Gender equality: SCORE Training pushing forward change in SMEs

In 2019, every SCORE Programme country has stepped up their efforts on gender issues. Here we share some encouraging results for MIG SCORE in Colombia, and focus on women's entrepreneurship development projects in Indonesia and Bolivia that are yielding convincing results.


As the 2030 deadline of the sustainable development agenda slowly approaches, WE ALL have a part to play in stepping up a gear to ensure the goals are achieved. International Women's Day is an opportunity to recall the importance of gender equality in SMEs and ensure that workers and managers all drive equality together.

Mainstreaming gender equality remains key to the SCORE vision of a better and more inclusive world. We are working towards this on many fronts including encouraging the presence of women among staff trained, among the certified trainers, and ultimately we want the number of women entrepreneurs to increase. In 2019, on average 37% of the companies that benefited from SCORE Training were owned by women. There is the same percentage of women among our trainers as well as among the employees who participated in SCORE Training.

However, we realise that this is still not good enough. Time is short and we all need to be doing what we can to achieve more balance in the workplace. Some SCORE countries are opting for the promotion of women's entrepreneurship through partnerships with local / national / sector associations; others choose to promote gender equality through specific training on gender issues during training of trainers and enterprise training. In Peru, for example, projects have been developed to promote gender equality within the Enterprise Improvement Plans that the SCORE programme implements. In Myanmar, it is through the training offered to trainers that results are expected. It is through training on gender issues, and reaching a high percentage of women among certified trainers, that the programme aims to raise awareness of the importance of gender equality in business. In Vietnam, in the forestry and wood processing sector, which is prominent in the national economy, research on this topic has been conducted and will provide a basis for future actions.

Here we celebrate some gender equality achievements, specifically in two of our programme countries, and go on to give a snapshot of some others promising fruit for the future…



Bolivia
In Bolivia, the SCORE programme reaches an impressive share of women-owned enterprises. 57% of SMEs that have benefited from SCORE Training are owned by women entrepreneurs.

SCORE programme activities in the country have helped bring the statistics closer to good gender equality. In 2019, the most important gender-based activities of SCORE Bolivia were:

• The creation of alliances with four Women's Training and Empowerment Centres. Through the Ministry of Productive Development, these alliances were aimed at implementing Continuous Improvement and succeeded in improving the centres' capacity to provide services and productivity training to women entrepreneurs, some of whom are in vulnerable situations.
• The organization of a national trainers' workshop. In collaboration with the Confederación de Empresarios Provados de Bolivia (CEPB), SCORE Bolivia organized a national workshop of trainers, during which a session was held to improve the skills of trainers in implementing and handling projects to promote gender equality in SMEs.

Indonesia
Like Bolivia, the SCORE programme in Indonesia manages to reach a large share of women entrepreneurs, almost as many as male entrepreneurs where the SCORE Training has been implemented.

In addition, there’s a very promising strategy at the level of female trainers which has been implemented in Indonesia. Now more than two-thirds of the certified trainers are women.

The activities of the programme in Indonesia are similar to those carried out in Bolivia and are based on two axes: the promotion of women entrepreneurs and the presence of women among the trainers:

• Thanks to SCORE trainers from four trade union confederations, three trainings on non-discrimination and equality were organized in three cities (Bogor, Surabaya and Yogyakarta). Approximately 300 trade union representatives at the planning level participated in these activities.
• In collaboration with the Indonesian Association for Women's Entrepreneurship, facilitated by the ILO Gender Focal Point in Jakarta, the programme provided refresher training on gender equality to 50 SMEs in the Yogyakarta region.

...Promising Initiatives for the future...

Not only Bolivia and Indonesia have invested time and energy in promoting gender equality. Indeed, the efforts of all the countries in our programme are helping to make women feel like they belong & are heard in SMEs. The SCORE programme encompasses a wide range of key activities to achieve this goal.

• In Colombia the Gender Equality Model (MIG SCORE) contributes to the promotion of economic empowerment of working women by providing technical assistance to the Ministry of Labour for its Gender Parity Initiative; training private consultants of the Bogotá Chamber of Commerce and providing expertise in gender-related communications.
  Colombia overall is beginning to see the results of its efforts to draw attention and interest to the Gender Equality Model (MIG SCORE) which was launched in 2018 and was the subject of an article last year. The training is currently being translated and will roll out to other countries in 2020.
• In Ghana the gender focus in 2019 was on enterprise training activities in which gender issues were addressed in detail. The programme also contributes to the preparation of the gender section of the SME policy.
• In Myanmar, joint activities with SIYB are bearing fruit as the Get Ahead project has trained 15 female trainers and benefited more than 550 women entrepreneurs. SCORE's women trainers continue their efforts to raise awareness of the benefits of gender equality at the enterprise level.
• In Peru, the groundwork is being laid for the adaptation of MIG SCORE's approach to equal pay for work of equal value. Efforts are also focused on communicating gender equality, developing a gender equality policy, and publishing on information boards through Enterprise Improvement Plans.
• In Vietnam, an in-depth analysis of the wood-processing industry has enabled the identification of obstacles to equal opportunities for female staff, enabling both the SCORE programme and the partners to take appropriate action to meet the challenges. The development of a new partnership with the Vietnam Women's Academy also allows us to envisage progress in this area.

It is clear that now more than ever, a comprehensive gender strategy is necessary in order to achieve real and meaningful results. The promotion of women's participation in small and medium-sized enterprises can not only be done at the level of trainers, we are working to ensure the benefits of equality are communicated at country entrepreneurship level, as well as staff level of beneficiary enterprises. SCORE is committed to seeing more women in SMEs at all levels, and creating an environment for that to happen. Let’s ensure that this is not a trend, but that together our efforts create fast, but long-lasting change. We are all responsible to pave the way for change, every day. Each one of us can contribute to a gender equal world.

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