Women = SmartBusiness

Women = Smart Business LESSONS LEARNED IN GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT & WOMEN IN BUSINESS

In partnership with Austria, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Pakistan, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The Afghan Development Association, the European Union, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Private Infrastructure Development Group, the South Asia Infrastructure Facility.

Disclaimer SmartLessons is a World Bank Group program which enables development practitioners to share lessons learned in development operations.

The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in these papers are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of IFC or its partner organizations, the Executive Directors of the World Bank Group or the governments they represent. IFC does not assume any responsibility for the completeness or accuracy of the information contained in this document.

International Finance Corporation Copyright Š 2012 - All rights reserved

Foreword The World Bank’s World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development concludes that women’s participation in the economy is essential for sustainable development. While there has been great progress in advancing the status of women and girls, there are still many challenges that must be addressed to promote women’s economic empowerment, something that is essential to poverty reduction.

Women play a critical role in business – and through this role they have direct impact on the type and quality of economic growth that a country experiences. Women contribute to development in many other ways as well. Listening to women’s often unheard voices can offer important insights into concerns of the community that otherwise might not be understood, but can contribute to lasting social and economic value.

Women are empowered when they influence economic decisions in their immediate surroundings. They are empowered when they are able to work in a paid job or run their own business. Entering the formal economy as workers or businesswomen allows women to provide for themselves and their families, and play their part in generating economic growth and job creation.

This “SmartBook” titled Women = Smart Business: Lessons Learned in Gender and Development/Women in Business presents practical lessons learned from staff across the IFC and the World Bank, on mostly successful approaches for promoting gender and development as well as women and business. The projects and programs featured in this book span a wide range of countries and regions. They depict how initiatives have advanced business and development by promoting women in their different roles: as leaders, entrepreneurs, employees, and stakeholders. Yet, they all have one common focus: the objective of sharing these experiences and lessons in order to encourage learning from and replication of impactful programs.

We recognize that our work cannot be done in isolation and that in order to scale-up, our close partnership with governments and the private sector is a key ingredient for

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increasing our desired impact. And this also is a lesson in and of itself. Together, we create opportunities for women and work to transform local and global markets for sustainable development.

We hope you find these narratives engaging and most importantly, that you will gain some practical insight.

Monika Weber-Fahr Global Business Line Leader Sustainable Business Advisory IFC

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Women = SMART Business: Lessons LEARNED IN GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT / WOMEN IN BUSINESS

Table of Contents WOMEN AS LEADERS Sense and Sensibility: Helping Companies See the Value of Gender Diversity in the Boardroom - Mahwesh Bilal Khan...................................................................................2

WOMEN AS ENTREPRENEURS Commitment to a Lady’s First Win: Banking Innovation in the Democratic Republic of Congo Vivian Awiti Owuor............................................................................................................... 8 Five Years of Access to Finance for Women, What A Journey!

Esther Dassanou.................................................................................................................... 14 Banking on Women: How Lines of Credit Can Target Women Most Effectively Sahar Nasr, Nahla El-Okdah................................................................................................. 20 Empowering Women in Pakistan: Commercial Alternative Dispute Resolution Mechanisms Navin Merchant, Isfandyar Ali Khan...................................................................................... 25 What (Business) Women Want – Surveys Tell Us About the State of Female Entrepreneurship in the Middle East and North Africa Carmen Niethammer, Hela Gharbi........................................................................................ 30 Four Hundred Women Light the Way! Involving Women in Entrepreneurial Roles Anika Ali, Mrinal Sircar....................................................................................................... 35 What A Difference a Phone Makes: How IFC’s Village Phone Program Improved the Lives of Women in Nigeria - Theophilus Onadeko.................................................................. 40 Creating Opportunities for Women Entrepreneurs in Conflict-Affected Countries Carmen Niethammer, Mark Blackden, Henriette von Kaltenborn-Stachau................................. 44

WOMEN AS EMPLOYEES Multiplying the Negatives to Get a Positive: Implementing Gender Initiatives in the Economic Zones in Bangladesh- Narissa Haider.................................................................... 50 Employing Women: A Boon for a Chemical Plant in India - Larry Jiang................................ 54 Partnering to Extend Our Reach: The Intricate Art of Serving the Hard-to-Reach Wael Makki, Nell Abernathy.................................................................................................. 59

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Integrating Women into Mining Operations: The Examples of Newmont Ghana and Lonmin South Africa - Natalie Africa............................................................................. 64 Women’s Employment: Smart Business? Promoting the Quality of Jobs for Women Carmen Niethammer............................................................................................................ 69

WOMEN AS STAKEHOLDERS Lessons from the Reconstruction of Post-Tsunami Aceh: Build Back Better Through Ensuring That Women are at the Center of Reconstruction of Land and Property - Keith Clifford-Bell................................................................................. 75 Incorporating Gender Activities into Cotton Lending Project Design: High Impact at Reasonable Cost: - Raiomand Billmoria, Adkham Ergashev, Muhayyo Nosirova, Ziyoda Kurbanova.................................................................................... 81 Giving Women a Bigger Voice in Rural China Patricia Fernandes.................................................................................................................. 84 Striking Gold! Women in Mining Initiative in Papua New Guinea Adriana Eftimie.................................................................................................................... 87

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Women = SMART Business: Lessons LEARNED IN GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT / WOMEN IN BUSINESS

Women as Leaders

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Sense and Sensibility: Helping Companies See the Value of Women in the Boardroom Many studies have shown the positive correlation between diversity—both at the board and management levels—and firm performance. A broad variety of people brings a wider range of skills, experiences, and perspectives to the decision-making activities of a company. This diversity can lead to better overall stewardship and oversight of the organization, often translating to improved performance. A diverse board may be better aligned with a company’s diverse employees and customers and open up a wider pool of talent from which to select future directors. Therefore, we may deduce that bringing women into the boardroom is important, not simply as a perfunctory act to meet gender or racial quotas, but rather because there is a sound business case for doing so. On this foundation the IFC Corporate Governance Program in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) launched its “Boardroom Balance” initiative last year, under the auspices of IFC’s Women in Business Program. This SmartLesson describes the initiative in Jordan and Pakistan, which will be an adaptable model for other select countries in the region.

BACKGROUND The lack of board diversity is especially acute in the MENA region. In the United States and Europe, for example, approximately 10–15 percent1 of board directors are female (still unacceptably low), but in the MENA region the percentages are much lower: in the Gulf countries only 1.5 percent of directors are female,2 and across the region, about 90 percent of companies have either one or zero female directors.3 This issue has taken on new significance because of the recent political changes in the region, since part of the social agenda for change is improving economic opportunities for women.

The Boardroom Balance initiative, piloted in Pakistan and Jordan, is designed to improve awareness The National Investor (TNI) Market Insight, May 2008.

TNI Survey, 2008 (United Arab Emirates).

3 IFC/Hawkamah Corporate Governance Survey, March 2008.

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“It is hardly possible to overrate the value . . .of placing human beings in contact with persons dissimilar to themselves, and with modes of thought and action unlike those with which they are familiar. . . . Such communication has always been, and is peculiarly in the present age, one of the primary sources of progress.”

—John Stuart Mill

on board diversity. It has included the following actions: • Conducting a baseline survey in Pakistan to gain insight into the current state of board diversity and key challenges and opportunities;

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• Conducting seminars for male and female directors and executives, to demonstrate the business case for board diversity; • Training current and potential female directors and executives on corporate governance best practices to better position them for board directorships. So far, more than 170 people have attended the business case seminars in Jordan and Pakistan, and about 36 potential female directors have been trained.

The initiative also will be selectively delivered in other countries, tying in with the MENA Advisory Program’s overall response to the political crises in the region.

LESSONS LEARNED Lesson 1: Pitch to the right audience; men are the key to diversity.

The women get it—it’s the men who need to be targeted. In some of our early events, the seminars were dominated by female speakers, sharing their experiences and opinions with a predominantly female audience. However, we quickly learned that the case to be made is much stronger when the reverse occurs—male board directors and senior executives speaking to male (and female) audience members.

Given that males overwhelmingly hold most key decision-making positions in the region, they are the ones who need to be convinced to change. Testimony from other male decision makers has proven to be the most compelling way to do it. Furthermore, having a healthy mix of men and women in the audience provides for much richer discussions, bringing to the surface varying points of view and presumptions.

Lesson 2: Focus on the business case—and localize it.

The key is to convince companies of the importance of board diversity, not because it’s “politically correct”

or “a nice thing to do,” but rather because there is a sound business case for it. (See Box 1.) And, given that most board diversity research is from the United States and Europe, the team quickly learned the importance of using local examples and companyspecific data to make the case even more compelling.

Box 1: What Others Say Companies with a higher ratio of women in top management experienced better financial performance.

Companies with more than two women present on the board outperform others in their sector on their return on equity, stock price growth and operating results.

— “Women Matter,” A study by McKinsey & Company, July 2007.

Companies with the best record of promoting women to high positions are more profitable than their peers in terms of returns on assets and investment.

— “Women on Boards: Not Just the Right Thing . . . But the ‘Bright’ Thing,” A report by the Conference Board of Canada, May 2002.

Strong board diversity is shown to lead to more objective and active boards, greater participation in decision making and stronger management oversight.

— Renee B. Adams and Daniel Ferreira, “Women in the Boardroom and their Impact on Governance and Performance,” Journal of Financial Economics, 2009.

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(See Box 2.) For example, the panel discussions as well as the training workshops in Pakistan were far more practical and effective, because the audience could directly identify with the key issues brought to light in the Pakistan survey. Likewise in Jordan, the team invited board members from a local IFC client, Microfund for Women, to offer their testimony on the importance of diversity. Microfund for Women’s board is 42 percent female, and its workforce is 70 percent female, including 80 percent of its branch managers and its top three executives.

Box 2: Making the Case to an IFC Client Cairo Investment and Real Estate Development (CIRA), a Cairo-based company that runs the largest private network of schools in Egypt, operates 18 “Futures Schools.” An IFC corporate governance review of CIRA included assessing its board composition and effectiveness. At the time, the board consisted of all men, many of whom were approaching retirement.

When discussing board composition, the IFC team made the case for CIRA to consider a better balance, noting that half of its roughly 13,000 students were female, most of the 2,000-plus employees (teachers) were female, and most of the “customer” interaction was with females (the mothers of students). Based on this argument, CIRA sought out and added two qualified female directors, which added crucial skill sets as well as a better balance. Following the changes, CIRA reported a significant improvement in overall board effectiveness, due in part to the composition changes.

As always, it is important to team with local partners to ensure that the message is framed in the local context. For example, in Jordan the trainings were conducted in partnership with the Business and Professional Women-Amman and the Amman Chamber of Commerce; in Pakistan they were conducted with ACCA Pakistan and the Pakistan Institute of Corporate Governance.

Lesson 3: Be selective about where to engage.

When discussing a new topic such as board diversity, it is crucial to initially target markets or segments where there is a chance for success, since certain cultural realities may be deeply entrenched. For example, the board-diversity challenge is likely to gain better traction in more developed markets, such as Pakistan and Jordan, than in less developed markets such as Afghanistan or Yemen, where companies struggle with even very basic corporate governance issues (for instance, setting up proper boards).

It may also be prudent to target particular market segments to gain momentum. In the coming year, for example, the team plans to target the Lebanese banking sector, where an astonishing 46 percent4 of the sector’s workforce is female, and yet very few women sit on Lebanese bank boards.

Lesson 4: Devote some effort to helping build an accessible pipeline of qualified female executives and directors.

One piece of feedback we’ve heard consistently in our events is this: “OK! I am convinced about having women on my board, but where do I find them?” It would be helpful to have a pipeline of potential female directors that companies could access to find qualified candidates. For example, perhaps local director insti4

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Figures are from the Association of Banks in Lebanon, 2011.

Women = SMART Business: Lessons LEARNED IN GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT / WOMEN IN BUSINESS

tutes (such as Pakistan Institute of Corporate Governance) or other organizations could create a publicly available database of women who qualify for and are interested in board positions.

Right now, our activities center on seminars focused on the business case for bringing women onto boards and the training of potential female directors. The lesson here is the need to dedicate more effort to exploring such pipeline possibilities with our partners.

Lesson 5: Manage expectations about IFC’s impact, given the strength and entrenchment of cultural norms.

In most countries across MENA, a majority of women still adhere to the traditional role of homemaker.

Although the number of women with university degrees

is increasing, the number of women who drop out of the workforce after marriage remains high. In Jordan, for example, more than 60 percent of college students are female, but fewer than 30 percent enter the workforce. This means that the pipeline of women with the potential to become directors is still underdeveloped.

Furthermore, there is ongoing debate about introducing family-friendly policies into organizations (for example, improving work-life balance). Realistically, given high unemployment rates in the region, organizations are not inclined to introduce such policies.

In the words of one woman CEO, “I am an averagesized family business. Why should I hire a woman manager, who I know will demand flex-work and maternity leave, when I have ten equally qualified men begging me for this position, who I know will have no problem putting in long hours.�

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Given such cultural norms and realities, it is important that we bear in mind the limitations of our work.

IFC alone cannot expect to change many of these entrenched cultural beliefs; so we need to manage expectations—our own as well as those of our clients.

Measuring impact the way we do—such as “the number of new female directors”—will be difficult. However, we should not lose sight of the highly positive response we’ve received from our initial activities. We can be confident that our efforts will raise awareness and help make a difference over time.

CONCLUSION There are historic changes taking placing across MENA. The region, it seems, is more open to change today than it was just six short months ago, and the level of dialogue regarding gender diversity and corporate responsibility has increased markedly. Sensibility—which is defined as the capacity to perceive, feel, and respond emotionally or aesthetically—is fast being recognized as a requirement for running busi-

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nesses successfully in these changing times. Thus, we look forward to applying these lessons and hope to make the boards in MENA a bit more balanced, a bit more sensible.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS Mahwesh Bilal Khan joined IFC in March 2008 as an Operations Analyst for the Pakistan Corporate Governance Project. She is currently on a developmental assignment with the Global Corporate Governance Forum, where she is working on the Forum’s Media Project and the Vietnam Project, among others.

Linda Jacqueline Clark joined IFC in 2008 as a Researcher in the Corporate Governance Program in MENA. She has since worked on projects across the region, including in Egypt, Tunis, Lebanon, and Jordan.

Approved by James Christopher Razook, Operations Officer, MENA Corporate Governance Program.

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Women as Entrepreneurs

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Commitment to a Lady’s First WIN: Banking Innovation in the Democratic Republic of Congo Doing business is challenging in the Democratic Republic of Congo (see Box 1) and presents opportunities for innovative approaches to banking, especially for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs)—and particularly for women entrepreneurs. But it is getting easier, thanks to innovating banking. This SmartLesson reviews some of the early lessons learned from the ongoing implementation of a Women in Business (WIN) component in a MSME finance project with Rawbank, S.A.R.L, the second-largest bank in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

BACKGROUND In January 2010, Rawbank commenced implementation of the Africa MSME Finance project (AMSME), which incorporated a Women in Business component. This project was linked to a $7 million IFC investment and included 24 months of in-house advisory services to strengthen the bank’s capacity to expand access to financial services for MSMEs. Rawbank officially launched its “Lady’s First” WIN program in March 2010, thereby becoming the only bank in the Democratic Republic of Congo with a program specifically dedicated to women in business.

The bank estimates that 23 percent of formal businesses are headed by women.

The key objectives of the Women in Business program are: • Improving access to financial services; • Improving managerial capacity through training and financial education using Business Edge; and • Facilitating women’s access to the market and to information.

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The bank offers additional services, such as helping women entrepreneurs formalize their businesses by providing legal aid and opening client accounts on their premises. It also has a dedicated website with online registration facilities for women entrepreneurs who want to subscribe to the Lady’s First program.

By the end of July 2011, the bank had 28 outstanding loans to women entrepreneurs, valued at $2.48 million—representing 16 percent of Rawbank’s $15.65 million outstanding small and medium enterprise (SME) portfolio. The target for the bank over the next five years is to have 20 percent of its SME portfolio consist of loans to women entrepreneurs. The bank also attracted 714 WIN account holders, with deposits valued at $10.65 million.

LESSONS LEARNED Lesson 1: It is important to manage the commencement of the project.

To ensure a smooth start, the project team needs to prepare ahead of time. For example:

Women = SMART Business: Lessons LEARNED IN GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT / WOMEN IN BUSINESS

With a population of about 66 million, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is emerging from almost two decades of civil conflict and economic instability.

To correct such a misconception and explain how the Advisory Services–linked investment project works, it would be preferable to carefully word any release and emphasize that the investment is a loan to the bank. The launch could also be an awarenesscreation or knowledge-sharing seminar that offers the public an opportunity to seek clarification from and engage with the Rawbank and IFC.

The second-largest country in Africa, which holds a rich endowment of natural resources, it is paradoxically one of the world’s poorest countries and remains a highly challenging environment in which to do business. The Doing Business Report 2011 ranked it 175 out of 183 economies, with “starting a business” ranked 146 and “enforcing contracts” ranked 172. Key constraining factors include underdeveloped infrastructure, a weak judicial system, inadequate contract enforcement, lack of protection of property rights, and high levels of bureaucracy and corruption. In addition, businesses are subject to shifting tax rules, and as a result, few keep reliable financial statements.

• Prepare the bank staff. Frontline bank staff should know what to expect from the project, preferably before the official launch. Equip them with the skills to handle inquiries and manage expectations.

IFC can assist with carrying out financial market studies and strategies or, as happened with Rawbank, organizing focus-group meetings so the bank can understand the sector and its expectations, and tailor the message accordingly. In Rawbank, 40 bank staff were trained in customer service for women entrepreneurs soon after the launch, with support from the WIN program. It is also important that bank staff understand that they provide the impetus for the program and that the initial client buy-in depends on them.

Banking penetration is less than 1 percent, due partly to a lack of coverage but also to legacy issues: foreign currency holdings were forcefully converted to a national currency, at some loss to clients. This has contributed to an enduring lack of confidence in the banking system. A thriving informal sector has emerged as a result, which could represent almost 80 percent of the economy.

• Have at least one product or service available before launching. Rawbank was predominantly a corporate bank with high-end SME clients, and the risk appetite was low, with lending mainly based on referrals. With the program’s launch, expectations

Box 1: A Brief Profile of the Democratic Republic of Congo

• Monitor any launch communication. Launch of the Rawbank AMSME $7 million loan and Advisory Services package was announced at a press conference, with a subsequent press release. Unfortunately, the prevailing assumption became that it was a grant for the bank to release to its clients.

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were high and potential clients inevitably expected that the bank would offer a credit product. Having a capacity-building training program as an initial offering gave the bank a forum to explain its credit requirements, to improve the clients’ bankability, and to encourage clients to build up a transaction history.

To manage expectations, the bank focused on improving the capacity of its existing clientele, because they already had a relationship with Rawbank.

• Identify partners who can provide access to women entrepreneurs. Partnering with a women entrepreneurs association served to bridge certain perception and trust issues. It served as a platform for information and idea exchange and an efficient mechanism for networking and relationship building. Such partnership models are valuable for program expansion, because they generate positive buy-in. Rawbank currently has an agreement with one association, whereby each party provides cross-referrals and they undertake joint tours countrywide.

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suspicion of the banking sector, the nonbanking interventions facilitated the building of rapport and encouraged businesses to channel their proceeds through banks that gave Rawbank a transactional history on which it could base its credit offerings.

Through the Africa MSME project, Rawbank has been supported in addressing the credit/risk management capacity constraint by developing appropriate credit policies and procedures and by training staff countrywide on credit appraisal. These were prerequisites for the bank to start shifting from referrals and highly collateralized lending. It is now developing a credit product linked to the women entrepreneurs’ account turnover, rather than depending on mortgages.

Key activities include:

Lesson 2: The bank requires time to understand the risk profile of the market—and delivering products other than credit facilitates this understanding.

• Training: In liaison with the DRC SME Entrepreneurship program, about 120 women entrepreneurs have received capacity building on “Being Bankable,” which is aimed at educating clients on banking services available, business formalization, financial management, and business-plan preparation.

Rawbank participates in the selection of the participants to ensure that they meet its client profile.

When the AMSME/WIN project began, the bank had three outstanding loans to women, and there was some internal skepticism as to how viable the women entrepreneur segment could be. Rawbank was essentially a corporate bank operating with some high-end SME clients. The bank was also perceived by the market as elitist and not approachable; to successfully downscale, it needed to build an understanding of a segment that it had few prior dealings with.

• Networking: Rawbank provides the entrepreneurs access to markets and information through events, business dinners, seminars, workshops, and so on. The women are encouraged to create business opportunities between themselves, and leading female entrepreneurs are recognized and encouraged to share their experiences. The bank also outsources business—such as the construction of a new branch and preparation of marketing material—to its WIN clients.

It was important that the bank initially focus on other needs that would enable women entrepreneurs to strengthen their businesses while it endeavored to understand the risk profile of the segment. Given the legacy of the DRC banking and the subsequent

• Partnership and sustainable alliances: The bank joined the Global Banking Alliance, a network of banks that share their experiences from working with the women entrepreneur segment. The bank participated in study tours organized by Westpac

Women = SMART Business: Lessons LEARNED IN GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT / WOMEN IN BUSINESS

in Australia and DFCU in Uganda, two banks that had successfully implemented similar programs. The Uganda experience was particularly relevant, because it showed how a regional bank with similar market challenges had, through its own initiatives, become a market leader in the segment—illustrating why the program should encourage cross-sharing within the region as well as in developed markets.

Lesson 3: Selection of the bank’s implementation team is a critical success factor.

WIN programs have to be driven by the banks. There is no formula; the most successful programs are those in which the bank’s team demonstrates in-depth knowledge of the segment, identifies the financial needs and challenges, and comes up with marketspecific solutions.

The bank’s WIN team must be passionate about a segment that may initially require considerable effort but with no immediate results. This passion helps the bank’s team members overcome internal skepticism and inspires them to seek out innovative solutions and approaches.

In Rawbank, the Lady’s First project leader also manages the bank’s relationship officers. We found it advantageous that he is senior enough to have easy access to management, but he still has hands-on involvement in the business and the market. When he was identified to lead the WIN project, he was relatively new to his position, and this gave him an opportunity to prove himself and to learn more about the business environment. The Women Program officer’s passion for the women’s segment—coupled with her media (rather than banking) background, a creative and entrepreneurial mindset, and approachability—inspired trust among the women she dealt with.

It is important to note that building a relationship is a core value for women. The importance of the right

team, with the right chemistry, cannot be overemphasized. One key recommendation: include the credit team from the beginning, so the project is not just driven by frontline staff and the ultimate objective of increasing loans remains in focus from the beginning.

We should have incorporated the credit department’s input from the start.

Lesson 4: Internal buy-in requires more attention than external buy-in.

The Women in Business program nominates external and internal champions to promote the project. Usually, selecting external champions is fairly straightforward; they are leading women entrepreneurs or business role models, male and female. Selecting internal champions can be more complex.

In Rawbank, the team found that internal champions were more important than the external ones. As the Lady’s First team encountered obstacles in getting approval for product ideas, they strategically selected champions from board and senior management levels, from the marketing and product development departments, from account relationship officers and branch managers, and, more critically, from the credit department. Credit proposals submitted by the rela-

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tionship officers, whose skill level is being built up, were being turned down; so, a champion was identified to go through the credit applications submitted by the relationship officers and ensure that they were complete.

When IFC project staff are based outside the country, it is also useful to have internal champions within the country as a liaison.

Lesson 5: Setting loan targets for the WIN portfolio keeps banks focused.

The AMSME agreement specified targets for the bank’s SME portfolio, and it was agreed that by the end of the term of the IFC loan, 20 percent of the portfolio would consist of loans to women entrepreneurs. Like many banks, Rawbank is relatively conservative, and its conservatism is exacerbated by the low level of credit appraisal skills within the bank, a complete lack of reliable financial statements, and a generally nonconducive business environment.

The WIN component includes several low-risk activities, such as training, networking events, and opening deposit accounts, which the banks could rapidly take up. However, the clients ultimately want to have access to credit. Having targets agreed on with the bank gives IFC leverage to encourage the bank to remain focused on the need to take risks on this segment by providing loans to women entrepreneurs, using alternative collateral where appropriate. The bank is now developing credit-linked deposit products in response to the limited collateral.

Lesson 6: Branding the program allows the bank WIN team to tailor products to the markets.

Branding the program not only makes it easily identifiable in the market, but it also gives the bank and, more important, the women a sense of ownership.

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Branding also makes it easier to get internal approval for activities beyond the usual scope of banking. The women’s sense of ownership gives them a vested interest in seeing the program succeed, and they have offered a number of suggestions on how to improve Rawbank’s program.

In eastern Congo, where Swahili is widely spoken and where the clientele are relatively conservative, the WIN component, Lady’s First, is known as “Mama ni (is) Mama.” In addition to its training program and networking events, the bank’s WIN component has a variety of products, including sponsorship of awards and a “red carpet treatment,” which recognizes entrepreneurs who have brought the most business to the bank.

A more interesting innovation was the Rawconseil service. With an estimated 70 percent of the businesses operating informally in the DRC to avoid the perceived legal hurdles, the bank recognized that there was more money in the informal sector than in the formal sector. So, it introduced the Rawconseil service to educate entrepreneurs on the process of formalization and its advantages, and the Rawbank legal officer participates in training programs and is available for consultation.

The bank initially offered this service free, but because demand for the service has grown with expanded needs, including counsel on family property rights and other issues relevant to the context, the bank will start charging a fee for this service.

CONCLUSION Initially, some of the bank’s management did not consider the women entrepreneur segment viable, but this perception has changed as they have seen the bank’s profile raised in the market—and as the ancillary services have started to generate revenue. The outreach activities also have led the bank to recognize the business potential outside of Kinshasa, and it is opening more branches. Rawbank has found it important to maintain visibility in the market through sponsoring

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events or awards, and it dedicates a page in its annual report to the Lady’s First program.

The bank’s commitment to the women entrepreneur segment continues to grow, and we have seen a shift from viewing it as almost a corporate social responsibility to recognizing it as a profitable segment that provides the bank with much-needed deposits and that gives it a competitive edge in the market. And, now that the credit policies are in place, the bank is developing appropriate lending products that consider available collateral—which will increase the bank’s lending to the Women in Business segment.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Vivian Awiti Owuor, an Operations Officer with the Africa MSME Finance Program, is responsible for the Eastern and Southern Africa portfolio of 12 banks. In 2005, she joined IFC in the SME Solution Center–Kenya, which provided finance, training, and advisory assistance to SMEs. Prior to that, Vivian worked in commercial banking for about 10 years.

Approved by Cheick Kante, Africa MSME Program Manager.

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Five Years of Access to Finance for Women — What a Journey!

IFC has made great progress in introducing some of its clients to an untapped yet profitable market—women entrepreneurs. As a result of several initial successes, IFC has set a target— related to its International Development Goals—that, by 2013, 25 percent of all small and medium enterprise (SME) investments made by IFC financial markets will reach women business owners. This SmartLesson shares what we’ve learned from ventures undertaken so far in our work toward this ambitious goal.

BACKGROUND Women entrepreneurs are critical to the development of the private sector in emerging economies. Recognizing the potential of this segment, IFC set out in 2006 to increase access to finance for women-owned SMEs, and to enhance their ability to grow and better manage their businesses. Starting with Access Bank Nigeria as its first client, IFC created a program to enable commercial banks in developing countries to profitably and sustainably address the capital and financial service needs of women entrepreneurs.

A parallel goal was to provide these women-owned SMEs with access to business and financial management training to help them improve their businesses.

Since IFC started the program in 2006, over 2,500 women-owned SMEs have received loans, and more than 3,000 women entrepreneurs have enhanced their business management skills by participating in the training provided. Today, IFC’s Women in Business (WIN) program is being replicated with 15 commercial banks in 12 countries in the Africa, Middle East North Africa, and Asia Pacific regions.

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LESSONS LEARNED Lesson 1: Both IFC and its clients reap the benefit when Investment Services and Advisory Services work closely together.

From the very first deal, the full integration of IFC’s Investment Services (IS) and Advisory Services (AS), along with strong regional input by participating countries, contributed to the success rate of the program. The WIN program, designed as a full-service offering to financial institutions, addresses both the need for capital to mitigate the risk associated with venturing into a new market and the need for advisory services to ensure positive, impact-driven results. It enables financial institution clients to provide women entrepreneurs much-needed capital in tandem with important capacity-building activities (including business and financial management skills).

Furthermore, IFC advisory services include important capacity building to help the management and staff of our client commercial banks reach the women’s market more effectively. Overall services include assisting the client banks in designing their strategy for marketing to and retaining women entrepreneurs, and in identifying the most appropriate products and services to address

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the needs of women entrepreneurs. Our client banks also have the advantage of access to lessons learned from other banks involved in the women’s market.

From the first IFC Women in Business deal, with Access Bank Nigeria, to the latest one (at this writing), with BII Indonesia, AS and IS teams have always acted in unison—showing one face to the clients.

Roles were clear from the very beginning: AS would drive the initial pitch, and the IS loan would boost the opportunity presented to the client. This united front assured the clients that the desired program results would be stronger with the services coming together as a package. To simplify the interaction with the client, the agreements on targets were decided jointly, and the reporting requirements were the same for the loan as they were for the advisory service components of monitoring and evaluation. This arrangement enabled IFC to streamline the reporting process, which made things much easier for the clients.

Lesson 2: For a commercial bank’s Women in Business program to succeed, it is not enough to have the support of the client only at the project signoff phase. Sustained engagement and full buy-in from the client bank’s management and operational teams are equally crucial.

AS’s presentation of a convincing business case to a leading client financial institution for reaching out to the women’s market is an important part of the process. From the start, IFC needs to demonstrate the value it brings to the project. But often the initial IFC-client exchange does not involve all levels of the client bank staff. Sometimes at project sign-off, only a limited number of client staff may have been exposed to the benefits of the women-targeted SME project. Ensuring support, dedication, and ownership at all levels in the client’s organization has frequently proven to be a difficult challenge.

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Both buy-in and active involvement from the top management of the bank are important to the success of the program. In banks where lower-level staff members are the ones driving the agenda, we found that the program took off very slowly. On the other hand, in banks where the top management was heavily involved from the start and regularly participated in some of the internal and external activities pertaining to the Women in Business program, the initiative quickly took off, showing results within the first six months of the program. DFCU in Uganda was a prime example of that.

Lesson 3: Going to market without a robust strategy can backfire.

One of the lessons we soon learned is that it is important for the client bank to inform the market very early in the process about its intentions to cater to women entrepreneurs as part of its SME growth strategy. It is equally critical that the bank does so strategically. Launching too early can be detrimental to the program. If a bank is too eager to launch the program, it could overlook the strategic importance of first identifying the different products and services that would provide the solutions that its business-owner clients were looking for. The marketing and advertising campaigns could be excellent, with a very impressive launch event. However, reality can rapidly creep in when the dust settles and women entrepreneurs started approaching the bank asking for credit. If the bank does not yet have the flexible collateral option in place and its staff are not yet trained on how to deal with women entrepreneurs, it can become a problem.

It could seem as if the bank is not able to address its customers’ needs. The key is to engage the women entrepreneurs as early as possible in the process. This could be done by conducting smaller meetings with women business owners who are well respected in the community and who can convincingly explain the program to fellow women business owners. Another

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Box 1: Development Finance Corporation of Uganda Finds a Competitive Edge Development Finance Corporation of Uganda (DFCU) had a positive experience in reaching out to the women’s market. The appointment of a senior DFCU staff member ensured buyin internally, within DFCU, and externally with clients and government partners. Results included the following: • Public-private dialogues with policy makers enabled DFCU to bring about regulatory reforms that helped it and others expand to the women’s market.

• The vision of DFCU’s senior staff resulted in its opening the first regional chapter of the Global Banking Alliance for Women, an IFC-supported membership organization of financial institutions committed to the growth of Women in Business worldwide.

• DFCU’s leadership in the local and regional market translated to a key demonstration effect, resulting in other banks following in DFCU’s footsteps and replicating a womentargeted SME approach elsewhere in Uganda and Africa.

DFCU’s Women in Business program has focused its outreach on a previously invisible market segment. It has disbursed more than $21.1 million to women’s SMEs since 2007, with a lower average rate of nonperforming loans than in its men’s portfolio. Other banks are now following DFCU’s lead. good option is to encourage the women entrepreneurs to enroll in business and finance management training courses conducted by the bank. This also gives the

Women = SMART Business: Lessons LEARNED IN GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT / WOMEN IN BUSINESS

Box 2: Banking for Women — Success Stories • Rawbank in Democratic Republic of Congo.

In a postconflict country where women generate the majority of the household income, they still may be required to ask their husbands for permission to register a business, open a bank account, or travel outside the country. A bank’s intervention cannot focus only on the financial side; it must also look at other obstacles, legal and social, that affect its ability to profitably cater to women entrepreneurs and yield results.

Thus, while creating its Women in Business or Lady’s First program, Rawbank also offered legal services to assist the bank’s women clients in navigating the very complex business-registration process. The bank also opted to waive the request for marital permission. In addition, realizing the opportunities that distribution networks present for women-owned SMEs, the bank signed partnerships with key distributors in the market. Through these partnerships, Rawbank is offering its women entrepreneurs the opportunity of a lifetime by looking for ways to link them with the bank’s top corporate clients. The bank offers advanced training to potential women suppliers, and during the certificate ceremonies, the women have an opportunity to speak directly with potential buyers.

of Mozambican women. Working with IFC, BCI—in addition to providing training to the women entrepreneurs—customized some of its products to respond to the needs of its women SME business owners who operate retail shops or are involved in intraregional trade. The bank now provides a credit card with a limit of up to $25,000 and no interest for the first 45 days, with an opportunity to increase the allowed limit based on performance. In addition, BCI sees the advantages of using leasing as a product for women entrepreneurs, since it presents a good alternative to collateral. Therefore, it has increased this type of lending to women entrepreneurs since it launched its program in 2010.

Within a year, BCI’s portfolio grew from 60 to 180 women business owners. BCI’s Mulher Empreendedora program has also benefited the consumer side of the bank, with over 7,000 women opening consumer accounts.

• Commercial Investment Bank (BCI) in Mozambique. In Mozambique, as the government pushed for more gender empowerment by increasing the number of women in parliament, BCI saw an opportunity to empower women through entrepreneurship. In 2010, BCI launched its Mulher Empreendedora (women entrepreneurs) program, heavily focusing its intervention on the trade and agribusiness sectors, where it saw the greatest concentration

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bank’s staff an opportunity to enhance their ability to cater to women entrepreneurs and simultaneously revise their lending strategy.

Lesson 4: Each program is unique: commercial banks’ Women in Business programs are created based on the needs of the particular market and the specific cultural challenges women face.

We usually identify needs and challenges through a series of focus groups with women entrepreneurs at different levels. In addition, we conduct “detective” scouting exercises—information-gathering activities that allow us to learn firsthand what the competition is offering.

Although the process of organizing the Women in Business program may be the same in various companies, the offerings to women entrepreneurs are very different, based on each financial institution and the country of operation. The same is true for different modes of innovation, which are of paramount importance. (See Box 2 for experiences of two IFC clients.)

Lesson 5: Learning from the experience of other institutions strengthens IFC clients’ interventions in the women’s market and enhances the success rate of their Women in Business programs.

As IFC clients continue to successfully explore the relatively uncharted territory of the women’s market and venture into new undertakings, they can share with trusted partners the lessons they have learned.

This sharing not only helps others learn what works (and what doesn’t), but it also provides inspiration and bolsters their confidence to tackle and overcome the inevitable setbacks that any new undertaking brings with it.

One way to identify such trusted partners is to join the Global Banking Alliance for Women (GBA), a consortium of financial institutions that are success-

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fully leveraging the women’s market for profit and social good. A lead sponsor of the GBA, IFC has been promoting knowledge sharing in this area through the Alliance, which has grown from 4 to 31 members.

Many of IFC’s clients have already benefited from tapping into the lessons learned from other GBA members—some of the more experienced ones are already expanding into new markets. Because no market is the same anywhere—and the potential of banking on women-owned enterprises is so vast—sharing different experiences and different expertise can offer a distinct advantage. Since 2006, the GBA has gone from operating mainly in developed countries to becoming an important factor in improving livelihoods for women through its members in emerging economies such as Lebanon, Uganda, and Indonesia. It supports opportunities to build innovative and comprehensive programs that provide women’s enterprises with vital access to capital, markets, education, and training.

CONCLUSION Initial results of IFC’s Women In Business program show that commercial banks benefit greatly from targeting women entrepreneurs. Not only does it make good business sense, but it also introduces an approach to banking that is not solely about cred-

Women = SMART Business: Lessons LEARNED IN GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT / WOMEN IN BUSINESS

its and deposits but also about being a partner for growth and profitability. IFC’s goal of achieving even greater results in this sector—having 25 percent of all SME investments reach women business owners by 2013—will require continued and stronger collaboration between IS and AS. It will also be crucial to keep abreast of IFC’s “graduating” banks’ innovations in their Women in Business programs, and to encourage them to continue to share their lessons with incoming clients looking to increase their outreach to womenowned SMEs. It also means constantly going back to the drawing board to find new and creative solutions to add to IFC’s offerings (such as supply chain finance for women, leasing and equity investment for womenowned SMEs)—to increase IFC’s impact and make women-owned SMEs stronger participants in the ongoing development of their countries’ private sector.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Marième Esther Dassanou is a Global Specialist with IFC’s Women in Business team, working specifically on access to finance for women projects. She has led the mainstreaming of IFC Women in Business in the organization’s SME Banking program, and has managed the Global Banking Alliance for Women Secretariat, a consortium of 30 financial institutions committed to increasing access to finance for women entrepreneurs in developed and developing countries.

Prior to joining IFC, Esther worked at the Corporate Council on Africa.

Approved by Monika Weber-Fahr, Global Business Line Leader, Sustainable Business Advisory (SBA).

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Banking on Women: How Lines of Credit Can Target Women Most Effectively A key to sustainable economic growth is the participation of women in entrepreneurial activities.

A growing body of evidence shows that gender inequality limits economic growth, especially in developing countries, and that removing gender biases and maintaining a level playing field reduces possible market distortions or malfunctioning. Although access to finance remains a business constraint for both men and women, empirical evidence shows that woman face greater hurdles: cost of financing is higher, approval rates for loans are lower, and legal disputes and conflict resolution in cases of bankruptcy are far more complicated for women. Furthermore, banks have stricter collateral requirements for women entrepreneurs, because they perceive those loans as riskier. Gender mainstreaming is a major theme of the World Bank and a priority for the government of Egypt and the Egyptian people since the January 25 Revolution. Acknowledging this, the team working on the Enhancing Access to Finance for Micro and Small Enterprises Project made sure the project adequately addressed the needs and concerns of women and specifically targeted female entrepreneurs. This SmartLesson shares some of what we learned about how to help women gain financial independence even under difficult circumstances.

BACKGROUND The Enhancing Access to Finance for Micro and Small Enterprises Project is a $300 million investment loan to the government of Egypt, aimed at contributing to sustainable improvement in inclusive access to finance for micro and small enterprises (MSEs) on a commercial basis. This five-year operation, launched in early 2011, was prepared by a joint team—the World Bank, IFC, and Consultative Group to Assist the Poor. The three-tier lending operation provides a line of credit channeled through the Social Fund for Development (SFD)—the apex institution for MSE finance in Egypt—which then onlends to eligible banks and microfinance nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that, in turn, onlend to micro and small enterprises.

The project aims to increase MSE credit sustainably and broaden the outreach of finance through inno-

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vative delivery mechanisms and financial products.

The operation is the first for micro and small enterprises in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. It is also the first operation that addresses the issue of access to finance and mainstreams gender through its main components, as well as directly targeting women through some specialized subcomponents. These subcomponents include a product line designed for disadvantaged women in the poorest 1,000 villages, which will make use of the new expansion of credit services available through post offices.

This product is designed specifically for such sectors as poultry, livestock, and handicrafts—the first two of which have the dual goal of providing a viable business for women as well as raising the nutrition levels in poor villages through improved food production.

Other new products, such as Islamic financing, will also significantly benefit women.

Women = SMART Business: Lessons LEARNED IN GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT / WOMEN IN BUSINESS

“I started this business to help support my family in the wake of the January TwentyFifth Revolution with the decline in tourism that affected my husband’s business.”

— Marwa Essam, recipient of a small loan

The operation has already had a tangible impact in the field, especially for underserved and disadvantaged households in poor villages. It helped create private sector jobs at a critical time for Egypt, given the political and economic uncertainty of the revolution and the subsequent rise in unemployment rates.

For example, Marwa Essam, a 26-year-old married mother of three from Qenna, one of the poorest governorates in Upper Egypt, was struggling to make ends meet before she received a LE 100,000 (about $16,800) loan to open her own corner supermarket.

Her simple words reveal how the loan helped her deal with her dire financial circumstances.

LESSONS LEARNED Lesson 1: Effective targeting of women requires adequate monitoring—but there also must be field visits to the ultimate beneficiaries.

It is good to ensure that a project has a gender component or that it targets women directly through windows for financing women-owned and womenmanaged enterprises. But it is also necessary to follow up with field visits. The monitoring data collected by the implementing entity may look encouraging when tabulated from afar. It may show that lending to women is increasing and the number of women-led microenterprises and small enterprises are growing, but the practical reality may be very different.

The first field visits conducted by the project team to the Governorate of Minya in Upper Egypt, one of the country’s poorest districts, showed that in many instances a loan made to a woman—in her name—was almost totally managed by her husband or a close male relative, such as her father, brother, or son. Some may argue that it does not really matter who is controlling the money, so long as there is a source of income being provided for the family, but this arrangement brings forward two serious issues: 1. The male member of the family who is de facto making all decisions is not legally accountable for the loan. In case of default and the inability to pay back the loan for any reason, it is the woman—who under this arrangement will have had very little to say about how the money is spent—who will be liable, and it is her name that will, at the very least, go on a negative list of creditworthiness that will affect her ability to take out a loan in the future.

2. Multiple studies have shown that an increase in a woman’s income tends to correlate with greater expenditure on family welfare and children, because women, more so than men, spend a greater share of their income on their children’s nutrition, heath care, and education. In giving the men control of the money, you are losing an opportunity to empower the women, not only economically but socially as well.

Issues such as these are impossible to monitor from a distance, and the numbers on the targeting of women in particular tend to mislead teams. Investing in field visits is paramount to ensuring that women are being adequately and effectively targeted. If you’re not based in the field, make sure that during missions at least one team member meets with a number of beneficiaries and discusses their problems. With the busy mission schedules that are common, it may be possible to visit beneficiaries only in the big capital cities that host the various country offices, but what our team has found to be even more beneficial is visiting the

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most marginalized beneficiaries. This is where there is real potential for impact and where our projects are most needed and should therefore be most effective.

The field visits brought important insights—enough so that the team decided to conduct regular field visits to beneficiaries to ensure firsthand knowledge of the situation and effective monitoring of project implementation as well as adequate targeting of beneficiaries. Furthermore, to ensure economic empowerment of women and protection of their rights, it is critical to be sure they have a greater say in what is done with the loans granted to them—and where there is partnership with a male member of the family, that both of them co-sign the loan and are equally accountable.

Lesson 2: If geographical or cultural barriers are preventing women from accessing finance, find alternative outreach channels.

When designing the project, the team found that, although the largest 10 or so microfinance NGOs have done wonderful work, their lending is concentrated in the areas where they are located. When they do expand, it is only to villages that directly surround the large cities they operate in. As a result, outreach— particularly to women, who, because of cultural barriers, are significantly less mobile than men—is limited. Furthermore, female small business owners found that in addition to large banks (and in some cases microfinance NGOs) being geographically inaccessible, the branches affiliated with these institutions seemed to them to be cold, intimidating, and unfamiliar. The World Bank team began to look for alternative ways to reach the poorest and most underserved, and it was through this search that the Post Office Initiative was born.

Through its more than 3,000 outlets, the post office in Egypt has extensive coverage in many of the poorest villages of country, and it is accessible to low-income segments of the society. It is a location that people

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“If it hadn’t been for this microenterprise, I wouldn’t have been able to put my kids through school.”

— Naima Bassioni, a microloan recipient who live in rural villages in Egypt are comfortable and familiar with. They frequently go there to send letters, open savings accounts, and collect pensions, among other things. The project team felt that this would be one of the optimal channels through which lending to women would be effective.

Therefore, negotiations began between SFD, Egypt Post, and a number of microfinance NGOs to take advantage of this branch network through using select branch locations as outlets for microlending. As a pilot and first step, the largest and most well-established microfinance NGO working out of Alexandria has linked up with selected post office branches and is making use of their teller services to both disburse and collect loan payments. Through this pilot, the microfinance NGOs have increased their outreach to underserved areas, linked their clients to savings services offered by the post office, and found a safer and more effective way to disburse and collect payments as well as to accommodate cultural customs that hinder women from accessing finance.

Lesson 3: Coordinate with donors active in your project’s sector—it can help you achieve greater success in project implementation as well as fill gaps that a single World Bank operation may not be able to address on its own.

As people who specialize in finance, we tend to focus in particular on the issue of access to finance—which of course is key to the success of any business and a major hurdle for women in Egypt, especially when compared to men. However, a great deal of literature

Women = SMART Business: Lessons LEARNED IN GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT / WOMEN IN BUSINESS

confirms that MSEs are more likely to succeed if the loan is packaged with business development services and a variety of other technical assistance (TA).

When designing this project, it was always our intention to include a TA component if we could, but we encountered reluctance from the Egyptian authorities, who insisted on not borrowing for TA. From their vantage point, a great deal of grant money is available to Egypt, and it is this pool of resources that should be used for TA, and not the funding that has been “Through nonfinancial support provided by the Social Fund for Development, I was able to put together a professional business plan that allowed me to expand my import business.� — Marwa Ali, a project beneficiary in Cairo

allocated as a line of credit. Reluctantly, and because we had no other choice, the project team agreed, but the importance of nonfinancial support to these MSEs was something that we felt could not be overlooked, especially for women. Business development services are important to both men- and women-led MSEs, but the gap in literacy rates and education levels that exists between men and women in Egypt makes it even more critical for women entrepreneurs.

With this in mind, we began to look for alternatives.

We conducted a series of consultations with other international financial institutions and bilateral donors that were known to be active in the MSME sector and began presenting our quandary to them.

Through these regular meetings (which later became an SME donor subgroup committee) each donor, including the African Development Bank, USAID, and the Canadian International Development Agency, presented to us the type of nonfinancial business services that it was willing to offer, or was

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already offering to SFD, that could complement our line of credit effectively. It became clear that, through the capacity building of the SFD’s Non-Financial Business Services Department funded through these donors, we could have female small business owners “prepped” by the SFD on a variety of marketing and finance skills that would help them run their businesses and later on perhaps receive even larger loans.

Effective consultation with the various stakeholders and development partners creates synergies that maximize the benefits, not only for the women themselves, but also for the whole family.

CONCLUSION The Enhancing Access to Finance for Micro and Small Enterprises Project, since its first disbursement in April 2011, has served approximately 1,000 woman in urban and rural areas in the different governorates and villages across Egypt. Although we are only just starting, we have already learned a number of important and key lessons, as presented above. Now we are looking to make use of them as we proceed with the implementation, and we expect them to help in the design of other MSE projects in the MENA region and in other developing and emerging economies.

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ABOUT THE AUTHORs Sahar Nasr is a Lead Financial Economist, based in the World Bank Country Office in Cairo. She has over 15 years of experience with the World Bank, working on the financial sector and inclusion issues. Sahar is the Task Team Leader for the Egypt: Enhancing Access to Finance for Micro and Small Enterprises Project, the first MSE project in the MENA region.

Nahla El-Okdah is a Finance and Private Sector Development Analyst who has been with the World Bank’s Cairo office for two years. She works primarily on issues related to financial inclusion in Egypt and is a Core Team Member of the Egypt: Enhancing Access to Finance for Micro and Small Enterprises Project.

Approved by Loic Chiquier, Director, and Simon Bell, Sector Manager, Financial and Private Sector Development Vice Presidency, MENA.

Women = SMART Business: Lessons LEARNED IN GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT / WOMEN IN BUSINESS

Empowering Women in Pakistan: Commercial Alternative Dispute Resolution Mechanisms An overburdened court system adds to the disadvantages of women in Pakistan. (See Box 1.)

Women entrepreneurs who lack the time and resources to battle a dispute in the courts also run the risk of being victimized for highlighting their problems. Mediation provides a valuable alternative, allowing women and others to settle disputes out of court. As a dispute-settlement mechanism, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) is gaining prominence and increased application in most parts of the world. Its benefits are several. However, for countries where the justice system lacks efficiency, embracing ADR is also difficult. In 2006, IFC launched an ADR project with a goal of institutionalizing mediation for the first time in Pakistan. Although the project had no provision for separate gender activities, opportunities were created for reaching out to women entrepreneurs and others. This SmartLesson relates our experiences and the lessons we learned, demonstrating in particular how gender became an integral part of the project—and the impact it gained over time.

BACKGROUND IFC Advisory Services in Middle East and North Africa (AS MENA) has been instrumental in leading commercial alternative dispute resolution in MENA countries. Its ADR Project in Pakistan, which was piloted for the MENA region, concentrated on laying foundations for commercial mediation in the city of Karachi, with the following aims:

The overall objective of the pilot project was to improve dispute settlement for the private sector, because contract enforcement in Pakistan is not only time consuming but also discourages investments and blocks assets of businesses in disputes pending adjudication in courts—for as long as 5–10 years!

• Creating awareness in the field of ADR; and

The project was successful in achieving its objectives in an extremely volatile and fragile political environment, where judges of superior courts had to take an oath considered to be unconstitutional in a situation where an emergency was declared, or new judges were appointed, which was said to be unconstitutional.

The mediation center launched its activities a couple of weeks prior to the judicial crisis in Pakistan and has survived opposition from skeptics since then.

• Reviewing ADR curricula for law schools in Karachi.

Since the project’s launch—and especially at the time when its client, the mediation center, Karachi Center

• Establishing an independent mediation center; • Proposing law reforms in the field of mediation; • Training mediators, master trainers, judges, and lawyers in ADR and mediation;

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Box 1: The Court Environment in Pakistan— How It Affects Women Pakistan’s formal justice system is overwhelmed by disputes filed in courts. Delays in processing cases—with too many adjournment applications—defeat any efforts to mitigate lengthy court procedures. With a strongly litigious culture and with parties eager to have “their day in court,” dispute settlement through the formal justice system is not for the fainthearted!

For women in particular, courts are not a welcoming place. Women going through the court process not only incur expenses for visiting courts, but they are also looked down upon by male members of society. Hardly any decent seating is available for women in courts at the district level. And Pakistani courts are open to the public at large, which means that confidentiality is nonexistent—various facets of the disputes become known to the “world,” sometimes affecting the status or honor of women litigants.

for Dispute Resolution (KCDR), started providing mediation services—the project lost its initial champions in the local High Court to the judicial crises and could not move forward as planned for about two years. It was almost impossible for the team to achieve project goals, activities, and impact, let alone focus on integrating a gender component. However, as the situation normalized, the project team had the idea of focusing on women entrepreneurs and litigants as a way to expand mediation services and increase the development impact.

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LESSONS LEARNED Lesson 1: Integrate a gender component at the project design stage.

Gender considerations must be included within all IFC Advisory Services projects as natural integration, rather than waiting for an opportunity—or the right time—to think about this vulnerable segment of society. We had to learn this lesson. At the initial concept stage, there was no intention to include gender as a separate component in the project design— or to make any special effort to reach out to women entrepreneurs. However, as the project progressed, the team did reach out to women entrepreneurs, not only to expand the desired impact but also to make it easier for women to resolve their disputes.

Even though the project had no separate budget to reach out to women entrepreneurs, the team encouraged participation of women in training and awareness events. The project hosted a series of training sessions on ADR and mediation and gave specific attention to attracting female applicants. Out of 49 accredited mediators on KCDR’s panel of mediators, the project team was proud to have 11 women mediators. Furthermore, 5 of the 13 master trainers are women. This is indeed an accomplishment and showcases the development impact by integrating the gender component into the Pakistan ADR project. To date, 574 women have participated in awareness-raising workshops and seminars on ADR and mediation since the project’s inception.

This encouragement of female participation was also evident in the work on awareness raising and case referrals with women chambers of commerce and industry in Karachi and with the First Women Bank Ltd. Although the ADR project team successfully introduced a gender component at a later stage, it was generally felt that the next phase of the ADR project would need to be designed with a gender component

Women = SMART Business: Lessons LEARNED IN GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT / WOMEN IN BUSINESS

discouraging investments and blocking assets of businesses in disputes pending adjudication — for Business as long asAdviat the outset, and that in thecourts Sustainable 5–10 years!

sory team in MENA and the gender team in WashD.C., would be involved in project design.

The project ington, was successful in achieving its objectives in an Thanksand to the experience the pilot ADR project, extremely volatile fragile politicalofenvironment, where a gender dimension has been built into the design judges of superior courts had to take an oath considered to of be unconstitutional situation an emergency wasother Phase II in of athe Pakistanwhere projects as well as four declared, orADR new judges were appointed, which was said to projects at IFC Middle East and North Africa. be unconstitutional. The mediation center launched its activities a couple of weeks prior to the judicial crisis in Pakistan and has survived opposition from skeptics since Lesson 2: Design the mediation center to then. address the needs of women.

Since the project’s launchcenter — and time in The mediation was especially establishedat by the AS MENA when its client, the mediation center, Karachi Center for an accessible residential area not far from the District Dispute Resolution (KCDR), started providing mediation Court and the Court.

With a conference services — the project lostHigh its initial champions in the localroom and three breakaway rooms for parties confer, the High Court to the judicial crises and could not moveto forward Karachi for Dispute Resolution provides as planned for aboutCenter two years.

It was almost impossible for an the team toenvironment achieve project goals, activities, and impact, let to where disputants can take their cases alone focus be onresolved integrating a gender component.

However, without fear of an adversarial process of as the situation normalized, the project team had the idea the sort that is prevalent in the courts. of focusing on women entrepreneurs and litigants as a way to expand mediation services and increase the development For women, the unique selling point of KCDR is the impact.

confidentiality and flexibility of a process where the technicalities and formalism of the court system are Lessons Learned virtually nonexistent and women can trust a profes1) Integratesional a gender component at the mediator to put parties atproject ease anddesign on an equal stage. footing. Women also can choose to have a female mediator helpmust thembe resolve their disputes.

It isIFCprobGender considerations included within all ably a coincidence, the mediation center has been Advisory Services projects as but natural integration, rather than waiting for an opportunity the rightoftime — to secrecruiting women for — theorpositions corporate think aboutretary this vulnerable segment of society.

We had and case administrator; so, women havetobeen learn this lesson. At the initial concept stage, there was no more receptive to the presence of female case adminintention to include gender as a separate component in the istrators female mediators. project design — or and to make any special effort to reach out to women entrepreneurs. However, as the project progressed,Lesson the team reach outmediations to women entrepreneurs, 3:did Pro bono can help not only to expand the desired impact but also to make it introduce ADR to women litigants. easier for women to resolve their disputes.

In preparing for gender-inclusive activities, the project

Even though the project had no separate budget to reach team introduced pro bono through pilot out to women entrepreneurs, the mediations team encouraged “mediation on theand premises of theevents. city court participation of womenweeks” in training awareness The project in hosted a series ofsuitable trainingcases—in sessions on ADRone and Karachi, where which of the mediation and gave specific attention to attracting female litigants is a woman—could be referred to mediation. applicants. Out of 49 accredited mediators on KCDR’s panel Women who had been pursuing their cases in courts of mediators, the project team was proud to have 11 women mediators. Furthermore, 5 of the 13 master trainers are women. This is indeed an accomplishment and showcases the development impact by integrating the gender component into the Pakistan ADR project. To date, 574 women have participated in awareness-raising

Reception area of Karachi Center for Dispute Resolution.

Reception area of Karachi Center for Dispute Resolution.

Photo of KCDR for years were pleasantly surprised at courtesy how quick the process was, with a majority of disputes being settled within hours and not years.a The pro component bono mediations team successfully introduced gender at a later stage, it was generally the phase ofwhich the ADR motivated courts to felt referthat cases fornext mediation, project would need to be designed with a gender also served as a learning tool for lawyers who had not component at the outset, and that the Sustainable Business represented clients in mediation before.

Advisory team in MENA and the gender team at HQ would be involved in project design. Thanks to the experience of As a result of the pilot mediation week’s success, the the pilot ADR Project, a gender dimension has been built Development of Sindh province intoWomen the design of Phase IIDepartment of the Pakistan Projects as well as to develop a proposal for mediation fourasked otherKCDR ADR Projects at IFC Middle East and Northand Africa.

ADR training throughout the province. Generally,

2) Design the mediation center to address needs of governments have limited budgets and are the criticized women. for not allocating funds for initiatives that are aligned

needs ofcenter the people.

However, toby enhance access Thewith mediation was established AS MENA in an to justice for women groups, the provincial governaccessible residential area not far from the District Court allocated $127,900 the gender proand bono andment the High Court.

With a for conference room three breakaway rooms for parties to confer, Karachi Center mediation project, and KCDR has the been accepted for asDispute Resolution provides an environment where the lead—and only—institution that can provide disputants can take their cases to be resolved without fear such services in Pakistan. of an adversarial process of the sort that is prevalent in the courts.

We anticipate that KCDR, with funds approved and the help mediators and point master of trainers, For with women, theofunique selling KCDR will is the initiate this activity to provideofmediation train- the confidentiality and flexibility a processandwhere technicalities and of the court system virtually ing services toformalism target female audiences acrossareSindh nonexistent and women can trust a professional mediator province, where the concept of mediation will be to put parties at ease and on an equal footing. Women also properly understood and mediation will be resorted can choose to have a female mediator help them resolve to by women It whois have limitedaaccess to justice.that This the their disputes. probably coincidence mediation center has been recruiting female staff as corporate secretary and case administrator. Women therefore have been more receptive to the presence of female case administrators and female mediators.

27 smartlessons

3) Pro bono mediations can help introduce ADR to

illustrates the need for collaborating with government agencies that work on gender issues. This initiative is extremely promising, and the government considers it to be positive and a potential ongoing program for women. It is evident that the project has certainly made an impact on how KCDR is perceived by government and other institutions.

The High Court of Sindh in Karachi has noted the benefits of mediation and a mediation center such as KCDR and is eager to consider development of an ADR center for Karachi under the umbrella of the Sindh High Court. This is expected to help women litigants, among other beneficiaries, access mediation services within the premises of the courts without giving the impression of a parallel judicial system.

In retrospect, pro bono mediation weeks were crucial in helping women resolve their disputes, thereby saving time and money. However, pro bono mediations are not sustainable and can be so only if local legal aid mechanisms include mediations as one form of dispute settlement. The project team also benefited from having women mediators who supported the activity by providing litigation mediation services for women.

This served as a lesson for future activities for women.

Through pro bono mediation weeks, it also became clear that female litigants often—except in disputes of a corporate nature—are accompanied by male members of the family. This actually is helpful for the women, because sometimes it is necessary, even crucial, that the men be involved in reaching a settlement.

Lesson 4: Women participants often become gender ADR champions.

The women whom the project trained as mediators and master trainers also work in different professions, and they promote the use of mediation among the women they work with. Women mediators who participated in pro bono mediation weeks were com-

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“These projects are great examples of how working gender into programs can help teams reach more people and achieve more development impact.”

— Lars Thunell, Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of IFC mitted to supporting the awareness-raising events of IFC and KCDR. This proves the point that providing equal opportunities to women can inspire them to act as brand ambassadors and promoters of the mediation concept.

Lesson 5: If gender elements are missing in the original project design, identify them— and incorporate them into the next phase or project.

At the close of the pilot project, in preparing for Phase II, the ADR team identified a number of activities that could have been implemented if a genderinclusive mediation intervention had been part of the original design of the ADR project. For example, the following activities have been planned for after the close of the pilot project and as part of Phase II for the cities of Karachi and Lahore: • Gender sensitization sessions on ADR for women working in corporate, legal, judiciary, academia, banking, and business fields, as well as women from the not-for-profit sector; • ADR documentary highlighting benefits of ADR and use of mediation services by women; • Special awareness events for women chambers of commerce and industry; and • Close working relationship with First Women Bank Ltd.

Women = SMART Business: Lessons LEARNED IN GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT / WOMEN IN BUSINESS

Box 2: Outcome and Impact The following statistics illustrate the successes of the ADR project in Pakistan: • 294 cases involving women litigants have been referred for mediation.

• $1.69 million has been released for women entrepreneurs.

• 574 women participated in awareness raising, training, and other events.

These activities will provide opportunities for the project team to convey its dispute-settlement message and at the same time offer women entrepreneurs guidance and assistance in dealing with disputes.

Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon, and Afghanistan. We also learned that government can provide funds in support of an innovative approach, and that visibility matters in the layout of a mediation center—it must be safe and inviting for women who shy away from courts or who do not wish to be seen on the premises of courts. We consider this pilot a success on several levels (see Box 2), but to ensure future successes, the project design stage needs to be well planned—with the gender elements built in and relevant departments involved. Meanwhile, the ADR Pilot Project in Pakistan won the 2010 IFC CEO Gender Award.

Note: A helpful knowledge tool for designing the gender component of a project is the recently launched publication Gender Dimensions of Investment Climate Reform—A Guide for Policy Makers and Practitioners.5

CONCLUSION

ABOUT THE AUTHORs

Through this project, the team gained experience in the gender mainstreaming of project activities. This experience was also instrumental in the systemic inclusion of gender in all projects, such as those in

Navin Merchant, an Operations Officer, is Program Manager leading the ADR Program in the Middle East and North Africa. She joined AS MENA in 2006, having been a Senior Advocate in Pakistan with over In of retrospect, bono mediation were crucial in 17 years experience.pro An accredited mediator weeks and a master trainer,women Navin has been associated with thereby saving time helping resolve their disputes, the Aga Khan Conciliation and Arbitration Board mediations at and money.

However, pro bono are not national and global and levels. sustainable can be so only if local legal aid mechanisms

include mediations as one form of dispute settlement. The

Isfandyar Ali Khan, an Associate Operations Officer, project team also benefited from having women mediators manages the ADR Project in Pakistan. A barrister by who activity providing training, he supported has worked the in the justiceby sector for thelitigation mediation services for women.

This served as a lesson for future donor community. Isfandyar is an accredited mediator activities for women. and member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, London.

Through pro bono mediation weeks, it also became clear

Approved Magdi M.litigants Amin, Manager, Investment thatbyfemale often — except in disputes of a Climate Advisory, MENA. corporate nature — are accompanied by male members of

the family. This actually is helpful for the women, because sometimes it is necessary, even crucial, that the men be involved in reaching a settlement.

AA female female litigant litigantprovides providesdetails detailsabout about her her case case during during

4) Women participants often(2010), become Sevi Simavi, Clare Manuel, and Mark Blackden Gen- gender ADR champions. der Dimensions of Investment Climate Reform—A Guide for Policy Photo courtesy of KCDR Makers and Practitioners, The World Bank.

5

mediationweek week at City City Courts, Courts,Karachi.

Karachi. mediation

pursuing their cases in courts for years were pleasantly surprised at how quick the process was, with a majority of disputes being settled within hours and not years. The pro bono mediations motivated courts to refer cases for

The women whom the project trained as mediators and master trainers also work in different professions, and they promote the use of mediation among the women they 29 smartlessons work with. Women mediators who participated in pro bono mediation weeks were committed to supporting the awareness-raising events of IFC and KCDR. This proves the

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What (Business) Women Want—The State of Female Entrepreneurship in the Middle East and North Africa Women’s entrepreneurship is increasingly recognized as an important factor for economic

What (Business) Women Want—Surveys Tellon growth and private sector development.

Yet, across the world, little quantitative information female-owned businesses is available to inform policymakers who want to support them better, or to assist the rising of women’s associations are looking to provide Us number About thebusiness State of that Female better service for their membership base. This SmartLesson examines the long-term impact of IFC’sEntrepreneurship short-term involvement in the design in and implementation of a survey to discover what the Middle East and businesswomen want in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

North Africa Women’s entrepreneurship is increasingly BACKGROUND recognized as an important factor for economic In 2005, IFC commissioned four country assessgrowth and private sector development.

Yet, ments on the state of women’s entrepreneurship in across the world, little quantitative information Middle East andbusinesses North Africa region. These onthefemale-owned is available to assessments filled an important knowledge gap and inform policy makers who want to support drew better, attentionorfrom femalethe entrepreneurs, businessthem to assist rising number of women’s associations, policymakers, donors, and the women’s business associations that are looking Subsequently, businesswomen’s associations tomedia. provide better service for their membership from other countries in the region approached IFC base. to conduct surveys in those countries as well. Since only IFC wouldcommissioned be financially challenging but also Init not 2005, four country H.M. Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan launches H.M. Queenregional Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan launches would require on tremendous supervithe MENA and Jordan country reports on assessments the monitoring state of and women’s the MENA regional and Jordan country reports women’s entrepreneurship that resulted from the capac-on sion efforts to conduct these surveysEast in all 19North counentrepreneurship in the Middle and ity building initiative in Amman women’s entrepreneurship thatJordan. resulted from the catries covered

by IFC Advisory Services in the Middle Africa region.

These assessments filled an pacity building initiative in Amman, Jordan (June 5, East and North Africa gap (AS MENA), IFC decided important knowledge and drew attention 2007). The ceremony was also attended by the Prime from female entrepreneurs, instead to teach businesswomen’sbusinesswomen’s associations how to issues facedthe byMinister womenofbusiness owners.

IFC asked Minister, Planning, Princess Sumeya, associations, policy surveys makers, donors, conduct membership on their own.and the the Tunis-based Center of Arab Women for Training and Jordanian Senator Wijdan Talhouni Saket (here media.

Subsequently, businesswomen’s and Research Lacking anyfrom in-house capacity, pictured with(CAWTAR) Her Majesty).to coordinate the project associations otherresearch countries in thebusinessregion to ensure that learning and knowledge sharing would women’s associations up surveys with localinresearch approached IFC to teamed conduct those take place across five countries for eventual replicainstitutions hadSince shownitinterest in women’s countries asthat well. not only wouldtopbe Lessons Learned tion elsewhere. ics. In mostchallenging cases, the research themselves financially but institutions also would require would be exposed for the first time sector tremendous monitoring andto private supervision 1) We need to ensure that local institutions efforts to conduct these surveys in all 19 have the capacity to implement IFCcountries covered by IFC Advisory Services in supported projects that may compete with the Middle East and North Africa (AS MENA), their already heavy workloads.

30 IFC decided Womeninstead = SMART Business: Lessons LEARNED IN GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT / WOMEN IN BUSINESS to teach businesswomen’s associations how to conduct membership We approached 12 local institutions in five

LESSONS LEARNED Lesson 1: Ensure that local institutions have the capacity to implement IFC-supported projects that may compete with their already heavy workloads.

We approached 12 local institutions in five different countries to ask whether they would be willing to participate in this regional IFC project. The response was enthusiastic, and everyone committed to making in-kind contributions such as staff time. These businesswomen’s associations and research centers really wanted to gain a better understanding of the characteristics, contributions, and challenges of women’s entrepreneurship in their countries—plus, they wanted to be associated with an IFC project.

The project plan contained two training workshops for the local institutions. At the first meeting in Tunis, all participants learned about survey design and methodology. The training concluded with a final survey questionnaire for application, timelines, and agreed sample size. Countries’ project teams would stick to a set of core questions related to women’s access to finance, export markets, business outlook, training needs, and so on—while being allowed to add questions that would be relevant to their own country. At the second training workshop, data collected and preliminary survey results would be shared for further analysis.

Regular virtual conferences held between these two training events would ensure that project implementation was on track. But the team underestimated the already pressing commitments each of the local institutions would have. In addition, collaboration between the research institutions and the businesswomen’s associations within each country did not take place naturally. These entities were new to each other, their capacity was overstretched even without the IFC project, and meetings were often postponed,

resulting in delays in project implementation. It was difficult for the project coordinator at CAWTAR to manage priorities and expectations of 12 different local institutions in five different countries—and it didn’t help that weekends were different across countries in different time zones.

Lesson 2: Implementing the project in five countries simultaneously—although presenting many challenges—proved to be the key to overall success. It allowed teams to learn from each other, and it spurred constructive competition driven by national pride.

When it came to collecting the surveys, some countries initially faced unexpected difficulties. To begin with, none of the countries was known to have a rich research culture, and women business owners were either reluctant to provide personal business information or were not able to see the direct benefit to themselves from such surveys. Because the survey questionnaire collection process commenced slowly, country project teams began to ask CAWTAR for extensions. But CAWTAR was also pressured by IFC to keep project implementation schedules on target.

To mobilize and encourage project teams, CAWTAR pointed out innovative approaches undertaken by other teams. For example, the project team in Bahrain was struggling with identifying and contacting a large enough sample of women-owned businesses.

They then collaborated with the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce to add women business owners to the contact list provided by the Bahrain Businesswomen’s Society. A similar challenge arose in the United Arab Emirates, where the research partner from the Dubai Women’s College needed to reach out to women business owners outside of Dubai. The college collaborated with the Dubai Businesswomen’s Council and the Abu Dhabi Businesswomen’s Council. They also organized a raffle for businesswomen participating in the survey, to further increase their responses. And,

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“The female entrepreneurs profiled in this report are the face of the Arab world’s future—with high rates of education, widespread use of information and communication technology, international openness, and an optimistic outlook. . . .They remind our region, and the world, of the productive value yearning to be tapped in our increasingly educated female population.”

— Queen Rania of Jordan (in the report’s foreword) in Jordan, the Forum for Business and Professional Women (together with the Women’s Studies Center at the University of Jordan) trained university students to conduct interviews and ensured that transportation was provided for them to collect interviews at the women-owned businesses. This also enabled students to get to know women business owners and to hear firsthand the challenges and rewards of entrepreneurship—affording the kind of active learning no classroom can provide.

The race for the largest number of completed questionnaires was on—and quickly became a question of pride. In Lebanon, war had broken out during the survey implementation process. Even though initially it was nearly impossible to conduct interviews and collect surveys because of the conflict, the Lebanese Businesswomen’s Association continued its project efforts by producing a short documentary of Lebanese women entrepreneurs sharing their views on entrepreneurship (available in Arabic with English subtitles). In the end, a total of 1,228 surveys were collected and analyzed across the five countries—with Jordan leading the way.

Lesson 3: Involving the media is crucial to ensure successful dissemination strategies, outreach to strategic partners, and follow-up by donors.

To ensure that the survey results would lead to practical steps to inform policymaking, we needed partners in the media to understand the issues faced by women

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entrepreneurs and help disseminate the findings of the surveys in print and on television. CAWTAR has a wide media network across the Arab world, part of its larger Arab Network for Gender and Development. It covers mainly women’s political, legal, and economic matters. Thus, it was decided early on to connect the women’s entrepreneurship project with existing media contacts.

Project teams were introduced to CAWTAR’s media contacts in each country, and journalists were given the assignment of interviewing women business owners. The aims of this strategy were 1) to give the quantitative survey reports a human face; 2) to familiarize journalists with the topic of women in the private sector for overall advocacy raising; and 3) to identify success stories of women business owners—to serve as role models for future women entrepreneurs.

The strategy paid off. The final regional report contains businesswomen’s profiles—at least one from each country—including that of Hamdeh Harizi, a United Arab Emirates caviar manufacturer; Huda Janahi, a Bahraini owner of a global freight and passenger services company; Hazar Mirabi Salam, owner of an engineering services company; Buthaina Rawshdeh, a Jordanian tourism service company owner; and Hela Chadi, Tunisian owner of a handicrafts company.

The unique multicountry, regional character of the project also received recognition from Her Majesty, Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan. Known to be

Women = SMART Business: Lessons LEARNED IN GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT / WOMEN IN BUSINESS

a strong supporter of women’s economic empowerment in her country, Queen Rania agreed to lend her foreword to the regional report. She also launched the report under her patronage in Amman, Jordan—with an expressed interest to meet some of the profiled women in person and to further the role-model effect for the attending Jordanian students.

With Her Majesty attending the event and meeting with the project team, the media were not far away.

Local, regional, and international media covered the reports and launching event with Queen Rania extensively. Not only was the project featured in the print media (Jordan Times, Addustor, Al Arab Al Youm, Al Ghad, Al Rai, Daily Star, and Khaleej Times), but also on television. At the international level, the project was further featured in the Sustainable Investor—IFC’s corporate newsletter for clients and other external stakeholders (10,000 subscribers)—and was also widely disseminated by the Women’s UN Report Network. The Financial Times used the survey results for its special report, “Leading Businesswomen in the Arab World.”

Women’s access to finance was also one of the main obstacles identified in the Jordan survey. As a result, Jordan’s Microfund for Women (MFW), an IFC client, and the Jordan Forum for Business and Professional Women (JFBPW) signed a memorandum of understanding to help promote JFBPW members’ access to finance and enhance MFW’s client base.

And USAID’s Sustainable Achievement of Business Expansion and Quality (SABEQ)-Jordan program

“We need networking and cooperation to become a pressure group to bring about desirable change.”

— Leila Karami, President, Lebanese Businesswomen’s Association

picked up on the issue: following a separate bank assessment on small and medium enterprise (SME) women’s banking, SABEQ-Jordan organized a highly successful event with JFBPW on women’s banking.

In Tunisia, the country survey indicated that 92.1 percent of respondents are currently not participating in FAMEX (Funds for Accessing Export Markets)—the government’s matching-grant program financing 50 percent of advisory services costs related to enterprise export activity—even though the surveyed women business owners have rapidly expanding businesses, with some of the largest firms in the region (averaging 19.3 fulltime workers per firm). Following the IFCand CAWTAR-supported survey, the World Bank colleagues are now committed to adding a gender dimension to Tunisia’s Second Export Development Project, a €36 million loan, and the projected Third Export Development Project. Among other things, the loan promotes export market access, which provides advisory services to enable enterprises, especially SMEs, to enter export markets.

Lesson 4: IFC can play an important role in supporting projects that have a global demonstration effect—without necessarily having to become core IFC business.

IFC played an important role in demonstrating to businesswomen’s associations globally the importance of conducting sound research to better understand women entrepreneurs’ characteristics, contributions, and challenges. This project was based on a survey methodology that IFC had applied earlier in Vietnam.

And, although the nature of the project does not necessarily lend itself to direct links with IFC investment projects, it does raise key business enabling environment issues that need to be addressed. The project is unlikely to become a core IFC business, but the request from the Worldwide Network of Women’s Business Associations for permission to apply the Gender Entrepreneurship Markets (GEM) survey

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The unique multicountry, regional character of the project also received recognition from Her Majesty, Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan. Known to be a strong supporter of women’s economic empowerment in her country, Queen Rania agreed to lend her foreword to the regional report.

In addition, Her Majesty launched the report under her patronage in Amman, Jordan—with an expressed interest to meet some of the profiled women in person and to further the role-model effect for the attending Jordanian students.

With Her Majesty attending the event and meeting with the project team, the media were not far away. Local, regional, and international media covered the reports and

though the surveyed women business owners have rapidly expanding businesses, with some of the largest firms in the region (averaging 19.3 full-time workers per firm). Following the IFC- and CAWTAR-supported survey, the World Bank colleagues are now committed to adding a gender dimension to Tunisia’s Second Export Development Project, a €36 million loan, and the projected Third Export Development Project. Among other things, the loan promotes export market access, which provides advisory services to enable enterprises, especially SMEs, to enter export markets.

4) IFC can play an important role in supporting projects that have a global demonstration effect—without necessarily having to become core IFC business.

IFC played an important role in demonstrating to businesswomen’s associations globally the importance of conducting sound research to better understand women entrepreCarmen IFC’s Women in Business neurs’Niethammer characteristics,of contributions, and challenges.

This Program is charged with creating opportunities project was based on a survey for women in the private sector in developing climethodology that IFC had ent countries.

She is for Strategy and applied earlier in responsible Vietnam.

Knowledge.

In hertheprevious position, Carmen was the And although nature of the project doesManager not necessarily Gender Program with IFC Advisory Services lend itself to direct linkages in the Middle East and North Africa, based in Cairo, with IFC investment projects, it where she raise led thekey teambusiness that provides technical soludoes environment issues tionsenabling to growth-oriented small and medium femalethat need to be addressed. The

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

H.M. Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan meeting with the project team.

and project methodology, and to replicate the project for their members globally, shows that the project successfully achieved its demonstration effect.

CONCLUSION To date, CAWTAR has received requests from Algeria, a Palestinian Businesswomen Association, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia for similar research projects.

The compilation of a toolkit on how to conduct research on market-related gender imbalances was an important component of the project, to ensure that the demand for replication by others can be met.

owned enterprises.

SMARTLESSONS OCTOBER 2007 3 HelaIFCGharbi has —been Project Coordinator at the Tunis-based CAWTAR for the past two years, with a special focus on women’s entrepreneurship, private sector development, and trade. She is also part of the team of trainers developed under the framework of the Entrepreneurship Development Program in Tunisia and is currently a trainer and business counselor.

Approved by Amanda N. Ellis, Head, IFC Gender Team; Zouera Youssoufou, GEM Manager.

For more information on the IFC and CAWTAR Capacity Building Project, visit: http://www.ifc.org/ gender and www.cawtar.org.

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Women = SMART Business: Lessons LEARNED IN GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT / WOMEN IN BUSINESS

Four Hundred Women Light the Way! Involving Women in Entrepreneurial Roles A small group of women in Bangladesh are planting the seeds of success for potentially millions more. The SouthAsia Enterprise Development Facility (SEDF),6 partnered with a rural development organization and worked with 400 women to introduce them to the seed business. The project results demonstrate that women can do it, that it is profitable, and that it is sustainable. Does this bear a promise for four million others? We believe it does. This SmartLesson tells what this project achieved—and how we did it.

BACKGROUND In Bangladesh, society at large has yet to recognize the role women play in the economic arena. However, opportunities do exist for Bangladeshi women who want gainful and productive work without having to move away from their children and families. One sector in particular—seed production—has skills requirements (such as maintaining meticulous work flow, systematic handling, dexterity, and patience) where women prove superior to male employees. The downside is that 80 percent of the seeds used are based on farmer-to-farmer informal production and exchange, resulting in low yields. The remaining 20 percent is a higher-yield mix of local commercial production plus imports. A simple reversal of this ratio could turn Bangladesh into a food basket rather than a food borrower.

With the advent of hybrid seed production, the role of women becomes even more important, because the process involves careful hand pollination. However, three factors have prevented women from taking advantage of this opportunity:

• Interventions that tried to include rural women did so without regard for sociocultural sensitivities, and were not customized to suit the women’s needs. For instance, since only a few women were interested, they were expected to attend training events with groups of male farmers. This only invited firm opposition from their husbands and other family members, who were not keen on the intermixing aspect of the training. Rural women also have problems traveling outside their village for work purposes.

Unless we addressed these barriers to entry for women to participate in the mainstream seed business, the potential mentioned above would hardly be realized. Our search identified the Rural Development Academy (RDA)—a semi-governmental organization—that had conducted an action research with 10 women to explore the potential for mainstreaming women into the seed business. RDA helped the women develop skills in seed production, processing, and storage. The research was highly effective

• The industry fails to realize the potential role of women.

• Development projects in the seed subsector have focused on improving seed production per se, without considering the critical role women can play.

SEDF, based in Dhaka, Bangladesh, is a multidonor facility managed by IFC in partnership with the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development and the Norwegian Agency for Development Co-operation.

6

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but lacked scale-up capacity and market links. Thus emerged the role for SEDF. (See Box 1.)

LESSONS LEARNED Lesson 1: Take an innovative approach to dealing with the sociocultural aspects.

In a patriarchal society it is very important to creatively devise practical ways to get buy-in from the

Box 1: The Project

male members of the family. To make this initiative work, we needed to be more accommodating and invite other family members to join the women participants. Therefore, we involved the male members in all the planning workshops, and we had open-door policies for all the training events. Even small toddlers and infants were allowed to accompany the women, which helped them focus more on the training rather than having to think about going home to feed or take care of their babies. So, to bring the women, we initially had to engage the whole family. Once we communicated the objective, trust followed, and women participants gained the confidence of their family members.

We approached the issue from a different perIt is important to select the right partner—based not spective—that of removing the fundamental on the prominence of the agencies but rather on their barriers to entry for women. Being convinced understanding ofofthe context, sensitivity in interthelocal local context, sensitivity of interwere not keen on aspect the training. of the the intermixing huge potential for of women to reshape their understanding action with women, and working relationship withthe Rural women also their thehave seed problems sector, wetraveling took thisoutside approach: think action with women, and a working relationship with targetFor group.

For example, although unknown targetthe group. example, although unknown at theatnavillage for workbig purposes. and act in small steps. tionalthe or national even regional two local nongovernmental or evenlevel, regional level, two local nongovhad been engaged disbursing We realized that unless addressed to entrySeed organizations SEDF,wethe Ministrytheofbarriers Agriculture’s ernmental(nGos) organizations (NGOs) had in been engagedmicrocredit to women in that particular locality.

We partnered of women to participate in the mainstream seed business, Wing, and RDA partnered to scale up the iniin disbursing microcredit to women in that particular with these nGos to efficiently mobilize women into groups the potential mentioned above would hardly be realized. tiative by working with 400 women in groups and deliver locality.

We partnered with to efficiently technical support to these them.NGOs their familiarity with our search identified the rural development academy of 20.

The women were trained not only in mobilize women into groups and deliver technithe local context and their previous experience of dealing (rda)—a semi-government organization—that had seedresearch production, storage, processing, with women cal support to them. Their familiarity local of contributed to their success. with thus,the instead conducted an action with 10 womenand to explore for and big their names to partner with, dealing we sought the potential for but mainstreaming women and intobusiness the seed also in bookkeeping man- searching context previous experience withthe most effective partnerships, in this case organizations business. rda helped the women develop skills in seed agement. Toward the end of the project, the women contributed to their success. Thus, instead operof ating totally at for the big grassroots level. production, processing, and storage. the research was women entrepreneurs were mobilized into the searching names to partner with, we sought highly effective but lacked scale-up capacity and market first-ever Women Seed Federation. Also, inlinkage. thus emerged the role for IFC-SedF. depth thought and efforts went into making these groups sustainable by integrating them The Project into the seed value chain, particularly linking We approached thethem issuewith fromthe a different perspective—that large seed companies. Access of removing the fundamental barriers to entryfrom for women. to required support services within the being convinced of the huge potential for women to community was also initiated.

reshape the seed sector, we took the approach: think big and act in small steps. the ministry of agriculture’s OurIFC-SedF, efforts were successful, and they culmiSeed Wing, and rda partnered to scale up the initiative by nated in the National Women’s Seed Fair, the working with 400 women in groups of 20. the women were first production, of its kind, in which and the processing, village women trained not only in seed storage, participated and proudly displayedtoward their seeds. but also in bookkeeping and business management.

The family mix makes it work! the end of the project, the women entrepreneurs were mobilized into the first-ever Women Seed Federation. also, The family mix makes it work! in-depth thought and efforts went into making these groups sustainable by integrating them into the seed value 36 Women = SMART Lessons LEARNED chain, particularly linking them Business: with the large seedIN GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT / WOMEN IN BUSINESS companies. access to required support services from within 2) Use women touchpoints whenever possible. the community was also initiated. our efforts were

the most effective partnerships, in this case organizations operating totally at the grassroots level.

Lesson 4: Find ways to assure the use of quality inputs.

The field staff of the implementing agency (RDA) were led by a female who maintained close contact with the women seed growers throughout the project, visited them, and guided them. The bookkeeping and business management training was undertaken by a women-focused organization. And during the threeday residential training, women were comfortable staying at an all-female hostel and being taught by women. These measures definitely contributed to the success of the project, and also resulted in less resistance from the women’s families

One of the main hurdles in agriculture in Bangladesh is the frequent use of low-quality and cheap inputs by the farmers for production, mainly out of fear of increased costs. Our project used freebies to kick-start the use of quality inputs through the distribution of free foundation seeds and high-quality fertilizers to the women seed growers for the first cycle of production. This helped them understand the distinct positive impact that using quality inputs has on the yield.

And the demonstrated cost-benefit of using quality inputs helped convince them to start buying foundation seeds and high-quality fertilizers for the next season. Linking them to government agencies for preferential sourcing of quality inputs also helped.

Lesson 3: Do not downplay the value of indigenous knowledge and practices.

Lesson 5: Draw continued attention to a good initiative.

The participatory workshop for developing the training manual helped integrate the best practices of the technical experts with the innovative technologies being used by the farmers. This pairing resulted in a customized module that is more practical for the farming community of that locality.

The project used the following methods of drawing attention to the seed growers:

Lesson 2: Use women touchpoints whenever possible.

People whose main livelihood has been enmeshed in agriculture for generations have knowledge and skills that are truly effective and often innovative.

For example, they place lighted candles within seed containers and tightly close the lids. This provides a drier atmosphere for longer storage and better preservation by reducing moisture content in a seed storage container. For pest management, they use natural margosa (neem) tree leaves. The project respected this method and did not dismiss it in favor of betterknown chemical pesticides. Just because the methods didn’t come out of an instruction manual didn’t mean they weren’t spot on!

• Informal branding: The women seed growers were given a trademark yellow sign at the production site, with the project information, which worked as their identification symbol. As passersby started noticing the healthy crop fields and started associating the yellow signs with good-quality seeds, local dealers began to come to the women’s doorsteps to buy or book the seeds even before the harvest.

• Getting the right exposure: Highlighting the uniqueness of this initiative through facilitating coverage on national television channels and by holding an exclusive women seed microentrepreneurs’ fair focused the right kind of attention on the project. Representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture also visited the project site after hearing in the media about its innovativeness and success.

The exclusive women seed growers’ fair highlight-

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through the distribution of free foundation seeds and highquality fertilizers to the women seed growers for the first cycle of production. this helped them understand the distinct positive impact that using quality inputs has on the yield. and the demonstrated cost-benefit of using quality inputs helped convince them to start buying foundation seeds and high-quality fertilizers for the next season.

Linking them to government agencies for preferential sourcing of quality inputs also helped.

Media now finds it worthwhile to interview them!

• Visibility matters: The 400 women were mobilized into a Women Seed Federation. This helped in tying the final knot of sustainability, since the seed companies were willing to do business with a formal entity but not with individual women, to reduce their transaction costs as well as ensure consistent supply. Two seed companies— Seeds and Dynamic Seeds—have already signed Box 2:ACI Project Results formal procurement agreements with the Women Seed • FourFederation. hundred women were successfully es-

tablished as seed microentrepreneurs.

6) Government agencies can prove very effective, contrarybeneficiaries to conventional belief.an addi• Women are earning tional income of $498 per year.

• Two seed companies have started procuring seeds from the Women Seed Federation.

Yellow signage: symbol of their new identity.

• Women are practicing bookkeeping and handling all financial transactions.

Yellow signage : symbol of their new identity

ed their successes and drew the interest of women from other regions. The fair also showcased some 5) Drawofcontinued attention to abeing goodused initiative. the innovative techniques for storing, drying, and pest management.

• Other agencies are interested in replicating the model.

• Informal branding efforts: The women seed growers were given a trademark yellow signwomen at thewere production • Organizing for visibility: The 400 mosite, with the project information, which worked as their bilized into a Women Seed Federation. This helped identification symbol. As passers-by started noticing the in tying the final knot of sustainability, since the seed healthy crop fields and started associating the yellow were willing seeds, to do business with a formal signscompanies with good-quality local dealers began to entity butwomen’s not with doorsteps individual women, to reduce theirseeds come to the to buy or book the as well as ensure consistent supeventransaction before thecosts harvest.

ply. Two seed companies—ACI Seeds and Dynamic Seeds—have already signed formal procurement agreements with the Women Seed Federation.

Also, the Seed Wing of the Ministry of Agriculture was involved in the project from its inception. Having a government agency as a partner brought in multiple benefits, such as mobilizing the local community, building confidence, drawing attention from different quarters, assisting in technical quality control, and overcoming legislative hurdles while forming the federation.

Lesson 6: One success breeds the next.

While we were facilitating the technical service provision through RDA, we also were working on devising effective mechanisms that will operate in a sustainable manner in RDA’s absence. In this endeavor, we were

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• The women report that their influence in decision making at home and their status in society have improved with their engagement in the seed business.

Signing business entrepreneurship • According to a study donecontracts: on women in this in action! sector, the majority of the earnings of women seed workers is used for improvement in children’s schooling, food consumption, IFC SmartLeSSonS — deCember 2008 clothing, and housing.

inspired to create women service providers to cater to the women seed entrepreneurs’ needs. Literate young women from the villages were identified on the basis of interest, knowledge, enthusiasm, and passion to be involved with the agricultural sector. They were subsequently trained thoroughly for a period of four months by RDA on disease and pest identification, preventive and curative treatments, and good agricultural practices for different varieties of crops. These women were established as plant doctors who cater to the technical needs of the women seed grower groups and other neighboring farmers on a commercial basis.

Women = SMART Business: Lessons LEARNED IN GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT / WOMEN IN BUSINESS

CONCLUSION Internalizing the cause—and stubbornly and creatively carving out pathways to achieve it—helps in making successful gender cases. It requires systematic and patient, though often painful, efforts. The value is evident not only from the tangible and immediate positive impacts it has on the lives of women, but also from the benefits it has for the livelihood and outlook of an entire rural family. (See Box 2.) And, for us implementers, such development work comes close to our hearts; it actually touches our lives as much as it touches theirs.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS Mrinal Sircar is the Sector Coordinator, Corporate Advice, SEDF. Prior to joining IFC, he worked as General Manager in Grameen Trust under Grameen Bank for its International Replication Program and for International Development Enterprises as its National Program Director.

Anika Ali is the Task Manager, Seed Subsector, SEDF. Anika joined IFC in early 2005, bringing expertise in biotechnology. She is in her fourth year working with the Agribusiness team in Dhaka, focusing on the seed subsector.

Approved by James Crittle, Acting Head of SEDF.

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What a Difference a Phone Makes! How IFC’s Village Phone Program Improved the Lives of Women in Nigeria Have you ever embarked on a project expecting to meet a certain goal but ended up meeting an unplanned goal that resonates louder than the original one? This was true of the Village Phone Program implemented by IFC in collaboration with its Advisory Services client MTN Nigeria. The Village Phone Program was designed to provide residents of rural areas with access to telephone services and at the same time help local entrepreneurs build income-generating businesses while expanding the market reach of MTN. The result was beyond the original expectations. A large percentage of the local entrepreneurs in the rural areas were women, and their success in the business venture led to an exciting change in the paths their lives would take. This SmartLesson describes the factors that made the Village Phone Program in Nigeria such a resounding success and shares lessons that could be replicated in other countries in Africa where the program is at different stages of implementation.

BACKGROUND Many parts of Sub-Saharan Africa have little or no access to basic communication services that are vital elements in the quest for economic and social development. The rural areas are more severely affected, because many governments as well as the private sector have lacked any incentive to invest in these areas.

However, the situation has improved in recent times, with an increased interest by the private sector and governments in developing cost-effective, profitable, and sustainable solutions for reaching this market segment as part of efforts to improve the livelihoods of rural residents.

One such venture is the Africa Village Phone Program, which connects large telecommunications company operators with African entrepreneurs at the grassroots level. These entrepreneurs sell airtime and phone usage on the companies’ networks to people in their com-

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munities on a per-call basis. The aim of the program is threefold: to provide residents of the rural areas with access to telephone services, to help local entrepreneurs build income-generating businesses, and to expand the market reach of the telecommunications companies.

In 2007, MTN sought IFC’s help in scaling up a tardy rural telephone project involving MTN Nigeria Foundation (MTNF), Growing Businesses Foundation (GBF), and six microfinance institutions—Lift Above Poverty Organization, Self-Reliance Economic Advancement Program, Ogene Women’s Cooperatives Society, Country Women Association of Nigeria, Imo Self Help Organization, and National Action on Control of AIDS. The goal of the program was to train and finance over 9,000 telephone operators within the designated period. It was implemented in three phases: 1,100 operators; 3,000 operators; and 5,000 operators. The

Women = SMART Business: Lessons LEARNED IN GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT / WOMEN IN BUSINESS

local entrepreneurs obtained financing from microfinance partners to purchase starter kits consisting of a mobile phone, a SIM (subscriber identity module) card, an antenna, and a solar recharger. The program has achieved significant success in providing training and financing opportunities to a total of 9,096 entrepreneurs (66 percent of whom are women) in Nigeria, with cumulative sales revenue in excess of $900,000 as of June 30, 2011.

IFC provided overall project management support, including the development of Mobile Money as a value-added service for the project. As the program expanded, it became increasingly clear that the population group that was benefiting the most from it were women, who made up a large percentage of the entrepreneurs taking advantage of the Village Phone

Program. In fact, the results of the program illustrated that women are the best entrepreneurs when it comes to repaying loans and securing additional facilities to expand their businesses.

Since 2008, the Village Phone Program has been expanded to Madagascar and Malawi with similar success.

LESSONS LEARNED Lesson 1: Always ensure strong buy-in from the telecommunications client—to keep the client in the driver’s seat and ensure that issues are quickly resolved.

MTN recognized that, as a market leader, its moral incentive to operate involved building a solid corpo-

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rate social responsibility (CSR) brand. MTNF was incorporated in 2004 as the vehicle through which MTN implements its CSR programs. MTNF’s vision is to improve the quality of life in communities all over Nigeria by intervening through projects that address basic needs in education, economic empowerment, and health, and by striving to realize sustainable projects with real impact. The IFC team leveraged the CSR objective of MTN by setting clear targets that spoke to MTN’s intentions and ensured strong buyin from the client.

As evidence of commitment, MTNF has so far contributed up to 80 percent of total project cost and is willing to commit more as we move into the new phase of the program. The speed at which issues are attended to is unparalleled, given the direct impact this program has on MTN subscribers.

Lesson 2: One of the secrets of success is to assemble partners who have well-aligned goals.

When the project started in 2007, the IFC Advisory Services team noticed that not all the team members were going in the same direction. The first step was to establish a common outlook for all the stakeholders.

MTNF was driven by its CSR objective, but the GBF and the microfinance institutions were driven by a desire to make money. This misalignment of focus resulted in differing points of view and delayed the start of the project.

IFC worked with both sides to realign their focus in the same direction prior to the start of the second phase of the project. Although this led to a delay in the transition from Phase 1 to Phase 2, once all the parties were in agreement the project took off at a faster pace.

Lesson 3: Identify your exit strategy from the start of the project, and work backward as you move forward. Remember: all good things come to an end, and your involvement with the project will end one day.

Even though this was a CSR program, the IFC Advisory Services team made it clear to the telecommunications company that the only way for a program of this nature to be sustainable was for it to be commercial. The IFC team began to engage MTN Marketing in discussions on how to use the program to achieve commercial viability and reach scale, especially in rural areas, without the usual capital requirements.

MTN Marketing eventually accepted our recommendations, and this resulted in the adoption of a core commercial product—BizLift. The existing 9,000plus operators have been fully integrated into the product platform.

MTN Marketing launched BizLift in December 2008, and it was designed to reach the end-market retailers of MTN airtime. To date, about 100,000 retailers have been registered on this platform. A lot of commonalities exist between Village Phone and BizLift in structure and delivery. For instance, both products target the end-market retailers and work through microfinance institutions to reach the cli-

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Women = SMART Business: Lessons LEARNED IN GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT / WOMEN IN BUSINESS

ents. The basic difference is that, whereas BizLift is a commercial product and focuses on airtime sales, Village Phone focuses on both telephone shared access and sale of airtime.

Lesson 4: To foster peer learning, create a healthy competition among the entrepreneurs.

When we created a healthy competition among the entrepreneurs, learning happened faster and resulted in enduring changes in behaviors and practices. In most of the activities—such as training and field trips—learning took place among the entrepreneurs, because they realized there were prizes to be won in different categories and geopolitical zones.

The team instituted a “top-three per geopolitical zone” prize to provide an incentive for the entrepreneurs to go beyond their comfort zones. We introduced various categories of prizes (cash as well as assets, such as generators) to reward outstanding performance in turnover and the meeting of targets, or for achievement of extraordinary milestones. Women clinched 72 percent of the awards—13 out of 18—showing that the women were more inclined to take advantage of these competitions and were more successful.

Lesson 5: There is always more than one fish in the sea. To reach scale, don’t stay exclusive.

When the IFC Advisory Services team signed an MTN exclusive agreement in 2007, we did not realize that we were limiting the reach of the program’s development impact in Nigeria. Implementation was strictly a function of the amount the MTNF board approved for spending for each year—which translated into the amount the implementing partner (GBF) would charge and the amount of effort the microfinance institutions were willing to put in. So, we found ourselves in a situation where we could not increase the target number of operators, because we were tied to an exclusive agreement with MTN to

sign up 9,000 telephone operators over a three-year period. And 9,000-plus operators is a drop in the bucket for Nigeria, a country of 150 million people (49 percent of whom are women).

We could not honor the requests from other telecommunications operators for similar interventions, because we had already signed exclusively with MTN. Given the enthusiasm that this program generates, it was an opportunity cost to have signed with MTN alone. Otherwise, we might have been counting in the tens of thousands by now.

CONCLUSION The Village Phone Nigeria experience has been quite revealing. A microloan, as little as $120, in the hand of a woman has the potential of putting economic power in the hands of many families who up to this time didn’t have that privilege. The women were more meticulous than men in the use of the loan—and typically repaid faster. We are hopeful that MTN will keep up the pace, and that IFC will commit more financial resources in this kind of situation in the future.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Theophilus Adewale Onadeko is an Operations Officer for Sustainable Business Advisory, based in Lagos, Nigeria, where he manages the Village Phone and Mobile Banking Programs. Prior to joining IFC, Theo served as Relationship Manager for several corporate clients at Standard Trust Bank (now United Bank for Africa plc) and worked as an intern at Halifax Bank of Scotland, Manchester, where he led various customer advisory transactions.

Approved by Colin Shepherd, Regional Business Line Leader – Sustainable Business Advisory.

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Creating Opportunities for Women Entrepreneurs in Conflict-Affected Countries In many ways, women pay the socioeconomic price of conflict. Although destruction, displacement, and loss of lives and livelihoods affect men and women alike, conflict often leaves women to carry the double burden of economic and familial responsibility in the absence of men who are imprisoned, disabled, or dead. Reconstruction can be effective only if women are recognized as valuable economic participants rather than dismissed as a “vulnerable group.”

Giving women a stake in the national reconstruction process by investing in their economic participation, including through entrepreneurship, is crucial for effective and sustainable development of the already fragile economies of conflict- affected societies. This SmartLesson shares the lessons learned on IFC’s work with partners to create opportunities for women in postconflict settings.

BACKGROUND Access to reliable information is essential in a fastchanging environment defined by insecurity. Households in conflict-affected countries typically face a multitude of decisions to invest, to sell assets, to stay in rural areas or move to the city, to leave camps and look for economic opportunities elsewhere. However, prevailing informal (and formal) networks are often male-dominated—with men in key informationsharing positions during conflict, leaving women and female-headed households without a basis for informed decision making and without the possibility of seizing emerging opportunities. Providing women with access to information and providing them with entry points to formal and informal networks are crucial steps toward social and economic inclusion and rebuilding the economy.

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LESSONS LEARNED Lesson 1: When working with financial institutions in postconflict countries, seize the opportunity to promote women’s access to finance and help financial institutions bank on women entrepreneurs profitably.

During conflict, the necessity for women to earn a living contrasts with their limited access to resources such as finance and capital, and it often results in an even greater concentration of women in the informal microenterprise sector. Women who can no longer rely on steady earnings from the male head of household during hardship often have no choice other than to try to make ends meet by engaging in informal micro-income-generating activities to contribute to household income. The success of female entrepreneurs is essential for postconflict economic stabilization and revival; yet women entrepreneurs in conflict-affected societies often experience difficulty in accessing finance.

Women = SMART Business: Lessons LEARNED IN GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT / WOMEN IN BUSINESS

In 2006, IFC’s Gender Program (Gender Entrepreneurship Markets) was asked to help First Microfinance Bank of Afghanistan (FMBA) reach out to underserved segments of the market and to promote women’s empowerment through increased access to financial services. The goal was to accelerate the growth of women in business while generating superior business outcomes for FMBA. Women in particular have proven to be excellent microfinance clients globally, and reaching out to women microfinance clients in Afghanistan was considered a business opportunity not to be lost.

Kamela Sediqi, a woman entrepreneur in Afghanistan, operated a tailoring business from home during the Taliban regime, when her brother and father were in exile. She has since started a business consultancy, instructing clients in business plan writing, financing, marketing, and pricing. Her clients now include the United Nations.

More women had entered the labor force as a result of the conflict, which would lead to more opportunities to support women’s economic activity. There were also more female-headed households, with estimates of about 16 percent in Kabul, and between 4 percent and 20 percent in three districts of Badakhshan.

According to a 2005 World Bank report, 52 percent of women in female-headed households had been working infrequently in Kabul and elsewhere, sewing, embroidering, or washing clothes for others.

FMBA had a much higher average loan amount than its competitors but, bucking the norm in microfinance, had the lowest percentage of women clients at 12 percent. Working in partnership with colleagues in financial markets, IFC’s gender team went to Afghanistan to develop a strategy for FMBA to improve outreach to women. FMBA then implemented a group lending product targeting women—and after only one year it was already able to increase its women’s portfolio to 16 percent. In a recent progress report, the client was

particularly proud to report not only that the women market segment was profitable, but also that a significant percentage of the loans went to widows to whom FMBA can now provide an opportunity to progress and improve their standard of living.

Lesson 2: Since many new women entrepreneurs enter the informal sector during and after conflict, it requires an early baseline assessment with a gender focus to help the government establish ways to formalize their participation in national reconstruction efforts.

In postconflict Liberia, it was estimated that, in 2007, half of all enterprises were completely informal. Given the postconflict demographics, many households were likely to be surviving through the resourcefulness of women. In such an environment, formalizing a business is a critical step in facilitating business growth and economic development. Company formation is particularly important, because the limited liability status of companies encourages risk taking, and formal structures facilitate access to resources.

In early 2007, at the request of the government, the Foreign Investment Advisory Service (now the Investment Climate Advisory Services of the World Bank Group) undertook a survey of barriers to enterprise formalization in Liberia with the intention of exploring ways to address those barriers. One question tackled by the team was whether women and men running informal businesses faced similar or different obstacles to formalizing their business and whether women business owners had different needs. As a result, the team provided gender-specific questions that were included in the survey, and undertook gender analysis of the results.

The gender analysis confirmed that women business owners in Liberia are much more likely than their male counterparts to own completely informal enterprises. This gap persists as the firms mature, and

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although it varies by region, the gap persists across the country. This informality gap may be impeding business growth, especially among women-owned firms, because completely informal businesses owned by women are less likely to have experienced increased employment over the past year than formal or partially formal firms. Fewer women than men said they are likely to take steps to become formal, and fewer have taken any steps toward formalization.

Following the gender survey, the government realized the need to address unequal treatment of women and men by officials. Women business owners who have tried and failed to formalize, as well as formal or partially formal women business owners who have tried to obtain licenses or permits, were all significantly more likely than their male counterparts to report difficulties in dealing with government officials. In addition, an important role was identified for business associations as a natural conduit for dissemination of information about business formalization: women surveyed were found to be far less likely to be members of business associations, except in the central region of the country. These associations should be encouraged to extend memberships to women in their communities. Moreover, women were also found to be more avid users of savings clubs and susus7 than men. It was suggested that targeted outreach and communication to women business owners would bring important benefits.

Lesson 3: Promote training and business mentoring opportunities that reach women entrepreneurs who are typically limited in their mobility and physical access to markets.

In conflict areas, personal safety issues affect women’s ability to leave their house or business and restrict Susu collectors, a form of microfinance, are one of the oldest financial groups in Africa. They provide (for a small fee) an informal means for people to securely save and access their own money and to gain limited access to credit.

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their mobility—especially at night. Moreover, deteriorating security situations also restrict women’s access to formal networks. As a frontier country where access is difficult, there was a high demand for small and medium enterprise (SME) training in Iraq in 2006, particularly for women SME owners or managers. Much of the current training was directed toward the microentrepreneur level. Yet the policies of the interim coalition government to provide women with a quota of the contracts for reconstruction had spawned a number of women-owned SMEs, and most of them had not previously had access to training in entrepreneurship or management.

Realizing that it would initially be too risky and difficult to organize training workshops in Iraq, IFC’s Private Enterprise Partnership for the Middle East and North Africa (now Advisory Services in MENA) gender team looked for opportunities to train Iraqi women entrepreneurs in Amman, Jordan, while allowing for the additional costs of transportation and security. The training was to be demand-driven and conducted in conjunction with the Iraqi International Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Jordan Forum for Business and Professional Women.

The objectives were to 1) enhance local Iraqi women entrepreneurs’ competitiveness; 2) link them to Jordanian women entrepreneurs and Iraqi entrepreneurs in the diaspora for knowledge sharing and mentoring; and 3) introduce Jordanian institutional practices to Iraqi women, notably on how they address business women’s needs, for possible replication early on in the Iraq reconstruction process.

Using IFC’s Business Edge management training methodology, a three-day workshop on “Successful Marketing and Pricing Strategies” was designed to respond to women’s specific training needs. Similar Business Edge workshops had been held in other IFC frontier countries, including Afghanistan and Yemen. In addition to providing participants with best-practice concepts, the workshop provided valu-

Women = SMART Business: Lessons LEARNED IN GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT / WOMEN IN BUSINESS

able exposure to the businesswomen’s membership organizations on how to serve as intermediaries for high-quality business training for their members.

Based on this exposure, workshop participants established their own businesswomen’s association, the Iraqi Business Women Forum, to serve the needs of women SME owners and managers in Iraq. The forum’s first priority was to lobby for the launch of an online portal and SME e-learning dedicated to women SME owners and managers; this was particularly relevant in a conflict-affected environment, where women’s physical mobility is limited.

Lesson 4: Legal reform initiatives carried out after the end of conflict provide a unique opportunity to ensure that existing genderdiscriminatory legislation is revised and that new legislation provides a level playing field for women.

Efficient business enabling environments are good for businesswomen and businessmen, and the benefits are especially large for women. According the 2008 Doing Business Report, “countries with higher scores on the ease of doing business have larger shares of women in the ranks of both entrepreneurs and workers.” Giving investment climate advice to governments on how to ensure a level playing field for women and men is thus important from both a business and an equity perspective.

Systemic gender discrimination and exclusion from business practices are common features in many countries, whether conflict-affected or not. Typically, when it comes to changing legislation that treats businesswomen differently than men, laws in several domains (including personal status codes pertaining to women’s marital, property, and inheritance rights) are affected, which can make legislative reform cumbersome. Such issues can be addressed more easily when a postconflict government is taking a fresh look

at its legislation and is open to innovative ideas on how to improve and optimize legislative procedures and regulations. The end of conflict, and the fluidity of the situation, opens a window to address many social imbalances.

In 2006, at the request of Investment Climate colleagues supporting the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in improving its investment climate, IFC’s gender team confirmed that laws and regulations do affect businesswomen differently than men. For example, in the DRC, where women run only 18 percent of the small businesses, discriminatory provisions in the Family Code require married women to obtain marital authorization to go to court in a civil case, to buy and sell property, or to enter into any obligations, including starting a business. Banks generally require co-signature or approval of husbands for women to obtain loans. The Family Code also affects the ability of all women to obtain employment, because proof of marital status is required, and this is difficult in a context in which identification papers are largely unavailable. Neighboring Rwanda, by contrast, has no such regulations, and women in that country run more than 41 percent of the small businesses.

In general, starting a business in DRC is difficult, requiring 13 procedures, taking 155 days, and costing as much as five times the annual per capita income.

But women face greater obstacles than men because of the marital authorization requirement, even if this requirement is rarely invoked in practice, because the difficult economic situation in DRC and high levels of male unemployment generally mean that men do not typically raise objections to their wives working or running businesses. However, it does appear that these provisions are among the obstacles women face in seeking access to finance. Therefore, removing them, to close a potential loophole, is an important priority for women.

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Having identified legislation that directly discriminates against women, the World Bank Group team has integrated a gender focus into the investment reform advisory work program in DRC. By supporting a rapid gender-focused review of the legal and regulatory obstacles facing business, it will help the government act on gender-specific legal and regulatory issues through reform measures aimed at improving the business environment for women entrepreneurs. Since the DRC is planning a systematic overhaul of its legal and regulatory framework, this postconflict environment provides an opportune moment to highlight how legislation can be improved to promote both businesswomen and men equally.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS Carmen Niethammer of IFC’s Women in Business Program is charged with creating opportunities for women in the private sector in developing client countries. She is responsible for Strategy and Knowledge. In her previous position, Carmen was the Gender Program Manager with IFC Advisory Services in the Middle East and North Africa, based in Cairo, where she led the team that provides technical solutions to growth-oriented small and medium femaleowned enterprises.

Mark Blackden is a gender expert with over 25 years of operational experience in Africa. A specialist on gender and investment climate reform, he has collaborated on Gender and Growth Assessments in Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania. Prior to working with IFC’s gender team, Mark was the regional gender coordinator in the Africa Region of the World Bank.

Henriette von Kaltenborn-Stachau is the postconflict specialist of the Communication for Governance and Accountability Program at the World Bank. She worked for over 10 years for the United Nations’ Department of Political Affairs in various assignments, including multiyear postings to Timor-Leste and the Middle East.

Approved by Zouera Youssoufou, Manager, IFC Gender Program (Gender Entrepreneurship Markets).

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Women = SMART Business: Lessons LEARNED IN GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT / WOMEN IN BUSINESS

Women as Employees

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Multiplying the Negatives to Get to a Positive: Implementing Gender Initiatives in the Economic Zones in Bangladesh You’d think that executing a “gender” project in a place where women are the majority would be an easy enough task. So did we. But we were proved wrong quite early on and had to constantly keep strategizing and reworking the business model to achieve our objectives.

Though later than anticipated, the pieces are finally falling into place for the Gender in Special Economic Zones project, and a number of gender initiatives are currently being implemented.

This SmartLesson narrates the experience of the project team as we maneuvered through the obstacle course to take the project from design to reality.

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”

— Winston Churchill

BACKGROUND The Gender in Special Economic Zones project was initiated at the end of 2009, in collaboration with the Women in Business team, and was the first study of its kind that targeted women specifically within special economic zones. It consisted of a global study conducted in eight countries, including Bangladesh, which sought to explore gender initiatives within these zones, as well as a pilot project designed to implement selected recommendations from the study in the zones in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh has eight Export Processing Zones (EPZs), employing nearly 300,000 workers, of whom 64 percent are female. This project focused on three tiers: female workers, upward mobility, and women

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entrepreneurs, and it sought to enhance the participation of women at all levels.

LESSONS LEARNED Lesson 1: Be persistent, be patient, and if it is a good idea, the client will eventually support it.

Since 2007, IFC’s Investment Generation (IG) team has been working closely with the Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority (BEPZA) on various initiatives to build its capacity and to pilot innovative approaches and solutions that can later be replicated and rolled out to the rest of the country.

Thus, when IFC suggested a gender project, BEPZA readily agreed to it—without really thinking through the implications of what it would entail. We explained the project in detail, but given that gender was really not an area of focus for BEPZA, in spite of the fact that the majority of its workforce were women, the people there really did not pay much attention to it.

Nevertheless, they allowed us to conduct the surveys and organize the meetings that we required.

Women = SMART Business: Lessons LEARNED IN GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT / WOMEN IN BUSINESS

After the initial surveys and study were completed and it was time for BEPZA to take action on a particular recommendation (allocation of 30 percent of seats for women in the Workers Welfare Association Committees), the hesitations started creeping in.

“Why do we need to do this?” “Given that this is a voluntary program by the factory workers, we really can’t influence them.” “We need to think about it a little more.” And so on.

So, we gave them time, and we kept talking to them and explaining the significance of increasing female participation in the Worker Welfare Associations, since most of the workers are women. We also highlighted the benefits that would ensue for not only the workers but also the companies and for BEPZA. And finally one day they agreed! The chairman of BEPZA then followed up by sending a letter to all the investor factories in the eight EPZs in Bangladesh, encouraging them to participate in this initiative.

And now, a few months down the line, they have become even more supportive of the entire process and have even agreed to allow their staff to assist in ensuring that implementation of this important initiative takes place and in the correct manner.

The key to success was the constant engagement and dialogue throughout the process—and BEPZA’s realization that IFC had gone through a process of due diligence before making this recommendation, and had concrete grounds for doing so.

Lesson 2: Repackage the project to increase its appeal.

Sometimes, at a certain stage of a project, it may seem that all roads lead to a dead end and there is no way that the project can be implemented. It is at such times that you have to think strategically and explore alternative paths that may not be the most direct but still manage to achieve the projects’ objectives.

This is exactly what I had to do in trying to implement the financial inclusion initiative for this project. Initially I spoke to various Global Brands, some directly and some through the Buyers’ Forum facilitated by the Sustainable Business Advisory (SBA) team. I also sought the advice of our Access to Finance (A2F) colleagues about partnering with a financial institution.

However, though the buyers agreed that it was a good initiative, no one was taking the leap of faith needed to commit to pilot-test the initiative in their factories. Our colleagues from the other teams were also hesitant to endorse a “women only” project, which did not help the project progress, although it was understandable that they were limited in how much time and effort they could spend on a project that was not formally theirs.

At that point I realized that, for our SBA and A2F colleagues to be fully on board with the process and vested in its success, they would need to own the project. The challenge would be in redesigning the project and its scope so as to ensure that the ultimate objective of providing female workers with access to financial services was fulfilled, while simultaneously meeting the needs of the other teams.

Though at first glance it seemed as though we all had different areas of focus that did not converge, we discovered that we actually had commonalities, too.

(See Table 1 and Figure 1.) Each of us also brings to the table a diverse set of skills and relationships, all of which are required for achieving the final goal.

Collaborating with the other teams would also enable us to pool our collective resources and leverage each of our individual networks to maximize the project’s potential.

For instance, the A2F team has established relationships with certain financial institutions, and this leads to a level of access and cooperation that the other IFC teams would not be able to attain. Similarly, the IG team has incomparable access to BEPZA, and the SBA team to Global Brands and readymade garment (RMG) factories outside the zones.

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Table 1: Team Commonalities

Figure 1: Convergence of Focus Areas

The current project differs slightly from the one originally envisioned, in that it is being concurrently implemented in readymade garment factories both inside and outside the zones. Nevertheless, the major goal of the project is being achieved, while also meeting the objectives of each team. The IG team is effectively targeting women workers in the zones, the SBA team is addressing the needs of RMG workers, and the A2F team is facilitating financial inclusion for factory workers overall.

Although the project may have been possible without the participation of all three teams, collaboration

has greatly expedited and enhanced the process, while ensuring that duplication of efforts does not take place, with each team independently designing and executing its own projects.

Lesson 3: Don’t turn away even the most unlikely prospects.

A few weeks ago, I received a phone call from a professor at Warwick University, who subsequently requested a meeting with me. He mentioned that he had been referred by one of the Global Brands I

Figure 1: Convergence of Focus Areas Lesson turn awayofeven the most unlikely prospects.

Figure3:1:Don’t Convergence Focus Areas A few weeks ago, I received a phone call from a professor at Warwick University, who subsequently requested a meeting with me. He mentioned that he had been referred by one of the Global Brands I had been speaking to regarding the Gender in Zones project, so I agreed out of courtesy to meet him. The meeting turned out to be more interesting and productive than I had anticipated.

In trying to find a partner for the Female Supervisory Training aspect of the Gender in Zones project, we had been targeting Global Brands that operate in Bangladesh, and through them their supplier factories. This seemed to us the most obvious solution, and the SBA team had also quite effectively used this model in several of its projects.

However, the process was taking much longer than anticipated, and we were having difficulty finding a brand that wanted to invest in a project solely for women, though they all agreed it was much needed.

The Warwick University research team had heard about our project from a brand we had been in contact with. team members interested in knowing more about what we Lesson 3: Don’t turnThe away even the mostwere unlikely prospects.

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Women = SMART Business: Lessons LEARNED IN GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT / WOMEN IN BUSINESS

A few weeks ago, I received a phone call from a professor at Warwick University, who subsequently requested a meeting with me. He mentioned that he had been referred by

had been speaking to regarding the Gender in Zones project, so I agreed out of courtesy to meet him. The meeting turned out to be more interesting and productive than I had anticipated.

In trying to find a partner for the Female Supervisory Training aspect of the Gender in Zones project, we had been targeting Global Brands that operate in Bangladesh, and through them their supplier factories. This seemed to us the most obvious solution, and the SBA team had also quite effectively used this model in several of its projects. However, the process was taking much longer than anticipated, and we were having difficulty finding a brand that wanted to invest in a project solely for women, though they all agreed it was much needed.

The Warwick University research team had heard about our project from a brand we had been in contact with. The team members were interested in knowing more about what we were doing, since they were attempting to do something similar with another donor agency, but focusing on readymade garment factories outside the zones in Bangladesh.

After hearing about their project, I realized they were already at a more advanced stage than we were. By working with them we would be able to fast-track our project while benefiting from the experience and lessons they had already gathered during the pilot phase of their project. Thus, instead of duplicating efforts and resources, I suggested that they expand the scope of their project to include the companies within the zones. They liked the idea, as did their project partners, and they are now requesting IFC’s collaboration on their project. We are currently working out the details and modalities of the partnership.

The day I received the phone call from the Warwick University professor had been an extremely hectic one. Initially I had declined the request for a meeting, but when the professor proposed an alternate date, I agreed, but without much enthusiasm. I now realize that if I had not met with the team, it would have

been a lost opportunity that I would not have gotten back. I would still be searching for an implementing partner for the training, and though I might later have found a suitable one, the process would have been much more delayed.

The lesson is that you never know where a project lead or partner may come from, and sometimes it does make sense to participate in meetings that at first glance may not seem to be worth the time. Every meeting will not be so rewarding, but some may be, and it never hurts to take that chance.

CONCLUSION Six months ago, the project was not going well. The field work and study had been successfully completed and we had shortlisted recommendations, but we were not finding implementing partners. Even the management team was not very excited about the project’s prospects—or continuing it. Nevertheless, we kept a positive outlook and did not give up or abandon the project. We strongly believe in the initiatives we are trying to implement and also have the research backing us. So we held on and kept trying alternate ways of executing it. We changed the focus from Zone Investors to Global Brands/Buyers, redesigned the project to partner with two other internal teams, and are in the process of collaborating with a university—something we had never conceived of. But now, a project that looked like it was going nowhere has already achieved 50 percent of its target and is now on track to exceed its initial projections. Kudos to the power of positivity!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Narissa Haider is an Associate Operations Officer with IFC Advisory Services in Bangladesh. She has been with IFC since 2002 and focuses on mainstreaming gender into the various sectoral, financial markets, and investment climate projects in Bangladesh.

Approved by Martin Norman, Program Manager, Investment Generation, Bangladesh Investment Climate Fund.

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Employing Women: A Boon for a Chemical Plant in India Meghmani Organics Limited (MOL) is a chemical group located in the state of Gujarat in India. Its main products are specialty chemicals, including pigments, pesticides, and other intermediates.

Prior to IFC’s investment, MOL had four manufacturing facilities in Gujarat, India, with about 2,000 employees. In 2008, IFC invested in MOL to build Meghmani FineChem Limited (MFL), a greenfield chlor-alkali plant, in Dahej, a port city in Gujarat. This SmartLesson provides a snapshot of the changes that took place in MFL following IFC’s recommendation for the company to employ women.

BACKGROUND The city of Dahej is a barren coastal area, where local living standards are significantly lower than in other parts of Gujarat. Opportunities are limited, especially for women, who have little chance for employment other than occasional odd jobs at construction sites.

During the initial appraisal, IFC observed that MOL had no female employees at any of its four existing chemical plants. This is a common scenario in India.

Women are not hired in chemical plants because of traditional culture and local legal restrictions. People assume that chemical plant jobs entail hard physical labor and are dangerous, though working in modern chemical plants requires little physical labor, and technology advances make it safer than working in many other industries. Also, local legislation forbids women to work after 7 p.m.

Making the Business Case for Hiring Women The IFC investment team proposed that MOL start hiring female employees at the new MFL plant. The team made the following arguments, emphasizing the business case for hiring women:

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• Hiring women greatly increases the talent pool among job applicants, leading to a stronger workforce.

• Employing women reflects on management thinking, demonstrating that it is open to adopting modern methods of running a business.

• Women perform as well as, if not better, than men in many industries.

• Some positions in the laboratory, warehouses, or cafeteria, can be filled by women and still adhere to the traditional norms.

• Extending economic benefits to women also benefits the community, which in turn improves the local relationship with the company.

• The principle of gender equality is a part of the Indian constitution: in other words, hiring women supports national policy.

Barriers The MOL management initially had reservations about hiring women. They cited cultural and legal

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barriers as well as the fact that hiring women would require new facilities and policies.

• Development of a company policy and procedure to encourage hiring of female employees;

Based on previous IFC investments in other chemical plants in India, the investment team proposed the concept of developing a female-friendly chemical plant and asked the MOL management to consider the concept when designing the plant and setting up operational procedures.

• Establishment of a flexible work schedule for female employees to meet local legal requirements.

The female-friendly chemical plant would include, but not be limited to: • Design and construction of female restrooms at each workplace; • Design and construction of separate female locker rooms and shower facilities;

What happened?

IFC made a $12.5 million investment in MFL. The MOL management accepted IFC’s recommendations regarding hiring women, and they implemented all the suggestions during plant design and construction, operational policy and procedure drafting, hiring, and operations. By 2010, the MFL plant was in full production. According to the Human Resource (HR) manager, MFL had approximately 630 employees and direct contractors by June 2011, out of which 45 were women. They work in positions—including

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research and development, office management, technical and operational service departments, and in the canteen—that do not require night-shift duty.

During a supervisory visit in 2010, the IFC environmental and social specialist interviewed female employees and their managers to assess the results of the new policy. The results were encouraging, including the following: • The female employees appreciated the femalefriendly environment at MFL that allowed them to work there.

• With stable and higher incomes, they felt safe and respected at home and in their villages.

• Managers expressed their support for MFL’s decision to hire female employees, because the female employees work harder and are better at following the operational and safety rules, which are critical for chemical plants.

• Managers agreed that female employees are as talented as male employees, which contradicts the traditional concept that females are not qualified for heavy industries.

Management was significantly interested in increasing the roles and responsibilities of women at the plant and in hiring more women in the future. They also proposed introducing more training programs for female employees to allow them to take on more challenging technical positions. Based on the successful MFL plant experience, MOL is considering implementing similar female-friendly programs at other chemical manufacturing facilities within the group.

LESSONS LEARNED Lesson 1: Make the business case for hiring women.

Although IFC must adhere to the World Bank Group social policies, it is better to lay out the business case for hiring women. When we first suggested to MOL management that they hire women, their initial reaction was negative. They said that women would not fit into their company or the industry. Furthermore, they said that women would not be interested in applying for positions because of cultural issues and the legislation that prohibits women from working after 7:00 p.m.

In response, we pointed out that women in India work very hard in other industries, and that MOL had the potential to double its applicant pool and therefore get good value for money. We also identified positions—in the laboratory, warehouse, and canteen as well as janitorial positions—that would be consistent with Indian culture and would not require work after hours. We also pointed out that IFC had faced similar situations in the mining sector in Peru, where women had turned out to be excellent employees. Finally, we emphasized that by being the first company in the chemical industry to hire women, the company would get a lot of attention and be perceived as having very modern management. MOL found the business case convincing and worked actively with IFC for the promotion of female employment.

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Women = SMART Business: Lessons LEARNED IN GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT / WOMEN IN BUSINESS

Lesson 2: Advise clients in designing womenfriendly infrastructure.

Lesson 4: Encourage women to apply for positions.

Many clients complain that females do not like to apply for their position openings. However, one reason is that the plant settings may discourage female applicants. Some basic plant design modification— such as female restrooms at each workplace and separate female locker rooms and shower facilities—as well as commuting options are factors that encourage females to apply for the openings. Because this was a greenfield project, we were able to convince management to include women’s facilities at the design phase.

Not only did this open the doors for women employees, but it also made it possible for women clients, suppliers, female IFC staff, and other women visitors enjoy their visit to the plant.

In a very traditional culture, the females may not be brave enough to apply for jobs. The client can reach out to the communities through public consultations, at which it can encourage women to apply for jobs and explain that its facility is designed to accommodate women. MOL took advantage of this communications opportunity and spread word through its community officer. As a result, enough women applied to fill 45 positions out of 630. This represents a significant step for women in the chemicals industry.

Lesson 3: Assist clients in designing womenfriendly policies.

Clients unfamiliar with the needs of female employees may not have the knowledge necessary to design appropriate policies for women, such as dealing with pregnant or nursing employees. Occupational health and safety issues are different for men and women employees. These are new challenges for the MOL’s Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) and HR departments. IFC worked with MOL’s management team and HR department to identify relevant policy issues on hiring women and advised the HR and EHS departments to learn from other industries (such as the information technology sector). As a result, MOL was able to develop women-friendly policies that made it possible for women to work at its facility. In the future, IFC’s Gender Unit can also provide useful support to clients in dealing with these issues.

Lesson 5: Encourage clients to build strong relations with the community through hiring women.

Reaching out to local communities and demonstrating that IFC and its clients welcome women employees will help attract a better workforce. With MOL, we explained that hiring women would improve the firm’s relationship with the community, which is important for its long-term success. Working at MOL’s facility greatly improved the status and income of women employees, generating goodwill toward the company.

CONCLUSION Gender equality is a challenge in most parts of the world, including many developed countries. The first step—getting actual agreement to hire women—can be difficult if local traditions discourage companies from hiring women or women are not encouraged to apply for positions. By sharing its knowledge and experience, IFC can make this transition easier. Providing illustrative examples to support the business case for hiring women, which could have an economic benefit to the firm, can help reluctant firms take the step of hiring women even before the idea of social

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responsibility has been accepted. When one firm hires women, it sends a signal that it is innovative. It also demonstrates that women add tremendous value and should be a part of the workforce. IFC continues to work with MOL to hire additional female employees, especially as first- and second-shift female operators, which are higher-paid positions than supporting departments.

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS Larry Jiang is a Senior Environmental Specialist and has worked in IFC since 2004.

Approved by Patricia Miller, Manager, IFC’s Environmental, Social and Governance (CES) unit; William Bulmer, Director, CES.

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Partnering to Extend Our Reach: The Intricate Art of Serving the Hard-to-Reach While struggling to build the business skills of unemployed youth in Yemen, an IFC team found solutions by partnering with a job placement agency. As the team hashed out the contract details, they learned key lessons about when to be flexible, and when to stick to the proven model. Above all, they learned that, when trying to reach the hard-to-reach, you have to find a partner that shares your priorities for that mission. This SmartLesson describes the challenge and the solution—plus some challenges we encountered as part of the solution.

BACKGROUND The challenge: Abeer’s story (see Box 1) is common in Yemen, where youth unemployment hovers at a staggering 35 percent and over 2 million young people are without work. University graduates, having matriculated through a schooling system that offers little in the way of business skills, struggle to find jobs. Employers complain that many local educational institutions fail to use modern interactive learning techniques and up-to-date materials. Even the most motivated job seekers—like Abeer—have little opportunity in Yemen.

“Because recent graduates often lack the basic skills needed to be effective on Day One, employers are inclined to look for people who already have work experience. This deprives the youth of the opportunity and right to work.”

— Maeen Al-Eryani, Chief Executive Officer, Yemen Education For Employment Foundation

We at IFC often struggle to reach the underserved populations, such as unemployed youths, who most need our help to integrate into the workforce. The same cultural and systemic barriers that keep women or youths or small businesses from the market also make it difficult to find and serve these groups.

Box 1: Abeer Moharam’s Story — Part 1 Abeer Moharam had a college degree and the drive to succeed, but she could not get a job.

For three years after graduating, she went from internship to internship, hoping that volunteering would lead eventually to fulltime work and an income. For three years, her efforts were in vain.

With no paycheck, she couldn’t secure a house or a car or even the small things she needed. Worst of all, she couldn’t help her family.

Abeer’s father had died when she was young.

Then her mother passed away when Abeer was at university. Her helplessness in the face of this tragedy weighed on her. “I couldn’t help anyone,” she told us. “I felt like I am not a member of my community.”

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The solution: We knew we had the right product— Business Edge—to reach the recent graduates in Yemen. Business Edge (BE) is a management training program designed to create jobs in developing countries by strengthening the management skills of people within firms, those seeking employment, and budding entrepreneurs. The Business Edge model supports local training providers with content, capacity-building training, and marketing, to ensure that international business expertise is available in the local market. The Business Edge training materials and training programs offer marketing, accounting, and other soft business skills that employers in Yemen need. After three years in Yemen, we had sold over 21,000 training seats—to rave reviews.

Now, the challenge was to deliver Business Edge to the right audience.

To expand our outreach in Yemen, we have partnered with organizations that focus on serving the country’s underserved population. As we’ve built these relationships, both quantitative and qualitative results have been impressive. But the partnerships haven’t always been easy. In the process, the Business Edge team has learned key lessons about when to stick to the IFC model and when to be flexible.

The partnership: The Yemen Education For Employment Foundation was formed in 2008 to provide training and job placement to recent graduates.

YEFE was the perfect partner for BE Yemen, because 1) the courses would benefit from BE materials, and 2) the YEFE model would ensure that Business Edge reached unemployed youths. We signed a contract to train 250 recent graduates in three years. YEFE would contract directly with IFC’s certified local Business Edge training providers to offer nine courses of 10 hours each to its students. YEFE also would provide information technology (IT) and language training along with job-placement support.

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The outcome: Since YEFE contracted with Business Edge, the program has trained (including current students) 715 young Yemenis and is on track to place more than 75 percent of them in jobs; so far, 322 individuals—120 of them females—have been placed. Some of these students, such as Abeer (see Box 2), work internationally, proving the value of their new skills in the global market.

Box 1: Abeer Moharam’s Story — Part 2 The YEFE program landed Abeer a job with an international oil company. After completing the program, Abeer was hired for yet another internship, this time in the human resources department of OMV, one of the largest integrated oil and gas groups in Central Europe.

But this time, everything was different. “After the training, I had an understanding of human resources procedures,” Abeer recalled. “I already knew what OMV needed.”

Abeer got a fulltime job at OMV after interning for two months. She believes that she could not have transitioned from intern to paid employee without the YEFE training. “I advise all boys and girls to train in BE, because it helps them a lot to improve their thinking, and it helps them to get jobs,” she said.

And things are looking up for Abeer personally, too. “I love my job, because I can help people find a job. I can use all my power to help others.”

Women = SMART Business: Lessons LEARNED IN GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT / WOMEN IN BUSINESS

LESSONS LEARNED Lesson 1: Expand impact by partnering with organizations that have broader missions and greater resources.

At IFC, our primary mission is usually to build markets or ease the way for finance. While overcoming the obstacles inherent in these tasks, we also have to expand outreach, conduct marketing campaigns, organize communities, and reshape cultural landscapes. Connecting with organizations that prioritize our secondary goals can help us succeed.

In Yemen, connecting a nonprofit with our private providers helped us expand our impact while supporting the market. For example, working through organizations focused on expanding access to women, IFC has increased the proportion of female Business Edge clients in Yemen from 13 percent to 37 percent.

In partnership with small and micro enterprise support groups, we’ve expanded training to the most vulnerable businesses in Yemen.

Working with YEFE, we replicated this success. YEFE can offer a comprehensive program that includes language training, job placement, and other services that IFC is not designed to provide. This partnership overcomes the challenges of reaching unemployed youth.

For example: • YEFE works with employers to guarantee jobs to a percentage of the trainees, thus overcoming the skepticism many recent graduates have about additional training. YEFE’s funding and mission allow for the organization to devote time and resources to placing their young trainees with new employers. The partnership between YEFE and businesses operating in Yemen has grown as YEFE trainees meet business demands. Every business that has employed YEFE/BE alumni has asked for more trainees. YEFE is working toward a model of mar-

ket sustainability where local businesses will pay for the entirety of the youth training.

• YEFE provides services that most unemployed youth could not afford to purchase. YEFE includes 90 hours of Business Edge training in the six-month training course it provides to youth for free. The total cost of the course is $270, which would be an overwhelming sum for many unemployed young people in Yemen. But private donations help YEFE pay the training providers, rewarding their service and their quality and overcoming the challenge of reaching the unemployed.

Lesson 2: To build a sustainable market, keep the mission of each partner focused and separate.

Initially, YEFE wanted to deliver Business Edge training directly through YEFE’s own trainers. We considered this possibility, but we realized it would not be as effective as contracting through licensed Business Edge training agencies. In a partnership, each player needs to focus on its own specific mission. YEFE’s primary purpose is to find work for unemployed youths.

Even though offering training is critical to this goal, it is not YEFE’s main objective. IFC had a number of qualified training partners in YEFE’s market who specialized only in management training. To maintain the quality control IFC had initially imposed and to support market development, we all had to “swim in our own lanes.”

First, we had to stick with the partners we could easily monitor. We can use uniform metrics to measure the performance of our BE training partners, because their goals are specific and clear. On the other hand, YEFE offers job placement, English-language courses, and IT training, in addition to the Business Edge curriculum. Because the YEFE mission is so broad, it would be difficult to measure the quality of the BE training. Further, it might be tempting to loosen met-

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Box 3: Occasional Exceptions There are moments and markets when deviating from the market model is necessary. In Northern Pakistan, for example, the Aga Khan Foundation uses Business Edge materials to build a market for training services. This is the best arrangement, because it is difficult to imagine a private provider successfully working in Pakistan’s rural mountains.

Yemen, however, with 4,000 to 5,000 training seats sold each year through six profitable providers, was no such anomaly.

rics to support such a valued partner. We could not afford to give into that temptation.

What’s more, sustainability is critical to Business Edge and all IFC business lines. Contracting directly with YEFE, which provides free services, would distort the private training market we had worked hard to build in Yemen. We could not ask our local training providers to compete with an international organization that benefits from outside funds.

On occasion, YEFE continues to push to become a certified trainer. However, when we consistently reiterate our belief that the overall mission of IFC and YEFE would be compromised by such an arrangement, the organization agrees. (See Box 3 for an exception to the BE training rule.)

Lesson 3: Be flexible. We need to work with partners to localize and specialize our model.

According to YEFE leadership, Business Edge has two advantages in the market. First, we have the IFC stamp of credibility; second, we have a field team that is willing to navigate the complexities of the local business climate.

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YEFE selected Business Edge because the brand is recognized on a global level and BE supplies content that adheres to international standards. In Yemen, as in many emerging markets, no other program offers the quality of training offered by Business Edge in the tangible areas of building a business plan, marketing your product, and managing human resources.

The demand for these skills is clear: since employing the BE curriculum, YEFE has more than doubled the number of training seats sold.

However, the international brand was not enough.

YEFE’s decision to work with Business Edge hinged on the willingness of the IFC field team to build a real partnership, where concerns were heard and addressed.

Although IFC could not bend the training model and distort the market, we could adapt the content.

For example, IFC and YEFE are now partnering to customize Business Edge materials to better serve the youth market. Because the standard Business Edge content is geared toward working entrepreneurs, the materials are occasionally too advanced for the inexperienced youths. Even basic business vocabulary needs to be explained.

Further, because the business environment in Yemen does not always adhere to international standards, some YEFE graduates have been surprised to enter an organization that deviates from the model they studied through Business Edge. Together, we are now working to bring in marketing stories, for example, that paint a more realistic portrait of marketing in Yemen.

“Business Edge has helped us successfully increase the possibility of youth to get jobs.”

— Maeen Al-Eryani, YEFE Chief Executive Officer

Women = SMART Business: Lessons LEARNED IN GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT / WOMEN IN BUSINESS

CONCLUSION As we look to replicate the Yemen program’s success in reaching hard-to-reach populations, it is critical to remember a few facts. First, our model is sound.

IFC had the advantage of international expertise and market-driven solutions. Second, to be truly effective, we must be flexible. It takes local knowledge and a cooperative field team to build partnerships to better serve our clients. So, when we enter challenging markets, we must enter with the confidence to execute our plan—and with the flexibility to tailor strategies when necessary.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS Wael Makki, SME Management Solutions Project Coordinator in Yemen, managed the effort to include women entrepreneurs in Business Edge training in Yemen. Before joining IFC five years ago, Wael was a marketing executive for a travel and tourism company.

Nell Abernathy was a Short-Term Consultant with SME Management Solutions for three months, supporting the program from the Cairo office.

Approved by Khadiga Fahmy, Acting Program Manager, SME Management Solutions, Middle East and North Africa.

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Integrating Women into Mining Operations in Newmont Ghana and Lonmin South Africa “Women and mining? But there aren’t any women in mining!” That was the initial reaction from some colleagues when, in 2005, IFC’s Gender Program indicated that we were going to extend our work to IFC’s mining clients, with the aim of enhancing the development impact of IFC projects. Extractive industries represent nearly one-quarter of IFC’s Sub-Saharan Africa portfolio, and mining continues to occupy a key economic, financial, and social role in many countries in the region. However, the iconic image that most people have of mining is of a male miner in a harsh “man’s world.” But, IFC’s Gender Program implemented strategies to help two IFC mining clients better integrate women into their operations. In so doing, IFC contributed to our clients’ sustainability objectives and to improved performance through greater gender diversity. This SmartLesson illustrates how important it is to be flexible when dealing with clients that have different impulses and requirements, and how to leverage IFC colleagues for greater mainstreaming.

BACKGROUND Mining has not always had good press in the development arena, because of a history of inadequate environmental and social governance. Further, in most African countries, any direct benefits of mining operations have largely accrued to men via royalty payments to traditional leaders, land and crop compensation, and employment, skills, or educational opportunities. Yet, including women in mining operations can present an enormous opportunity.

Why more women in mining?

Gender norms in many rural communities mean that women are often excluded from formal community consultations and decision-making structures. This exclusion can severely affect essential tasks—usually carried out by women—such as water and energy collection, household crop production, environmental management, and the use of health services. The sub-

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sequent risks of food insecurity, environmental damage, disease, and unsustainable, wasteful projects are becoming increasingly evident to mining companies; yet few have taken any steps toward implementing truly inclusive community processes.

A not-so-hidden secret anymore is the growing business case for hiring women. Globally, mining companies employ no more than 15 percent women in their operations, despite a strong correlation between gender diversity and high financial and organizational performance in a company. For example, some mining companies have found that hiring women in nontraditional occupations such as mining truck operators optimizes efficiency, because doing so minimizes safety risks, accidents, and maintenance costs.

Finally, we recognized the opportunity for women’s entrepreneurial and productive skills to be better leveraged through IFC’s Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Linkage programs, thus broadening competi-

Women = SMART Business: Lessons LEARNED IN GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT / WOMEN IN BUSINESS

tion, innovation, and skills levels in the local SME supplier base.

Identifying the drivers and market realities Newmont Ghana Gold Limited (NGGL) began constructing a new gold mine in the Ahafo district of central Ghana in 2005, supported by a $75 million loan from IFC. Having worked with IFC in rural communities in other regions, and influenced by its own corporate guidelines on diversity and inclusion, NGGL understood that a gender-inclusive strategy could pay dividends for the company in its new mine in Ghana.

In South Africa, Africa’s largest mining country, the situation was quite different. Post-apartheid economic legislation required all mining houses to meet certain social and labor requirements, one being to attain a minimum baseline of 10 percent women in operations by 2010.

In 2007, IFC entered into a $150 million financing and $5.8 million three-year advisory services partnership with Lonmin PLC, the world’s third-largest platinum producer, operating in the North West and Limpopo provinces of South Africa. Four key areas formed the basis of the IFC-Lonmin advisory services partnership: local SME supplier development; community development; HIV/AIDS risk management; and, in line with the South African Mining Charter, an increased number of women in the workforce— then at 4.3 percent—to help the client meet its 10 percent target.

So, we were now working with two mining clients; one led by awareness of the risk management and performance benefits of gender diversity, and one compliance-driven.

“Rather than seeing mining companies as the ‘bad guy,’ it is great to have IFC’s Gender Program working from within and alongside us to help us do things better.”

— Jeffrey Huspeni, Regional Vice President, African Operations, Newmont Ghana

LESSONS LEARNED Lesson 1: For quick wins, start by implementing feasible objectives derived from client priorities.

As a new mine, one of NGGL’s priorities was to ensure stakeholder buy-in and recognition of its new role in the community. The resettlement process had a severe impact on women in the mining districts, evidenced by the fact that a disproportionate 68 percent of households classified as “vulnerable” were femaleheaded (in a population that is 51 percent female, and where, nationally, female-headed households are on average 30 percent of the total number). And yet the consultative bodies set up to deal with compensation and community decision making had hardly any female representatives. There was an obvious gap to be filled here.

The NGGL gender specialist, appointed on IFC’s recommendation, in the company’s Community Development unit, successfully went about getting more women representatives on these bodies, setting up a 75-member Women’s Consultative Committee (WCC) consisting of a cross-section of women, including businesswomen, teachers, assembly women, and household farmers from the Ahafo districts. Because socialization in some rural communities means that women are not always vocal in public gatherings with men, the WCC meets regularly

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with NGGL representatives to receive and discuss issues relating to environmental management, new infrastructure, educational, economic, and training opportunities, and women’s involvement in the local community forum. Following each meeting, Committee members individually organize district meetings with larger groups of women to take forth the information and get wider feedback.

In two years of operation, the WCC has become a successful organ, not just for consultation with NGGL but also for running various capacity-building activities for its members and other women in the community.

Drawing on the business case mentioned earlier for hiring women as load and haul truck operators, NGGL made an early effort to target women in its training and recruitment of staff in this category.

Consequently, 18 percent of the drivers maneuvering the 200-plus-ton trucks in NGGL are women from the Ahafo communities, many of whom are experiencing formal regular employment for the first

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time through this nontraditional opportunity. To achieve this number, the company worked through its Community Development unit, actively encouraging traditional authorities to include women in the recruitment drive.

At Lonmin, the main priority was to create an environment for sustainably recruiting more women in the workforce. In a company of 25,000 employees that is undergoing postapartheid transformation, with regular disruptions in senior management and key staff, this has required an extensive effort, consisting of the following actions, among others: • Building institutional ownership: The gender program is funded to the tune of $735,000 over two years, split 50/50 between IFC and Lonmin. This has enabled the hiring of a fulltime gender program officer to oversee the integration of women in the company and ensure continuity of the initiative. A diverse and representative Lonmin Women’s Committee regularly discusses and advises on issues pertaining to women in mining, and the company’s

Women = SMART Business: Lessons LEARNED IN GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT / WOMEN IN BUSINESS

Employment Equity Forum reviews and monitors the relevant targets and procedures. An Employment Equity audit has been completed to identify the barriers to women in mining, with recommendations now being acted upon.

• Amending company policies and procedures with support of local and international experts: Areas covered range from recruitment to maternity, training, performance-based targets for management, and workplace-harassment procedures. Particular initiatives have been launched to develop alternative placement systems for pregnant and breastfeeding women, to address recruitment barriers for women, and to develop a hiring appointment ratio tracking system for women.

• Improving the physical environment: Mining in Lonmin is predominantly underground. Hiring women requires ensuring their safety and privacy by provision of change rooms, underground ablution facilities, appropriate uniforms, transportation, and childcare. IFC is helping Lonmin address all these areas through targeted audits and infrastructure developments.

• Ensuring cultural change through an extensive diversity management strategy: Interventions include organizational culture surveys, focus groups, use of corporate communication channels, and diversity training.

Lesson 2: Partner with other IFC colleagues to amplify actions and ensure greater gender mainstreaming.

We encouraged the NGGL Community and SME Linkage programs to explore joint actions for greater impact. One result is that the members of the WCC are now being trained in entrepreneurship and on how to run the microfinance revolving fund that they set up in response to their identified need for busi-

ness credit. To be able to fully participate in the value chain created by NGGL, the Ahafo Linkage Program (ALP) has, through a sex-disaggregated SME baseline study, identified 20 percent of registered local SMEs as being women-owned and has linked them to NGGL’s procurement department. Twenty-six percent of the individuals now receiving local supplier technical assistance through the program are women, and the ALP keeps sex-disaggregated data on participants in its seminars and training sessions. Unfortunately, the low levels of female literacy in Ahafo do not facilitate greater inclusion of women in some of the formal training programs; ALP is exploring ways to manage this limitation.

We also encouraged the Lonmin procurement team to include women entrepreneurs in the Lonmin local supplier development program. The result: three women-owned companies were awarded construction contracts on the mine. One of these, Little Rock Pty, benefited directly from the financing and technical assistance of the IFC-Lonmin Linkage Program and delivered successfully on its $3 million contract.

Lesson 3: Listen, stay open to understand differing compulsions and strategies, and adjust and work in an incremental fashion, where required.

Gender sensitivity requires listening to both men and women in an organization or community. When some men in the NGGL communities queried the seemingly “special” focus on women, the company decided, with IFC support, to design and implement gender sensitization exercises, using community drama and training techniques, for men and women.

Although most men and chiefs in the communities have supported the work of the WCC—with certain chiefs even providing venues for the WCC meetings—gender-related projects need the consistent buy-in of both men and women, to gain broad support and avoid any potential backlash.

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CONCLUSION Our initial work on women and mining has proven that one should not fear innovation or initial skepticism, but be led by market realities. With both the NGGL and Lonmin, the companies were ready to cofund and resource initiatives to enhance gender diversity in their operations. For NGGL, IFC has simply provided top-up funds for broader community training programs, but not for any of the company’s HRrelated measures. The Ahafo Linkage program has mainstreamed and funded the gender strategy within its core activities without recourse to additional funds from the Gender Program.

Likewise, with Lonmin, we have been ready to adapt our strategies when required. For example, we had planned to undertake a staff survey at the outset of our program, to understand the perceptions of male and female staff toward gender diversity. We then found that Lonmin was planning to do its own climate survey to assess its transformation efforts. Rather than heap two different surveys on staff, we worked with the Human Resources (HR) team to integrate gender questions into the climate survey and still obtain the responses we required.

In another example, South African legislation requires Lonmin to undertake measures to meet racial and disability targets as well as gender targets. So, in some instances it has been more practical to include a review of gender in company policies and procedures as part of a broader employment equity push, rather than treat it as a separate issue. Although this has sometimes resulted in delays and necessitated broader internal consultation, it has the advantage of framing the gender agenda within the broader diversity and changing management strategy, thus getting wider buy-in and achieving greater sustainability.

In recognition of the growing business case for gender diversity, other development partners and mining companies around the world have started similar initiatives on gender and mining—and now value and solicit our growing expertise. Regarding replicability, we recommend the following: 1) research and understand the market realities, to develop a pitch a client can relate to; 2) ensure that the client integrates the gender approach within its operations and does not see it as an “IFC add-on,” which would compromise sustainability and commitment; and 3) be patient and do not expect any overnight changes—mining companies are traditionally male companies, and effecting change in their operating environment is a gradual and incremental process.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Natalie Africa is a Senior Program Officer in IFC’s Gender Program. She works on promoting access to finance for women entrepreneurs and adding value to IFC industry investments through partnerships with colleagues across departments.

Approved by Zouera Youssoufou, Manager, IFC Gender Program.

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Women’s Employment: Smart Business?

Promoting the Quality of Jobs for Women The private sector plays a pivotal role in fostering growth and creating jobs by providing about 90% of jobs in developing countries. Moreover, many sectors that are critical for economic growth in some of the world’s poorest countries rely heavily on women employees. As employees, women are a formidable economic force across the world, making up 40 percent of the world’s workforce - yet smart employment practices that enhance productivity while creating more appropriate working conditions are often overlooked. Promoting adequate employment conditions for women can be a win-win situation for employers and employees alike; bringing benefits to business and women, to men and to communities. Anecdotally, a variety of approaches that can result in internal and/or external business benefits have already been adopted by some companies. These could be implemented more broadly to facilitate the advancement of women in the workplace, especially in developing countries.

This SmartLesson shares some valuable insights gained as IFC works with its clients and partners to improve working conditions and employment opportunities for women.

BACKGROUND Compared to IFC’s experience on the women’s entrepreneurship side, IFC’s work in promoting women’s employment in developing countries, with the exception of some initiatives such as our partnership with ILO’s Better Work Program, has been limited. And yet, this is what ALL of our investment and advisory services clients have in common, they employ both women AND men. This relationship with our clients provides us with a unique perspective on the opportunities and challenges to promote women’s employment conditions across industries and within regions — an area that is not well understood, but where the potential opportunities are vast. The lessons below are based on early efforts to document IFC’s experience in working with clients and partners across various sectors to improve job opportunities and conditions for women.

LESSONS LEARNED Lesson 1: Tracking the number of “jobs created” by IFC’s investment clients is of limited value. Choose indicators for which you can demonstrate—and communicate—value addition or the business case. This is paramount for collecting quality data from clients.

When women earn wages and salaries, they have better opportunities to access the resources needed for their families and also invest these productively. As part of its Development Outcome Tracking System (DOTS), and where it is feasible, IFC is tracking direct employment impact — and indirect employment of its investments. What we can say from our experience and from data we have from our clients is that collectively clients’ female employment numbers average more than 30 percent of their workforce.

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employment in developing countries.

Our experience is that, rather than reporting the quantity of jobs created alone, the quality and type of jobs created is also important. Moreover, it is difficult technically to track indirect employment on a consistent basis, and there is limited strategic value in the numbers themselves.

Without understanding the business case for promoting women’s employment opportunities, why should IFC colleagues and clients care?

Lesson 2: Despite operating in different sectors, companies working in the mining, energy, transport, and agribusiness often face similar issues when it comes to attracting, hiring, retaining and promoting women employees. employees play an importantcomrole in sectors critical for economic growth: the These numbers Women can be considered “respectable,” take, for example, IFC’s client Odebrecht, a construcagribusiness, textiles, and tourism industries typically employ large numbers of women. Often, pared to overallthese female employment shares in formal tion company based out of Brazil.

Foremen jobs are low in productivity with precarious contract situations and poor labor standards. did not private sector employment in developing countries. initially women co-workers — until one of their Inadequate workplace conditions drive absenteeism andaccept low productivity.

We are discovering that in sectors where women are rarely employed, as manufacturing, andon the site with the bestsuch brought his daughtermining to work can the increase when firms increase employment opportunities for Our experience infrastructure, is that, ratherproductivity than reporting quandaughter taking on the same job (see picture). At a women. tity of jobs created alone, the quality and type of jobs recent technical workshop on women’s employment, created is also important.

Moreover, it is difficult techOdebrecht And yet, in spite of the differences in these sectors, the issues also nically to trackfacing indirect on a consistent IFCemployment clients and partners are often similarshared across sectors. the story starts from how to identify andnumhire the best potential women basis, and thereThis is limited strategic value in the of how it was inito ensuring that working conditions for women are bers themselves.workers; Without understanding the business tially impossible conducive for women to stay in the company. In settings where it to case for promoting is notwomen’s culturallyemployment acceptable foropportuniwomen to associate with men keep the menwho from ties, why shouldare IFC clients care? notcolleagues members ofand their family, it sometimes presents using thea challenge bathroom for employers when it comes to promoting an inclusive work facilities especially environment. Often the most innovative approaches do the trick: Lesson 2: Despite different installed company for their take, operating for example,in IFC’s client Odebrecht, a construction Father and daughter work at the same site and based out of Brazil. not initially accept co-— until sectors, companies working in Foremen mining,did energy, womenwomen workers someone had the idea operate the same equipment.

Credit:to paint – until one of their best brought his daughter to work on Odebrecht, Peru. transport, andworkers agribusiness often face similar the toilets pink! the site with the daughter taking on the same job (see picture). At issues when it comes to attracting, hiring, a recent technical workshop on women’s employment, “By investing inwomen access to proper health care, a retaining and promoting employees.

Odebrecht also3.shared the story ofcase how for it was initially Lesson The business hiring women is safe, nondiscriminatory work environment and opportunities for asset building targeted to

impossible to keep the men from using the bathroom

notespecially about hiring women men, but about women, we'rean not only investing in role our in sec-facilities Women employees play important installed for theirover women workers – workers, we're investing in a healthy and identifying win-win situations. until someone had the idea to paint the toilets pink! tors critical for economic growth: the agribusiness, sustainable workplace for all.”

John Anderson, President and textiles, and tourism industries typically employLesson CEO, Levi Strauss & Co. When withforclients to ispromote wom3. Thediscussing business case hiring how women not large numbers of women. Often, these jobs are lowabouten’s hiring women over men, about employment, manybutfall intoidentifying the trap of claimsituations. contract situations in productivitywin-win with precarious ing that ‘women are better than men’. Statements and poor labor standards. Inadequate workplace like ‘women are more reliable, more careful, more conditions drive absenteeism and low productivity. responsible, etc.’ can be counter-productive and also We are discovering that in sectors where women are 2 discouraging. Instead, a diversity of staff with differrarely employed, such as manufacturing, mining, and ent skill sets can lead to win-win situations for all. infrastructure, productivity can increase when firms increase employment opportunities for women.

Take, for example, Itaipu Binacional, the largest power generator in the world, located on the borders And yet, in spite of the differences in these sectors, of both Brazil and Paraguay. It was only when Itaipu the issues facing IFC clients and partners are often consulted with women who were hired for tradisimilar across sectors. This starts from how to identify tionally male-dominated jobs and women who were and hire the best potential women workers; to ensurassigned to management positions that the dialogue ing that working conditions for women are conducive with workers around work-life balance was fostered. for women to stay in the company. In settings where In a previously male-dominated environment, men it is not culturally acceptable for women to associwere more reluctant to raise the issue of family-leave ate with men who are not members of their family, it and other benefits which have since been introduced sometimes presents a challenge for employers when it – and resulted in increased overall work satisfaction. comes to promoting an inclusive work environment.

In other cases, such as mentioned by Odebrecht, Often the most innovative approaches do the trick: an increase in female employment was anecdotally

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reported to have fostered greater team harmony and enhanced business performance overall.

In the case of Rio Tinto, the global mining company, promoting women workers cuts across all stages of a mining operation’s life-cycle – which in the mining industry often requires the company’s long-term presence. Where there is an overlap between workforce and host community, supporting education and training for girls also supports their business case — broadening the employable base for the workforce of tomorrow. Outreach to and inclusion of women and men can help companies like Rio Tinto gain a more truly representative perspective and can help minimize risk and exposure as an investor.

There is some empirical evidence to support the view that addressing gender inequality can have positive effects on a firm’s financial performance. Benefits identified through research include an increased competitive advantage through recruitment and retention for organisations which become “employers of choice”. Improved morale and productivity as well as improved human capital management and full utilisation of employee skills and experience are other benefits mentioned in the literature. Academic literature also cites reductions in hiring and training costs associated with high turnover among potential business benefits.

“By investing in access to proper health care, a safe, nondiscriminatory work environment and opportunities for asset building targeted to women, we’re not only investing in our workers, we’re investing in a healthy and sustainable workplace for all.’’

— John Anderson, President and CEO, Levi Strauss & Co.

Demonstrating the business case — showing the private sector “where and when” firms can realize business benefits by promoting women’s employment opportunities and working conditions can be persuasive.

For example, Levi & Strauss (a partner of the IFC/ ILO Better Work Program) stresses that the health of female factory workers has a direct impact on the productivity and stability of manufacturing operations that often face very narrow profit margins, volatile customer demand, high worker turnover and absenteeism. Workers who are loyal, healthy, and educated are an invaluable resource, making investments in female workers’ health likely to deliver significant returns. Levi Strauss believes that showing the financial value of investments in the well-being of communities, and sharing the tools to measure it, helps factory managers develop a sustained approach to women’s health.

Lesson 4. The business case: an important, but not sufficient piece of information. Most leading companies care about the “how”.

Many IFC clients and partners are employing cutting-edge policies and practices to improve women’s employment conditions and to increase women’s employment opportunities. Why? Few mention that they were driven by a sound business case, but more often than not it was policy incentives and broader reputational concerns that spurred companies into action. At the same time, companies began to realize that improving working conditions for women can also have positive bottom-line benefits for the company — even if those are difficult to quantify. As a result, many want to learn more of the “how” to increase women’s employment opportunities, rather than being pre-occupied or distracted with the “why”.

Companies, particularly in male-dominated sectors, are eager to learn how to make their work environ-

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Conclusion and Next Steps: What this means in a nutshell: If we want to achieve scale and uptake by the business community at large beyond the leading companies — to improve employment conditions for women more broadly then we need to focus on establishing the business case.

Yet, establishing the business case promises to be challenging: • Often costs (inputs) are itemized and ‘relatively’ easy to measure, while benefits (outcomes) can be more intangible. On the benefits side, for example, the impacts of increased employee satisfaction or enhanced firm reputation are more difficult to quantify than the costs of training.

• In setting up ‘cost-benefit’ frameworks, some benefits (and costs) may have been overlooked because they were unexpected. Increased staff retention, en-

Benefits to factories participating in Levi’s HERproject include: ment more conducive for women employees and how to create these “win-win” situations that are good for women and good for business. Companies cite a value of feeling good about “being the best in class” or “being the best place for women to work.” At the same time they recognize that identifying a business case for promoting women’s employment conditions has value: they believe that it will help them internally to further ‘move the needle’. Yet, change never starts with the business case – but the business case is what drives scale, while linking ‘women’s employment’ to core aspects of a firm’s value creation. The business case, supported by data, is important because companies tend to manage what they measure – this old adage applies here, too.

• Reduced health-related absenteeism • Increased employee loyalty • Improved worker-management relations • Improved worker concentration • Increased leadership and communication skills of workers • Improved understanding of preventative health care by workers and theier families • Improved worker hygiene, preventing the spread of flu viruses Source: BSR. HERproject: Investing in Women for a Better World. March 2010.

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hanced operational performance or increased productivity may be an unexpected result of womentargeted policies and practices.

• Costs and benefits accrue over time: some upfront, some short- / medium-term, some long-term (and less tangible).

There are very few evidence-based lessons from the developing country context that have captured dual win-win outcomes. One of the few examples that have been studied more closely is the case of IFC’s FineChem project that won the 2012 IFC CEO Gender Award1 for its pioneering work in opening up India’s chemical sector to women employees (see boxed text).

IFC client creates Job Opportunities for Women in India’s Chemical Industry

And this is where IFC can make a significant contribution — leading to a longer global partnership of the World Bank Group/IFC with the private sector to be launched at the World Bank Group/IMF Annual Meetings in October 2012.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Carmen Niethammer of IFC’s Women in Business Program is charged with creating opportunities for women in the private sector in developing client countries. She is responsible for Strategy and Knowledge. In her previous position, Carmen was the Gender Program Manager with IFC Advisory Services in the Middle East and North Africa, based in Cairo, where she led the team that provides technical solutions to growth-oriented small and medium femaleowned enterprises.

Approving manager: Toyin Adeniji, Head, IFC Women in Business Program.

In 2008, IFC invested in the FineChem plant — one of four plants of Meghmani Organics Ltd. (MOL), an Indian chemical company. IFC worked with MOL to identify policies and measures necessary to allow recruiting women into their workforce. As a result, MOL adopted flexible hours to meet local legal requirements, installed female restrooms and other women-only facilities, and established policies that fostered a friendly work environment for women employees.

At the end of June 2011, FineChem had hired 45 female employees — the very first women among the 630 empoyees of the FineChem plant and the 2,000 workers across all MOL plants.

Following the success of this project, other IFC chemical clients in India have also started adopting similar employment practices which better address women’s needs.

1 Instituted in 2008, the annual IFC CEO Gender Award recognizes those who advance IFC’s commitment to support women’s participation in business.

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Women as Stakeholders

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Lessons from the Reconstruction of PostTsunami Aceh: Build Back Better Through Ensuring That Women are at the Center of Reconstruction of Land and Property

On December 26, 2004, a 9.3 magnitude earthquake struck the Indian Ocean and unleashed a blast of energy, creating a tsunami three stories high. The disaster claimed more than 228,000 lives and had an impact on the lives of more than 2.5 million people. It caused close to $11.4 billion of damage in 14 countries. The highest price was paid in Aceh, which had the greatest death toll: 130,000 confirmed dead and a further 37,000 reported missing. In Banda Aceh, the capital of the province, the tsunami claimed more than one-third of the city’s population. The disaster displaced an estimated 500,000 people, damaged or destroyed some 250,000 houses, and affected more than 500 miles of coastline, with an estimated 53,795 parcels of land permanently destroyed through erosion or submersion. Documentation of land ownership was largely destroyed and physical evidence, such as walls, fences, and boundary markers were completely eradicated.

The tsunami and earthquake not only shattered housing and other coastal infrastructure, but it also shook the very foundations of the Acehnese society and the social capital that had taken decades to build up—in the midst of a 30-year civil war. As is usually the case during times of disaster and emergency, women bore the greatest burden; the tsunami deprived them of the safety nets offered by their families, especially spouses or parents. This SmartLesson describes the experience of members of the World Bank’s Emergency Response Team, who worked to support the reconstruction of post-tsunami Aceh and North Sumatra, and tells how this effort served as an important entry point to address women’s land and property rights.

BACKGROUND The Reconstruction of Aceh Land Administration System (RALAS) project was designed as an emergency response from the World Bank and Multi-Donor Trust Fund (MDF) for Aceh and North Sumatra to support reconstruction of housing and communities in post-tsunami Aceh. The first project to be prepared by the World Bank to support post-tsunami reconstruction, RALAS included an official process for land titling, which involved community land map-

ping facilitated by civil society. The MDF, through the World Bank, provided a grant of $28.5 million toward the restoration and reconstruction of land property rights, development of a computerized land records management system, and the development of the land administration system in Aceh province. Also, the task team leader was assigned to Indonesia to complete project preparation and provide technical support to the National Land Agency (Badan Pertanahan Nasional, or BPN) for project start-up, and to support

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the first year of project implementation. The MDF, through the World Bank, funded technical assistance by assigning a full-time monitoring team, based in Banda Aceh. The project focused primarily on securing land rights in tsunami-affected areas and rebuilding the land administration system of Aceh province.

During four years of implementation, the project completed community land maps for 317,170 land parcels, contributing to 222,628 land title certificates actually being distributed to land owners who were survivors of the tsunami disaster or their heirs or adjoining land owners. A total of 275,945 land parcels were officially surveyed and adjudicated, with 238,758 being registered in the Buku Tanah (official

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Land Book or Register). By the end of 2006, the BPN together with the Bureau of Reconstruction and Rehabilitation for Aceh (Badan Rehabilitasi dan Rekonstruksi, or BRR) and the Aceh provincial government formulated a Joint Land Titling Policy, which was adopted for implementation under RALAS. Arising from this milestone policy, a total of 63,181 titles were distributed to women owners, individually or as joint-owners with their spouses, representing about 28 percent of all titles distributed.

This was a significant achievement, given that Aceh province is not only recovering from the devastation of the tsunami in 2004, but also emerging from three decades of civil war and political turmoil. Civil

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and political unrest continued even after the tsunami until August 2005, when a peace accord was signed between the government and the Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (GAM, or Free Aceh Movement).

The cumulative impact of tsunami and civil strife on social development (such as a reduction in social cohesion and trust, high levels of male emigration to other provinces and overseas, and large numbers of males jailed for GAM-related activities) left female members of households to shoulder significant family, social, and financial burdens.

Conditions in post-tsunami Aceh presented a variety of problems related to land ownership and inheritance, as well as a number of other complicated issues.

Critical land-related issues arising immediately after the tsunami included the following: • Restoring and securing land rights and tenure (and resolution of land disputes, if any); • Securing land and housing for renters and squatters; • Application of the principles of land-use planning and disaster-risk reduction; • Securing inheritance of land rights; • Protecting women’s and orphans’ access and ownership rights to land; • Facilitating acquisition of land for infrastructure and resettlement of survivors and former GAM members; • Information collection and dissemination (related to reconstruction and policy issues); • Confirmation of existing mortgages (mainly in urban areas); and • Uncoordinated housing reconstruction efforts, with incorrect land parcel demarcation, and poorly documented community land mapping.

Aceh continues to have a strong Islamic identity, with about 95 percent of the province’s population practicing Islam, while Nias was predominantly Christian. The province uses both civil court and Shari’ah court systems, and religious leaders holding positions of social influence and authority. Shari’ah courts are mandated for resolution of inheritance cases among Muslims, but in the past the practice and interpretation of law varied across the province. Aceh also has its own traditional adat8 social practices relating to land use. Immediately after the tsunami, there were 6,000 inheritance and guardianship claims filed in the Islamic Shari’ah courts in Banda Aceh alone, and officials anticipated close to 100,000 cases throughout the province. Although the traditional customs and civil and Islamic law decree that the woman or her family could inherit her husband’s wealth, in practice many women were not treated the same as men in the inheritance process.

The RALAS project successfully engaged at three distinct levels: macro, institutional policy, and community. At the macro level, RALAS raised public and government awareness on land issues immediately after the tsunami, which prevented large-scale land grabbing or speculation. At the institutional-policy level, RALAS 1) provided a set of measures, such as the joint-titling policy, to enhance women’s access to land and ownership rights; 2) developed and disseminated policy guidelines, including procedures on inheritance and guardianship (in cooperation with the Shari’ah courts); and 3) facilitated engagement of court officials at the subdistrict levels and, importantly, the Presidential Decree (PerPu) on the treatment of mortgages and submerged land parcels.

At the community level, RALAS triggered a pattern for cooperation among families on restoring land and property rights. It supported a transparent self-evalu-

Adat is local customary law, especially of Islamic-Malay tradition in Indonesia.

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Our experience has significantly influenced disaster response in other parts of the world, including Haiti.

RALAS also has contributed to a wide range of best-practice guidelines prepared by the World Bank and United Nations agencies on responding to land and property issues after a disaster, drawing on key lessons learned.

The following lessons of experience serve as a model for mobilizing community knowledge and cooperation for the restoration of land rights and the land administration system in a postconflict, postdisaster situation.

LESSONS LEARNED Lesson 1: Be alert to how local traditions affect women. ation by land owning families, which culminated in securing their consensus and agreement on land and property rights. This investment in social capital laid a foundation for the reconstruction and long-term development programs as well. Independent reviews have found that villages exposed to community land mapping exhibit higher subsequent levels of social cooperation on land management than those in the control group and noncertified areas.

In Aceh, agencies experienced significant pressure to build quickly. But, especially in the first couple of years, expectations were unrealistic, because land issues were affected by a great variety of complex legal and social challenges. Therefore, the opening stages of reconstruction were time-consuming, and initially there were few results to show. However, by the third year, progress was much faster. Although the overall theme for Aceh reconstruction was “build back better,” the RALAS experience demonstrated that it is more than mere reconstruction; it is also about addressing underlying causes for vulnerabilities and poverty that contribute to long-term social and legal risks.

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The context of a disaster response is different from that of a regular development response. Moreover, natural disasters affect women and men in different ways, and there are few guidelines to ensure the adoption of a gender-sensitive approach to disaster management and reconstruction programs. In Aceh, women sought to reassert their land and property rights by using a number of different approaches that had not been previously used but were nevertheless effective. Temporary markers were used to claim land rights and to subvert the pressure. Since there is still a certain amount of dissent with regard to women’s property rights, the women jumped this hurdle by using the names of their male family members to mark their land. Women also took great interest in community-level land mapping exercises, and there were high levels of female participation across the province.

From the earliest days of the RALAS project, the Shari’ah courts were engaged and played a key role in supporting the rights of women and their engagement in the reconstruction of land and property rights. This is quite contrary to commonly held beliefs of Islam.

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Lesson 2: Local knowledge is an essential component of empowering women.

During the RALAS project, the promotion of women’s land rights required dedicated advocacy and policy dissemination. Women lacked information on their legal rights, and the lack of female representation in the local committees disempowered them, preventing them from reestablishing access to their land and property rights. Public awareness raising about land titling and property rights is crucial to ensuring that all people know their rights before, during, and after an emergency strikes. Without basic awareness of these rights, women cannot claim the land and property to which they are entitled.

One method of raising public awareness that proved valuable in this context was making local communities own the gender agenda by building on local ideas, customs, proverbs, and so on, that were favorable to women. These were then integrated into the public awareness campaigns to ensure that gender sensitivity was a local requirement. Through the process, we learned that taking into account gender-related factors in land administration can diffuse tensions over identity, status, and power that may threaten peace and security in postconflict societies.

original tasks. Independent reviews have found that villages exposed to community land mapping exhibit higher levels of subsequent social cooperation on land management than other areas.

Our experience also highlighted the importance of rebuilding houses according to regulatory standards while taking recognized land rights into account. This was accomplished by using information and communication technologies tools that can be harnessed to support and strengthen preparedness for and responses to emergency situations and reconstruction efforts. Tools such as Geographic Information Systems and Global Positioning System are very useful if adapted to the context—more so if community-based groups (rather than government employees or private contractors) are trained to use them.

Lesson 3: Community engagement is necessary at every step when dealing with land recovery and registration.

The community land mapping approach used for the project’s reconstruction efforts was not designed

by RALAS. However, the team improved it, and the process acquired official status through government decree. During the project preparation phase, the World Bank and the government identified the mapping tool’s potential for broader application.

The RALAS experience shows that the introduction of community-based processes can trigger valuable social cooperation that persists after completion of

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Lesson 4: Informed and committed leadership is essential at both community and government levels.

During post-disaster reconstruction efforts, all the stakeholders need to be on the same page for the outcome to be successful. We learned that the coordination of donors and the CSO (civil society organization) community with the government leadership is critical to the success of reconstruction efforts. Primary stakeholders were landowners at the community level and all those affected by the tsunami. At the village level, local land registration committees composed of village elders and the village leader are the main project partners. At the local government level, the district and subdistrict authorities were partners for the RALAS project in each adjudication area. BPN was the implementing agency, with its district land offices assuming a facilitation role at the particular site levels. For the government, the main institutional partner was BRR, which had overall responsibility for coordination of all reconstruction. Other stakeholders included the provincial government and the international and national CSOs and nongovernmental organizations engaged in community development, livelihoods, and housing reconstruction work. The Shari’ah courts were also part of the project in that they were critical in resolving inheritance and guardianship issues.

sion in the economic system. Government-led coordination efforts result in the timely delivery of support and minimal legislation in the face of institutional uncertainties. Most importantly, a well-functioning, gender-informed approach to land and property rights is crucial in the management of the reconstruction and development agenda in postdisaster situations. Taking gender-related factors into account in land administration can diffuse tensions over identity, status, and power that may threaten peace and security in postconflict societies.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Keith Clifford Bell is a Senior Land Policy Specialist who focuses on land administration and management, including key social and ICT agendas for land reform in East Asia. A licensed land surveyor and chartered engineer, he joined the World Bank in 2003, after more than 25 years in the public and private sectors in Australia, working in land administration, land management, land information, mapping, and the geospatial sciences, alongside an army career in Australia’s regular and reserve forces.

Approved by Magda Lovei, Sector Manager, Social, Environmental and Rural Sustainable Development.

CONCLUSION In emergency responses, striking the right balance between speed and deliberation is crucial. Often, a perfect damage assessment is not required. It is possible to respond to a crisis with meaningful interventions, such as community mapping, that can begin immediately while a broader government framework is being created. However, complementary government-coordinated and community-based approaches are required to ensure restoration and recovery of land and property rights. This is central to women’s inclu-

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Incorporating Gender Activities into Cotton Lending Project Design: High Impact at Reasonable Cost Over 70 percent of the farm workers in Tajikistan are women. Most face difficult working conditions and are paid in agricultural outputs such as oil, rather than in cash. When the South Tajikistan Cotton Lending Project started in early 2007, IFC and its donor, the Canadian International Development Agency, decided to develop a Gender Equality Plan to address gender issues—a high priority for both organizations. The challenge was to develop a plan that would show demonstrable results at a reasonable cost, and be acceptable to the men who manage the farms. This SmartLesson represents some of what the team learned from this project.

BACKGROUND IFC worked with partner banks to increase access to finance for cotton farms in South Tajikistan. The IFC team also advised cotton farms on improving farm productivity, and they discovered that, depending on the region, some 70–90 percent of cotton farm workers are women—most of them sole supporters of their families and children. To survive, these women have no choice but to work in the field. We believe that better working conditions in the cotton fields, where women spend most of their time, not only will improve the lives of the women but also will result in increased crop yields. This assumption served as a cornerstone for developing an integrated gender approach that incorporates small steps leading to greater productivity. As a result, the IFC team made a number of recommendations to farm managers for basic improvements to working conditions for women, including the following: • Access to boiled water; • Availability of hot food in the fields;

• Enhanced agricultural methodologies and technologies; • Field lavatories; • Day care for their children while the women are working on the farms; • Fresh water for washing; • First-aid kits; • Special seminars for women farmers on enhancing working conditions, hygiene, and health—and training each other about them.

Most farms implemented the recommendations, and follow-up surveys of the women workers indicated vastly improved working conditions.

LESSONS LEARNED Lesson 1: Integrate gender within wider project activities.

• Improved agricultural tools;

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The primary goal of the project was to increase access to finance for cotton farms and to increase their productivity. The challenge then was to integrate a gender component into the project design so that it supported these goals. Due to budget constraints, it was clear that the project could not afford to develop a large-scale segregated gender component.

Yet, at the same time, it was apparent that the working conditions of women cotton farmers were bad and the project needed to do something to improve their lives. Project staff were confident that improvement in women’s working conditions would result in increases in farm productivity, which would lead to more income for the farm, thus improving the ability of the farm to repay its loan from the bank. Better repayment rates would give the banks confidence to make more loans to the cotton sector.

Lesson 2: Appeal to the economic interests of decision makers.

This decision to integrate gender within the broader project goals was the first successful step in project design. Yet, the farm managers needed to be convinced of the need to undertake any gender activities.

Although the majority of the farm workers were women, the majority of farm managers were men. These men did not feel the need for any social programs designed for women. Their focus was solely on farm productivity and performance. Project staff decided that farm managers would support gender activities only if it was in their economic interest. Plus, the program would need to be soft-sold to them so that it did not seem as though outsiders were telling them that they were not treating their women appropriately.

The IFC project team started a regular series of seminars for farm managers, focused on improving agrotechniques. These seminars were in line with one of the project goals to improve farm productivity. However, a component of these seminars was devoted to

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gender improvements and their impact on productivity. All gender suggestions were put forth within the context of improving farm productivity, so farm managers could focus on the benefits rather than the costs. Farm managers heard about possible improvements in yields that could result from improved working conditions. From the start, IFC impressed upon them the importance of good working conditions for their workers, and the farm managers accepted these changes as a way to improve productivity, rather than as a social program to improve women’s lives.

Lesson 3: Take local customs into account when designing programs.

The training programs were built taking into account the local context and customs. For example, during training sessions the IFC trainers built on examples from the Koran that highlighted respect for women.

This idea helped the heads of farms better comprehend the importance and necessity of making accessible to women farmers the resources that can save women’s time and energy, as well as safeguard traditional and religious values regarding women in the field. The trainers presented sensitive topics, such as women’s rights, through a relaxed roleplay demonstration, which avoided giving the impression that the trainers were preaching to the male attendees.

Lesson 4: Use local champions to maximize project results.

Among a series of seminars, the IFC team conducted a separate seminar solely for women. Analysis of previous projects and various organizations had illustrated that segregated sessions are more comfortable for and welcomed by women, especially in a country with a predominantly Muslim population. The central theme of these seminars was that the information, knowledge, and methodology used in seminars must be taken forward to other women farmers on other farms. Women

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from farms where gender benefits had been achieved presented their experiences to attendees from farms that had not implemented any changes.

Since the number of farms where IFC conducted training was limited, the training of these future gender champions enabled the project to spread the benefits of the gender work to those farms whose managers had not undertaken the IFC training. Women would hear about the benefits and then ask their farm managers to implement similar changes. This use of champions was successful—an independent consultant noted that some farms had implemented gender changes even though their farm managers had not attended any training.

Lesson 5: Use “show and tell” to convince skeptics and get others on board.

Regular training sessions provided a forum for farmers to convey and share their own results with other farmers. An independent consultant surveyed farms that had implemented the IFC-suggested changes, and those farms had a 37 percent higher cotton yield than surveyed farms that were not part of the project. Farmers saw the successful results of other farmers and then showed a renewed focus on implementing IFC recommendations. Even some farms that were not part of the project asked to join their land holdings with project farmers. The clearly apparent success of the approach encouraged other farmers to replicate it.

CONCLUSION The impact of the project’s gender activities was considerable. An independent consultant reviewed the gender activities of the project and noted that over 95 percent of farms surveyed had implemented at least three of the project’s gender recommendations. Most popular were new tools that were cheap but had high impact, such as gloves that speeded up the picking of cotton, as well as the provision of clean and boiled

“A key component of the project’s gender strategy is to improve the working conditions for women and increase productivity. The project team took a very pragmatic approach to improving work conditions— and thereby productivity—on the farms.”

— Lars Thunell, IFC Chief Executive Officer drinking water and field toilets for the women. Over 5,800 women benefited from the improved working and living conditions created by the project. Women farm workers reported higher consumer spending, and some opened bank accounts and placed deposits.

The project was nominated for IFC’s CEO Gender Award in 2009 and 2010. In 2009, it earned Second Runner-Up honors; in 2010, it received the First Runner-Up award.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS Raiomand Billimoria (Project Manager) and Adkham Ergashev (Deputy Project Manager) were part of the South Tajikistan Cotton Lending Project’s management. They now hold the same roles for the Tajikistan Agribusiness Finance and Business Environment Project—a new EU-funded IFC project that combines Access to Finance and Investment Climate work to improve the enabling environment for agribusiness, while also developing the agri-leasing and equipment finance market in Tajikistan.

Muhayyo Nosirova was the Gender Champion for the project and led the training on gender issues.

Ziyoda Kurbanova joined IFC in April 2010 as Communications Analyst for the Dushanbe office.

Approved by Rolf Behrndt, Regional Business Line Manager for the Access to Finance business line in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and the architect of many of the gender components of the project.

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Giving Women a Bigger Voice in Rural China The Poor Rural Communities Development Project (PRCDP) is a rural development intervention covering some of the poorest communities in Guangxi, Sichuan, and Yunnan provinces in China.

The project, led by the Chinese provincial and county project offices (PMO), reaches out to ethnic minority communities, usually in remote villages, and provides subgrants for basic infrastructure and loans for livelihood improvements. The project involves farmers in important decisions about which kinds of activities will be implemented, and it aims to ensure participation of both men and women in project design, implementation, and evaluation. The project team brings community members together to talk about key challenges facing the community and to make sure that both women’s and men’s priorities are heard when it comes to deciding how village funds will be used. This SmartLesson describes how a simple “gender mainstreaming” approach, effectively adopted in targeted villages in rural China, brought out the different ways men and women understand community priorities.

BACKGROUND In the remote areas covered by PRCDP, communities have had their own ways of pooling resources and making decisions—often without much participation by women. A key element of PRCDP was to provide greater opportunities for women in targeted areas to speak up at village meetings and to have a greater role in project implementation. Slowly but consistently, this gender mainstreaming approach is producing positive change.

Analysis The initial gender analysis carried out by the team aimed to understand the barriers holding women back from greater participation in public discussions. Why weren’t women attending village meetings and speaking up? The team used qualitative research methodologies such as participant observation, key informant interviews, and focus-group discussions—either separately with women only, or with groups that had an adequate balance of women and men participants.

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Ultimately, the analysis was aimed at increasing women’s participation in the project’s community-based activities, and at assisting the Chinese implementation team’s efforts to increase that participation. Our team learned how men and women accessed basic services, and what their respective roles were in decision making at both the community and household levels. We paid attention to how the implementation arrangements proposed by communities would affect men and women differently. The key concern was to ensure that implementation arrangements did not place an undue burden on women, who already had a particularly heavy workload of agricultural activities and domestic chores. We sought to specifically understand the following: • How local customs, beliefs, and attitudes limited women’s participation; • How women’s economic and domestic workloads posed important time constraints on their participation in community activities;

Women = SMART Business: Lessons LEARNED IN GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT / WOMEN IN BUSINESS

• How customs, policies, and laws limited women’s access to resources.

The results included some simple but important changes in the way planning meetings at the village level were conducted.

Planning and Implementation Once we had a detailed understanding of gender dynamics within communities, it was clear there needed to be changes in the usual village planning processes.

The Chinese PMO, with help from World Bank and Department for International Development (DFID) team, worked to ensure that women were at the meetings and able to express their preferences about project investments. Hongshui Township (Rongshui County) provides a good example. Miao (an ethnic minority group living in southern China) women don’t customarily have a big role in community affairs. The solution there was to have separate meetings with the women before the large plenary meetings with men. Women were more confident about speaking up in the small groups, without the men around. They were able to consolidate their ideas and priorities for project funds, and then were able to explain them more clearly later in the mixed-gender sessions.

Another change was to have everyone vote as individuals rather than one vote per household, where traditionally the man would represent the household. An equal number of women and men participants were asked to vote for their preferred subproject, using seeds of different colors (yellow for women and white for men). Women showed a stronger preference for the construction of social infrastructure (health posts and schools), while the men tended to focus on livelihood activities and infrastructure works such as rural roads. Having men and women to vote their preferences separately allowed facilitators to identify key differences in priorities.

Taking it one step further, the project teams made sure that one-third of the people in village organizations overseeing implementation were women. It was important to make sure that women were involved beyond the planning stage, so they could benefit from the training provided in financial management, procurement, and supervision of contractors and construction work during implementation.

To support local Chinese facilitators in this effort, a project-specific gender checklist was put in place as a stepby-step guide for gender-sensitive community planning.

In addition, a strong partnership with DFID—which provided grant resources linked to the project—meant that the gender dimensions of project implementation were systematically reviewed during supervision, discussed with county and provincial counterparts, and captured systematically in progress reports.

Monitoring and Evaluation PRCDP adopted a thorough methodology for participatory monitoring and evaluation, with a strong focus on assessing how men and women perceived their participation and their ability to engage in the community-level decision-making processes.

The Chinese PMO conducted specific interviews and focus-group discussions with women and men participants as well as with poor and marginalized groups within the community, which provided useful insights into the quality of the facilitation.

Collecting feedback from women during project implementation was very informative. It enabled the women to explain the difference between the original project plan and the actual implementation. Women were asked about their satisfaction with the planning process and to rate “how well they were involved in decision making.”

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LESSONS LEARNED Lesson 1: Gain a good understanding of gender-specific barriers to beneficiary involvement in project activities.

PRCDP found that the best way to understand why women weren’t actively involved in village activities was to ask them, using simple qualitative methods.

Having this information available was key to making the necessary adjustments to project design.

Lesson 2: Create a space for women’s perspectives to be heard: arrange separate consultations and planning meetings for women.

We saw that the small meetings gave women a chance to organize their ideas and present their priorities clearly before attending the subsequent mixed-gender community sessions. Having these small meetings gave women more confidence to speak up and articulate their points of view in the larger public meetings.

Lesson 3: Be aware that men and women focus on different things, and women’s priorities may be lost if the men systematically represent the households in public discussions.

Changing the way villagers voted on subprojects to “one person, one vote” made a big difference in ensuring that the different perspectives were taken into account. When women had an opportunity to cast their own votes, their greater interest in health and education projects became clear. Men voted more heavily for agricultural projects.

Lesson 4: Create opportunities for women to participate in project activities and gain additional skills.

In PRCDP, creating participation opportunities for women meant being aware of their specific time con-

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straints—and then adjusting the times of training sessions to make it possible for them to attend.

Lesson 5: Check with the women to see how the project really worked, and take corrective action as needed.

For PRCDP, women were involved in monitoring projects during the implementation phase. They were able to track results and assess progress. Importantly, they could also report on how effectively they were able to participate in project activities and to flag areas for improvement.

CONCLUSION A key lesson from PRCDP—successfully led by the Chinese Leading Group for Poverty Reduction, with the support of the World Bank and DFID—is to be sure the project design is based on a good understanding of the local context. Listening to beneficiaries and adopting a participatory approach enabled the project to introduce some important adjustments in the way village meetings were run and the project implemented, giving women a bigger voice. A critical insight from the project is that ensuring that men and women are able to benefit more equitably from project activities does not require complex interventions but rather well-targeted and, above all, simple adjustments that can be systematically monitored at the field level. Close supervision and monitoring of these activities helped the implementing agency understand what worked and what didn’t, making it possible to take corrective action when necessary.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Patricia Fernandes is a Social Development Specialist in the World Bank’s Social, Environmental and Rural Sustainable Development (EASER) Department.

Approved by Magdolna Lovei, Manager, EASER.

Women = SMART Business: Lessons LEARNED IN GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT / WOMEN IN BUSINESS

Striking Gold! Women in Mining Initiative in Papua New Guinea The rapid development of the mining sector in Papua New Guinea (PNG) has illuminated the hardships faced by women in society—and in some cases, exacerbated them. The World Bank’s Women in Mining (WIM) Initiative was the first systematic attempt to give these women a voice. The initiative helped build strong women’s communities at the local level, linked them to women’s groups at the national level, and strengthened their agency with local governments and mining companies. The result? Stronger representation, improved community development programs, and greater economic and social opportunities for women in mining areas. This SmartLesson provides an overview of how these outcomes were accomplished, the challenges faced in the process, and what we can learn from the ongoing experiences of the WIM in Papua New Guinea.

BACKGROUND Papua New Guinea is a culturally diverse, environmentally rich country with over 5 million inhabitants, most of whom live on the eastern half of the rugged and mountainous island of New Guinea. The rest are scattered among tropical archipelagos in the Bismarck and Solomon seas. Unfortunately, Papua New Guinea’s natural beauty hides a less attractive human reality: widespread poverty, underdevelopment, and deep dependence on natural resources, especially mining operations.

Global experience shows that the impact of the mining sector is gender-biased.9 Whereas mining-related benefits such as employment and income tend to be captured by men, the brunt of the negative impacts— social and environmental risks—largely falls upon women. Papua New Guinea, where mining is a straAdriana Eftimie, Katherine Heller, and John Strongman (2009), Gender Dimensions of the Extractive Industries—Mining for Equity, The World Bank..

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tegic priority sector and a key foreign exchange earner, is no exception.

Gender relations within Papua New Guinean communities are largely based on tribal cultures and traditions; hundreds of distinct ethno-linguistic communities are woven into the fabric of Papua New Guinean society.

Because these societies are heavily patriarchal, women’s traditional subservience has been well established through their social roles. However the arrival of mining operations can upend or erode set gender relations. Starting from a position of disadvantage, women often face discrimination, economic deprivation, and a downward spiral of domestic violence. Today, women’s socioeconomic roles are at a juncture; tradition can be a source of opportunity, prestige, and status, or it can restrict opportunities for self-empowerment.

The Women in Mining Initiative The WIM Initiative was developed during the implementation of the World Bank’s first Mining Sector Technical Assistance Project. (See Figure 1.) This project

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deprivation, and a downward spiral of domestic violence. Today, women’s socioeconomic roles are at a juncture; tradition can be a source of opportunity, prestige, and status, or it can restrict opportunities for self-empowerment.

Figure 1: Accelerating Towards Gender Equality in PNG Mining Areas

already had a Sustainable Mining Development compoThe Women in Mining Initiative provide many social services, since in some cases govnent.

However, during project consultations, it became ernment is absent; andWorld 2) a transitional environment The WIM Initiative was developed during the implementation of the Bank’s first obvious that without the development of women in which 1.) mines willproject close and must eventually Mining Sector Technical Assistance Project. (SeeinFigure This already had a transfer these communities, sustainable development was not provision of services to a government gender-biased Sustainable Mining Development component. However, during project consultations, it achievable. A “Women in Mining” subcomponent was environment in which women are marginalized. The became obvious that withoutofthe development in these communities, added to support the development women’s activities, of women WIM Initiative in PNG resulted in two main outsustainable was not achievable. in Mining” subcomponent was capacities, and development voice in mining-affected communities.A “Women comes: 1) increasing the voice of women, and 2) theondevelopment of women’s Asadded a resulttoofsupport a dialogue women and women’s issues activities, building capacities, capacities. and voice in miningrelated to mining that startedAs at the 2001 of Sustainability affected communities. a result a dialogue on women and women’s issues related to 1) Increasing the voicesupported of women the conference, the project supported the organization mining that started at the 2001 Sustainabilityofconference, the project the first Women and Mining (2003), whichConference (2003), which resulted in the organization of the firstConference Women and Mining The WIM Initiative was developed based on the recogresulted in the identification of actions to reduce and identification of actions to reduce and mitigate thenition negative and social of theenvironmental lack of voice of women in mining areas. mitigate the negative environmental and social impacts It soughtthe to directly address bothofthe lack of voice and impacts of mining on women, and improve and enhance positive impacts mining of mining on women, and improve and enhance the the challenges faced by women.

Three international for women. positive impacts of mining for women.

WIM conferences (organized in Madang in 2003, 2005, and 2010) focused on empowering Papua The waswas developed in 1)ina 1) complex TheWIM WIMinitiative initiative developed a complex governance environment in which New Guinean women to participate more equitably governance environment in which mining companies

mining companies provide many social services, since in some cases government is absent; and 2) a transitional environment in which mines will close and must eventually

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in sharing mining benefits, to assume enhanced roles in planning, and to be included in all decision-making processes. The 2005 WIM conference led to the establishment of a government WIM Steering Committee10 that, together with local women’s associations, developed local WIM Action Plans, which were then integrated into a WIM 5-Year National Action Plan.

(See Figure 2.) This Action Plan, endorsed by the government of PNG in December 2009, provides a strong basis for mobilizing additional public, donor, and private sector resources to improve economic and social outcomes for women and families in mining areas.

The 2005 conference was also the first international event in Papua New Guinea to include women from areas affected by petroleum, in recognition that many of the problems arising in mining areas were also shared by oil- and gas-affected communities. And the initiative was renamed Women in Mining and Petroleum (WIMAP).

Whereas the 2003 conference was held because women were uncomfortable speaking in a public setting with men, in follow-up (mixed sex) conferences in 2005 and 2010, women were active participants, presenting in front of male community members, government, and industry representatives. The women discussed how their increased social empowerment was also now enabling them to become partners to their male counterparts in mining benefits discussions and had led in some cases to economic empowerment.

Overall, through increasing the voices of women, the program created a platform for dialogue and action for all relevant stakeholders—the government, the private sector, and women’s groups and associations, in which women were now able to more fully participate.

The Steering Committee was established by women in strategic positions from the PNG Departments of Mining, Planning, Agriculture, Community Development, and Environment and the Attorney General’s Office.

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2) Building capacities In 2008, Self-Reliance Programs for Women in Mining and Petroleum Areas (a project funded by the Japan Social Development Fund) was launched as part of continual support for the WIM Initiative. The project aimed to increase the positive impacts of the extractive industries on women from remote areas of Papua New Guinea. It aimed to build the capacity of women’s groups and associations to better manage their community programs and provide them with the necessary skills and tools to become reliable partners in the decision-making processes that affect their lives.

More than 1,100 women and men benefited from the training and capacity building efforts carried out under the program, which was implemented in six mining areas and eight petroleum areas. In subsequent women and mining conferences, women beneficiaries have reported how skills gained from these trainings contributed to their ability to open small businesses, and to play a more active role in the development of their communities and households.

The WIMAP is in the process of mobilizing additional resources to expand training and capacity-building programs to more areas affected by mining and petroleum in Papua New Guinea, as well as to build on past efforts in the original WIM Initiative. To date, WIMAP activities have accomplished the following: • Helped build links between networks of key women at the national level, and women’s groups at the local level; • Helped build the capacity of local women’s associations, and giving them greater voice with male community leaders and local governments; • Helped mining companies target their community programs more effectively, with improved outcomes for both women and men.

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Figure 2: WIM Action Plan

The program demonstrates how activities within and more equitable long-term sharing of local and The WIMAP initiative proved to be: a particular sector can have an impact on women’s national revenues from mineral resources; social and economic empowerment more broadly, • Good forinclusive women—by catalyzing in their participaGood participation planning and helping them secure• a vocal rolefor in development—by the nation’s devel- promoting tion in decision making, so that their needs and improving localcontinues governance, thus creating a strong basis for postmining opment agenda. The WIMAP initiative to bemore identified and addressed; andsharing of raise awareness on gender issues across sectors—gen-and forpriorities sustainable development broadercan and equitable long-term der being one of the twolocal cross-cutting themes of the from and national revenues mineral resources; increasing the effectiveness • Good for business—by Papua New Guinea •Country Assistance Strategy.

Good for women—by catalyzing participation in decision so that andtheir equitability of investments in making, compensation community developmentand activities, helping their needs identified and addressed; The WIMAP initiative proved to be: and priorities can beand mitigate negative impacts, and improving • Good for business—by increasing the effectiveness and equitability ofsustain• Good for development—by promoting inclusive ability of positive impacts—as well as increasing investments in compensation and community development activities, helping participation in planning and improving local household and community income from women’s mitigate negative impacts, and improving sustainability of positive impacts—as governance, thus creating a strong basis for postbusiness activities that grew out of the training well as increasing and community income from women’s business mining sustainable development and for household broader projects.

activities that grew out of the training projects.

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Women = SMART Business: Lessons LEARNED IN GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT / WOMEN IN BUSINESS

Lesson 1: Look at benefits and risks through a gender lens.

LESSONS LEARNED

Lesson 2: Remain driven by demand.

Lesson 1: Look at benefits and risks through a gender lens.

By responding to women’s needs and requests, rather than lecturing to them, we built strong local ownership in the WIM activities. The WIM Initiative facilitated the creation of a strong platform of dialogue for women leaders from communities, government, and industry representatives to plan and work together in the preparation and implementation of the Action Plan, showing strong ownership of the proposed activities through commitments and responsibilities established for each group.

By looking at our mining projects through the gender lens of benefits and risks, we were able to identify actions that helped improve overall development outcomes. The WIM Initiative not only contributed to a more inclusive approach to community development in our mining technical assistance projects, but it also resulted in increased government support for gender programs through the adoption of the Action Plan.

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Lesson 3: Always explore opportunities to build confidence.

By initially listening to women’s voices in a women-only setting (during the 2003 WIM conference), we empowered women to take a more proactive role in community affairs. Being encouraged to speak built women’s confidence, which enabled them to have a greater impact within their communities and also nationally.

Lesson 4: Build leadership.

By supporting the women community leaders, we enabled them to help others in their communities and began to create a wider range of role models for younger women and girls. Women’s associations and groups engaged in income-generating activities that gave them the leverage to assert a stronger role in community decision-making processes. Their participation in training activities allowed them to share their knowledge with younger women and girls.

Lesson 5: Improve channels of communication.

By informing community women about the risks and benefits of mining and encouraging them to take part in that discussion, we enabled them to become engaged in planning for the impacts of mine development.

Women used the local Action Plans for engaging in the negotiations of the benefits packages with the mining companies. Results of this process varied from direct industry contributions to specific women’s initiatives to the earmarking of 10 percent dedicated funding from royalties to be spent on women’s activities.

Lesson 6: Companies can be key agents of gender improvement in the community.

The mining companies found that development outcomes from community investment programs could be improved through consulting women and supporting women’s activities. As recommended during

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the 2003 WIM conference, many companies set up gender desks. Over the years, the women’s mining associations have engaged with these gender desks to develop activities that resulted in economic and social empowerment of women. While the well-being of women has improved, the mining industry has also been able to make an increasingly effective and efficient contribution to community development.

Future Challenges Despite some giant strides, gender mainstreaming in the mining sector of Papua New Guinea still has some challenges to overcome: • Focus on self-reliance. Women have identified their training needs, corresponding to a range of small-scale livelihood opportunities: for example, baking, sewing, and improved agriculture techniques to boost crop yield. The next step will be to link trained women with access to credit and markets to enable their small enterprises to start functioning. The planned WIMAP Small Grants program—providing seed money and mentoring for microenterprises and community projects run by women’s associations—is designed to meet this need.

Women = SMART Business: Lessons LEARNED IN GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT / WOMEN IN BUSINESS

• Sustainability matters. WIM Initiative sustainability can be strengthened in three ways: 1) ensuring that the program continues to provide direct information, mentoring, and follow-up support to WIMAP participants; 2) building adequate capacity in the government to support and champion the program on an ongoing basis; and 3) raising greater awareness of the program and securing resources to continue it.

• Address gender-based violence in mining communities. This issue continues to be one of the most serious public policy challenges facing Papua New Guinea, not only for human rights but also for development effectiveness. Qualitative evidence suggests that it may be particularly serious in communities with extractive industries because of the extra influx of disposable income, the arrival of migrant labor, and the social disruption caused by the industry. The WIMAP program plans to add a gender-based violence awareness and advocacy module to future training activities, to work with both men and women in communities affected by mining, oil, and gas.

• Incorporate a more systematic monitoring and evaluation strategy. The WIMAP will incorporate an M&E framework in the next stage of program activities. It will include a participatory mechanism to enable direct feedback and accountability to the program beneficiaries.

• Continue to engage men. The WIM/WIMAP process so far demonstrates that, to effectively address the social and economic marginalization of women, men have to be involved. The WIMAP will continue to work with men in the community, especially those in positions of leadership, to develop strong male advocates for program activities. Future trainings will also have a portion of spaces reserved for men, where there is demand to do so.

CONCLUSION Industrial development through mining has brought rapid change to Papua New Guinea. Many of the social effects remain underevaluated. Examining how women’s roles have changed—and will change— because of mining must be an integral component of an effective development approach. Because mining operations have a limited operating life, long-term strategic planning for community development is critical to sustaining local livelihoods, opportunity, and equity throughout and beyond the mining project cycle. Attending to local needs also includes a careful consideration of both women’s and men’s roles in society. In Papua New Guinea, the WIMAP demonstrates that an improved understanding of women’s roles and the empowerment of women at the community and national levels should be a key objective in any country with a strong extractive industry sectors.

The WIM approach developed in Papua New Guinea has been replicated in other countries (Poland, Romania, Uganda, Tanzania), and it contributed to the development of the Gender and Extractive Industries Guidance Note for Task Team Leaders that provides information and practical steps on how to incorporate gender into the project cycle.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Adriana Eftimie leads the Gender and Extractive Industries Program at the World Bank. She has more than 20 years’ experience in the mining, oil, and gas sector and has applied her expertise on mining and petroleum legal and regulatory regimes, environmental management, and community sustainability issues, including gender, in several countries of Europe and Central Asia, Africa, South Asia, and East Asia and Pacific regions.

Approved by Paulo De Sa, Sector Manager, Oil, Gas and Mining, Sustainable Development Network.

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Credits Photos All images Š IFC

Printing Ecoprint

SmartLessons is a World Bank Group program which enables development practitioners to share lessons learned in development operations. This SmartBook presents first-hand and straightforward project stories with pragmatic useful analysis, written by professionals for professionals. Through the prism of their own experience—positive and negative—these authors aim to capture practical insights and lessons that could help advance development-related operations for private sector-led growth across the globe.

For more information, please visit the SmartLessons website: http://smartlessons.ifc.org or contact the SmartLessons program: smartlessons@ifc.org.

June 2012