Business Women Association “Tadbirkor Ayol” (BWA) with the support of the World Bank and other development partners, including the EU Delegation in Uzbekistan, Embassies of the United States and Switzerland organized a workshop designed to discuss challenges and innovative solutions to facilitate rural women’s entrepreneurship.
BWA joined World Women’s Entrepreneurship Day marked globally in 2016 and annually organizes a series of event to promote women entrepreneurship in Uzbekistan, discuss barriers and challenges to develop business, find international partners, build capacity and share best practices with local female entrepreneurs.
The workshop held on November 22 in Tashkent was attended by representatives of ministries and state agencies, NGOs, firms, and companies run by women, beneficiaries of the World Bank projects, including female farmers from rural areas across Uzbekistan.
“Challenges faced by women in entrepreneurship, especially in rural areas can be effectively addressed through various business models of cooperation that are successfully implemented globally for many years. Such business models strength women`s position at the labor market and add value to leadership capacity in their communities that are highlighted through World Bank's global experience based on projects implemented worldwide”, said Nina Kolybashkina, World Bank’s Senior Social Development Specialist, welcoming the event participants in Tashkent.
“The empowerment of rural women requires multi-faceted approaches to improving their access to economic opportunities, productive resources, jobs, services, and entitlements. Today, rural women face many barriers to enjoy their economic rights leaving in an informal economy. Therefore, new policies and programs are addressing key aspects of women entrepreneurship in the promotion of their access to finance, formal markets and value chains, innovative technologies, and practices their own ability to realize these goals”, said Gulnora Makhmudova, Chairwoman of BWA.
BWA, World Bank, local and foreign experts discussed business models that address women`s entrepreneurship in an integrated manner with simple and customized approaches. Participants were informed about international best practices and innovative models including frugal innovations that facilitate and build rural women`s entrepreneurship.
The event participants had a fruitful exchange on challenges that rural female entrepreneurs experience and innovations for rural entrepreneurship. They also discussed business cooperatives as one of the models for networking and collaboration, and best practices of women entrepreneurship from Azerbaijan and India presented by guest speakers from these states.
In Uzbekistan, the World Bank is implementing 18 projects totaling over US$ 3.3 billion with the aim to support the Government’s social and economic reforms. These projects help implement critical macroeconomic reforms, develop agriculture and water resources management, healthcare, education, water supply and sanitation, energy, transport, and urban sectors. They contribute to the country’s economic growth and higher living standards for the people of Uzbekistan.
