Home

Events and Studies 
on Women Business Activities

FeMSEDA  I  ReMSEDA  I  Chambers  I  Finance  I   BDS providers  I  Networks I  Associations  I  NGO/Projects

Website Statistics

Gender home  I  Business Profiles  I  Promotion Projects  I  Funds  I  Events

Zewde and Associates, SEED-ILO Addis Ababa 2002
Jobs, Gender and Small Enterprises in Africa. 
Women Entrepreneurs in Ethiopia.
Preliminary Report women entrepreneurs in ethiopia.pdf 488 KB
Contents: Overview of the Ethiopian MSE Sector - Ethiopian Women and MSE - Enabling Environment and MSE Policy - Financial and non-financial Service Providers - Barriers facing Women Entrepreneurs - Recommendations

Women in the Informal Sector

A short note extracted from Reflections: Documentation of Panos Ethiopia’s Forum on Gender reads as the following:

The issue of poverty alleviation has become a forefront agenda of governments, UN agencies, financial institutions and others committed to the empowerment of the disadvantaged groups, especially women. However, all the decades of rhetoric have not done much in changing the lives of the poor. On the contrary, poverty has become an increasing trend.

The effects of economic policies and programs, such as Structural Adjustment programmes (SAP), trade liberalisation, etc. aimed at economic growth have aggravated the poverty situation in developing countries. These programmes, which demand massive lay-offs and decrease in the social budget, have only succeeded in dropping the great majorities of population into the pitfalls of unemployment and the consequences it necessarily brings with it: crime, violence, streetism, diseases, prostitution, illiteracy and others.

Women, especially female-headed households, are more vulnerable in such situations. In programmes like SAP and other market-oriented reforms, they are the first to be laid-off in the formal sector employment due to their limited education and training. In rural areas, reallocation of resources to tradable goods, especially to export items, marginalises women’s access to and control over agricultural products, resulting in food deficit at the household level. Self-sufficiency in food is hampered as a result of the focus on cash crops. Female-headed households find it difficult to cope with the situation as their access to land and other agricultural inputs are limited. Such situations coupled with unbalanced gender relations sustained by a patriarchal system have made women the poorest of the poor and add to the increased involvement of women in the informal sector. Since it is the sector in which the urban and rural poor earn their living, it demands acknowledgement and necessary support by all concerned.

For the details, please refer to Reflections, Number 6, December 2001. This publication, covering six fora of the year 2001, deals with issues on the prevalent features of our time in relation to their impact on the position of women in society. The major topics that are presented in the publication are:

• The Role of Women in Development

• The Impact of Globalisation on Women

• Globalisation and the Concept Behind It

• The Feminisation of Poverty

• Women and Employment in Ethiopia

• Women in the Informal Sector in Ethiopia

Panos Ethiopia: Tel./Fax: 251-1-66 63 60

E-mail: panos@telecom.net.et

P. O. B. O. Box: 1570 Code 1110

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Web site: http://www.oneworld.org/panos

The African Women's Development Network
http://www.africaonline.co.ke/femnet/

Elements of gender analysis and development

• Labour division on gender basis.

• Social roles of women and men.

• Acces to resources: money, production, eduction.

• Influence on the collectivity.

• Life conditions and situation based on gender.

• Double burden of women (work, family, household)

• Practical needs and strategic interests based on gender.

• Level of participation and representation of women in institutions and organisations.

• Legal aspects.

Home  I  Business Profiles  I  Promotion Projects  I  Funds  I  Events