ICT, women and entrepreneurship
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has just launched its first report on Empowering Women Entrepreneurs Through Information and Communications Technologies, with the aim of analysing key ICT dynamics that facilitate women entrepreneurship, especially in the developing countries. It strives to constitute a guidebook for development agencies, government ministries, SME partners and donor community to help them formulate effective strategies and policies.
Why is it important?
ICT constitute increasingly valuable business tools for women entrepreneurs in developing countries. As our ranking encompasses countries such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan or Turkey, where women’s social, economic and political rights are limited (albeit to a different degree), it is important to consider the potential consequences of women’s economic empowerment. If the economic potential of these women is released, it could not only help to improve their socioeconomic standing and reduce poverty at the micro level - as women’s microenterprises and small subsistence businesses ‘play a crucial role in the survival of poor households’[i], but also contribute to GDP growth, thus increasing national economic power and the position of a country in the international balance of power. It can contribute as well to creating jobs and driving innovation.
Where is the link?
The basic ICT tools are relatively cheap and easily accessible, mainly via mobile phones, to even the poorest population strata in developing countries. According to International Telecommunication Union, last year the number of mobile phone users per 100 inhabitants in Africa reached 72 (as opposed to 39 in 2008). This gives an idea about the potential scale for expansion, and about the extent, to which ICT changes the way people live, work and communicate.
The list of potential benefits of using ICT in business cited in the report is extensive. The most important are:
- better access to crucial information in areas such as business development, market and pricing information, production technologies, compliance, forecasts and trading
- enabling entrepreneurs to communicate better along the value chain
- making administration cheaper and more efficient.[ii]
As argued by the authors of the report, ICTs thus offer extensive opportunities for women entrepreneurs, helping them in ‘reaching out to customers, becoming more efficient and building their businesses in ways they could not do before.’[iii]
In this context, the report provides a very optimistic case study of Regional Hunger and Vulnerability Programme in Lesotho. Their pilot project consisted of handing out mobile phones to groups of women farmers belonging to local cooperatives, and resulted in many improvements, such as improved marketing and increase in productivity thanks to access to pricing information and outlets for produce, as well as access to networks and expertise.
Moreover, those phones released a true enterpreunarial spirit in participating women, who even used them as income-generating tools - through buying discounted airtime and selling it to others. The earnings were then either invested in livestock or more phones, or loaned to friends and relatives (2009 World Survey on the Role of Women in Development).
It remains to be seen whether national governments and development agencies make use of the U.N. findings and conclusions. It is however undoubtedly a sign of an increased interest in the topic, which has not been until now in the centre of international attention. It also sends a strong political message, particularly taking into account recent events, such as group kidnapping of female students in Nigerian village of Chibok.
[i] UNCTAD (2014) Empowering Women Entrepreuners through Information and Communications Technologies - a Practical Guide, retrieved on 11/05/2014 from http://unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/dtlstict2013d2_en.pdf
[ii] idem
[iii] idem
Other interesting sources:
http://girlsinict.org Girls in ICT - expanding horizons and changing attitudes
http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/women-ict Europe 2020 Digital Agenda - Women in ICT
http://womenict.blogspot.fr Women in ICT blog, concerning mainly Nigerian women
Monika Prończuk










