Women entrepreneurship in MENA lags behind, says report

TDT | Manama                                        

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com   

Report by Julia Cassano

Women entrepreneurship in the Middle East and North Africa is lagging behind, despite recording significant progress in education, according to a new report by the Wilson Centre.

The report on “Women and Entrepreneurship in MENA: The Cases of Bahrain, Lebanon and Tunisia” claims that only 23% of businesses in the region are owned by women, compared to 34% globally, and the average female business participation rate is only 19%, the lowest in the world.

The report reviews cases of Bahrain, Lebanon, and Tunisia, where the range of woman-owned businesses varies from 7% in Yemen to 49% in Tunisia.

Wilson Centre claims that despite women graduating at similar or higher rates than men at the secondary and university levels in Bahrain, Lebanon, and Tunisia, their presence in the workforce are still low.

The lead researcher in the report, Lynn Mounzer, attributed this to the “outdated curricula, sociocultural factors, and a lack of focus on entrepreneurship for women in the region.”

Mounzer also emphasised that legal protections for women in the private sector are critical for their advancement.

A notable achievement for all these countries is the significant progress in criminalising workplace harassment, the report highlights.

However, the lack of childcare remains a critical concern for both women and men, which could inhibit women from building a lasting career or business, stressed MaryClare Roche, technology director at the Arab Barometer.

“Although men recognise the importance of childcare, they do not recognise the importance of childcare for women,” Roche said, stressing that burdening women with multiple responsibilities, including household care, while operating a business could “inhibit them from building a lasting career or business.”

Gender diversity is also lacking in venture capital (VC) organisations in the MENA region, where only 1% of the USD 3 billion venture capital funding towards businesses went to women.

In the report, Faisal Hammad, Chairman of the Equal Opportunity Committee at the Ministry of National Economy, stressed the importance of equal opportunity in promoting women’s advancement and gender equality in the Bahraini workforce.

He notes that when women are allowed to enter leadership positions in small, medium, and big businesses, there is a significant spike in productivity and profitability.

To address these issues, the report calls for increasing financial inclusion, encouraging NGOs and governments to collaborate on capacity-building for women focusing on entrepreneurial skills, enhancing legal reforms with concrete enforcement mechanisms, and developing clear metrics to measure progress in supporting women.