Jamaica, along with many other Caribbean countries, is highly dependent on foreign oil. This is in spite of numerous domestic natural resources that could be used to move away from fossil fuels, such as solar, wind, and geothermal energy, biofuels such as bagasse, and waste-to-energy systems. Given the high energy prices, start-ups developing alternative energy solutions should thrive in the Caribbean. But ask regional cleantech entrepreneurs, and a different story emerges.

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