Sharing successful strategies for women’s entrepreneurship development: Learning from good practices

HANOI (ILO News) – Today, the National Workshop on Successful Strategies for Women’s Entrepreneurship Development was organized by the Viet Nam Women Entrepreneurs Council, under the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), in collaboration with the ILO project on Women’s Entrepreneurship Development and Gender Equality (WEDGE), funded by Irish Aid. This is an opportunity for project’s partner organizations - Viet Nam Cooperative Alliance (VCA) and Viet Nam Women Union at national and local levels – as well as INGOs, donors and technical agencies to share experiences regarding economic empowerment of women and mainstreaming gender equality concerns in the field of entrepreneurship development.

The National Workshop brings together managers and technical officials from national agencies and from mass organizations in Quang Nam and Phu Tho provinces. Technical discussions aim to improve the understanding among technical managers in stakeholder organizations of effective strategies and measures to promote women’s entrepreneurship. The focus will also be on ensuring that enterprise development benefits and responds to the needs of both women and men, as the ILO’s mandate is to support the creation of more and better jobs through combining business development with a rights-based approach.

Women entrepreneurs contribute significantly to national development. The Government Statistics Office estimates that 30% of the incorporated small and medium enterprises are owned by women; about 25% of leaders and CEOs in Vietnamese enterprises in all economic sectors are women, and an estimated 60% of household businesses are owned by women. Despite these contributions, women entrepreneurs continue facing significant gender-related challenges in setting up and in expanding their businesses. They tend to be in a less favourable position compared to men when it comes to accessing human resource development and vocational training, commercial credit from formal financial service providers, or more lucrative markets, rather than the traditional local markets. Women entrepreneurs also often lack technology, information and networks to establish and expand their businesses. The MOLISA’s Vietnam Employment Trends 2010 report reflects these trends with GSO data showing a notable decrease in own-account work both among men and women. However, the majority of newly created jobs in wage and salaried employment were acquired by men whereas women appeared to have moved into unpaid family work.

Rie Vejs-Kjeldgaard, Director of ILO Country Office for Vietnam, underlined: “Effective growth with equity requires maximizing the potential of enterprises to create decent jobs, for both women and men. Women entrepreneurs play a vital role in this regard. Supporting them to overcome barriers related to their gender roles and responsibilities is the right thing to do, and it also makes perfect business sense. Vietnamese society must enable both women and men to realize their full potential as entrepreneurs."

Vu Tien Loc, Chairman of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) emphasized: “The number of female-operated enterprises accounts for 20 per cent of total number of enterprises in Vietnam. This is a very high rate compared to the world. Women entreprenuers are heading in social work. They, therefore, are not only playing a vital role in economic growth but also acting as solution finders to social issues”.

Background information

The International Labour Organization has long been involved in fostering enterprise development in Viet Nam as a way to promoting Decent Work for all women and men. The focus is on supporting the establishment and growth of micro and small enterprises for women and men, combining a market-development approach with a strong rights-based perspective. Since 2009, the Irish Aid-funded project on Women’s Entrepreneurship Development and Gender Equality (WEDGE), the VCCI, the VCA, the VWU and other partner organizations have createdan enabling and more gender-sensitive business environment, promoted enterprise development and increased women’s opportunities to business development by building institutional capacity of different goverment agencies and partner organizations, and improving support services for women entrepreneurs through business development service providers.

Decent Work is productive work carried out by women and men in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity.

For further information please contact:

Ms Le Thi Huong Lien
Communication Officer
ILO Country Office for Viet Nam
Tel.: +84-4-37340902 ext 206
Email

Mr Nguyen Thai Minh
NPC-WEDGE Project
ILO Country Office for Viet Nam
Tel.: +84-4-3848 9314
Email