Posts Tagged ‘women’
Posted on October 30, 2009 - by boris
Korea: 2009 Citi-KOSBI Women Entrepreneur Awards…
Korea Small Business Institute (President Ji-Jong Chang) has been providing Competitiveness Program for women-owned SMEs since 2008 with the sponsorship of Citi Foundation’s Corporate Citizenship Fund by Citibank Korea (CEO Yung-Ku Ha).
The award, marking its second year, was established as part of the Competitiveness Program to motivate women entrepreneurs and spread the best practices of successful women-owned SMEs.
The 2009 Citi-KOSBI Women Entrepreneur Award has 4 domains: Entrepreneurship, Eco-friendly Management, Human Resource Management, and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
Source: http://newswire.ytn.co.kr/newsRead.php?md=A01&tm=1&no=437402
Posted on October 28, 2009 - by boris
Micro loans cause trouble…
For years, micro loans have been promoted by everyone from Nicholas Kristof to Oprah Winfrey as a great way to help women in developing nations pull themselves out of poverty. The idea is simple: lend women a small amount of money to start businesses, thereby empowering them, their families, and ultimately their communities.
Yet as it grows from a small, foundation-based practice to a full-fledged industry, micro loans are under new scrutiny. Some commentators are skeptical that for-profit microfinance institutions can preserve their mission of helping the world’s poorest women get ahead. Moreover, some say that the loans themselves cause trouble, as the sudden influx of money inadvertently puts women in danger. Here are three of their biggest concerns:
The Business Is Too Big: Non-profit microfinance organizations have morphed into mega-corporations like India’s SKS, and Forbes’s Shloka Nath worries that they have forsaken their original purpose in search of a profit.
Loans Make Women Targets: At The Daily Beast, Gayle Tzemach Lemmon says female recipients of micro loans in Afghanistan are being abducted and threatened by “thugs” who want their money.
Too Corporate to Do Any Good: At Reuters, economic blogger Felix Salmon says microfinance isn’t ready to become a corporate, for-profit industry.
Source: http://www.theatlanticwire.com/opinions/view/opinion/Macro-Problems-With-Micro-Loans-1368
Posted on June 26, 2009 - by Gavin
Efforts are on to protect women from economic slow down – Krishna Tirath…
PIB Press
Smt. Krishna Tirath Minister for Women and Child Development has
said that the efforts are on by the Indian Government to protect
women from economic slow down and also enable them to uplift
themselves. Self help group movement is being strengthen further
to mobilize more and more women for income generating activities
with linkage to micro credit.
The Minister was addressing the Plenary Session of 3rd East Asia
Gender Equality Ministerial Meeting at Seoul, South Korea
yesterday.
Speaking about impact of economic crisis on women, on their
health, nutritional level and their economic sustainability, Smt.
Krishna Tirath said that Indian Government is committed to uplift
women in every sphere of life and it is contemplating to increase
reservation for women upto 50% in local Government, which is 33 %
at the moment.
Posted on June 9, 2009 - by Gavin
New corporation to lend money to Colombia’s poor…
Colombia Reports
A new corporation intended to support poor families in Colombia has been created during the Regional Summit on Microfinancing in the city of Cartagena de Indias.
The bank will be known as Grameen Aval Colombia corporation and received a three million dollar starting capital of the Luis Carlos Sarmiento Angulo Foundation, whose namegiver, Luis Carlos Sarmiento Angulo, is Colombia’s richest man.
The idea of the fund came from Nobel Peace Prize 2006 winner, Bangladeshi Professor Muhammad Yunus, who has experimented with the micro-loans in his own country and other Asian nations and knew to achieve a positive impact in marginalized communities.
Grameen, a Bangladeshi word that stands for “village”, because the main benefesaries are farm families, has been proven already in Guatemala and Costa Rica. (more…)
Posted on May 25, 2009 - by Gavin
Micro loans from S’poreans changing lives…
Asia One News
IN AZERBAIJAN, south of Russia, Ms Qatiba Jafarova has bought two cows to expand her home-grown dairy business – aided by cash loans from Singaporeans she has never met.
The 47-year-old is one of the many beneficiaries of loans made by a growing number of Singaporeans involved in microfinance, a system of lending money to the working poor who do not qualify for bank loans because of insufficient collateral.
A “Team Singapore” group set up last August on microfinance website Kiva – www.kiva.org – has already garnered 74 members.
They have lent out almost US$10,000 (S$14,400) to start-ups in countries as far away as Peru, with no interest earned or repayment guaranteed. (more…)
Posted on May 21, 2009 - by Gavin
Financing Africa’s greatest resource: Women…
Afrik.com
“They provide 70% workforce and grow 90% of the food”
Decades after the world officially recognized equality between women and men as a human right, women remain largely excluded from the upper ranks of government and business, earn less than their male co-workers and face an array of customs, traditions and attitudes that limit their opportunities. Are governments, businesses and the international community putting money behind their resolutions calling for women’s advancement? Are international aid budgets, government funds and private sector resources spent in ways that narrow economic, social and political inequalities between men and women?
The answer, notes Jacinta Muteshi, chair of the Kenyan government’s Commission on Gender and Development, is generally “no.” While there has been some progress in women’s political representation, advances have been limited in the economic realm and for poor women in particular. That is because disadvantages “are often anchored in social institutions, macroeconomic policies and development strategies that have not adequately recognized that women are important agents of economic development and poverty reduction,” Ms. Muteshi told Africa Renewal magazine. (more…)
Posted on March 26, 2009 - by Gavin
Investing in Women’s Earning Power in Times of Crisis…
Web News Wire
Government policy responses to the global financial meltdown must focus on the role of women as economic agents in order to address the all-too-familiar trend of women and girls suffering disproportionately during times of economic crisis, speakers told the Commission on the Status of Women this afternoon as it held an expert panel discussion on the gender perspectives of the crisis.
Mayra Buvinic, Senior Spokesperson on Gender Equality and Development of the World Bank, said ignoring the crisis’ gender-specific impacts ‑‑ such as the expected drop in women’s income and girls’ school enrolment and the rise in mortality rates among infant girls ‑‑ would increase poverty and imperil future development. Evidence showed that the loss of women’s income more adversely affected children and caused generations of families to remain in the poverty trap than the loss of men’s earnings. As banking institutions cut microfinance lending, millions of women-run enterprises, the main beneficiaries of microcredit, would lose their livelihoods, and as the demand for exports dropped, women in export-oriented industries around the world would lose their jobs. (more…)
Posted on March 16, 2009 - by Gavin
Women in Nigeria, 32 other countries highly vulnerable to financial crisis effects…
Business Day
Women in Nigeria and 32 other countries will suffer from the current financial crisis and food price increases, a World Bank report revealed. The New World Bank estimates say the crisis will have serious consequences for women in poor countries and their children, including higher infant mortality, more girls being pulled out of school, and reduced women’s income, the World Bank Group said today.
The estimates identify 33 developing countries where women and girls in poor households are particularly vulnerable to the effects of the global economic and food crises. Fifteen of these, mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa (Nigeria inclusive), are likely to see both low female schooling and high infant and child deaths as well as slowing economic growth, making women’s and girls’ situation especially precarious.
On the eve of International Women’s Day on March 8, the World Bank Group warned that if left unchecked, the effects of the financial crisis will reverse progress in gender equality and women’s empowerment, increase current poverty, and imperil future development—with Sub-Saharan countries particularly at risk. (more…)
Posted on March 3, 2009 - by Gavin
Women told to venture into small businesses…
The Star Online
INDIAN women have been urged to discard the traditional stay-at-home rule and be bold to venture into small businesses, reported Malaysia Nanban.
Deputy Minister in Prime Minister’s Department Datuk S.K. Devamany said Indian women should get involved in small businesses so that their status within the community could be elevated.
He added that Indian women should take the initiative to attend the various business programmes that were being organised by the Government.
“The Government not only conducts training in small-scale businesses but helps to provide the necessary financing,” he was quoted as saying after opening a seminar on the involvement of women in businesses held at the MIC headquarters in Kuala Lumpur. (more…)
Posted on March 3, 2009 - by Gavin
Miners lend hand to African women…
National Post
This week’s Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada conference is attended by 15,000 delegates from around the world. Here is the first of my reports on the gathering and the sector.
Canada’s No. 1 industry, mining, built Canada and continues to be the single most important underpinning for Canadian living standards, far surpassing the auto and manufacturing sectors in economic importance. Roughly half of Canada’s oil production is from the oil sands, which is, after all, a mining process. Mining is Canada’s only clear-cut competitive advantage.
And yet, my biggest pet peeve is that there is little appreciation of this by Canadians or their leaders. Schools ignore mining, the media only exploits negative news, and politicians and policymakers generally don’t get it. Mines open all the time and are ignored while headlines focus on cutbacks in other industries.
I’m a director of a public mining company and a member of Women in Mining. This organization is hoping to raise $250,000 in seed capital for a micro-credit bank in South Africa, another great mining nation. Called the Townships Project, this initiative is designed to provide capital for non-profit Tetla Financial Solutions, which lends small amounts to female entrepreneurs who eke out an existence for their families in and around Capetown. (more…)
Posted on November 6, 2008 - by James
Microfinance programs reaching out to Muslim women
Dubai: The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of World Bank Group, has dispersed almost $600 million (Dh2.2 billion) in the greater Middle East region, while working with 11 microfinance institutions (MFIs).
IFC has invested $72 million in the institutions based in countries in the region that have low access to finance, especially Morocco, Pakistan and Afghanistan, according to Momina Aijazuddin, programme manager of Microfinance.
The institutions have provided microfinance to 1.25 million clients.
“Most people have not had access to financing before. In the case of Muslim countries, almost 60 per cent of the clients are women,” Aijazuddin said… [click here to read the rest of this article...]
Posted on October 31, 2008 - by lincolnw
Microfinance Empowering Egyptian Women
Dr. Lee emphasized that he was not a historian and that he preferred to take an “anti-chronological” approach and explore the ideologies and central issues then apply it to history…{click this link to read the rest of the article}
Posted on October 20, 2008 - by lincolnw
Microfinance changing lives of Afghan women
KABUL, Afghanistan — Plump and jovial, with a grin running ear to ear, 35-year-old Nasreem operates a successful carpet weaving and embroidery business with the help of her two daughters.
The Kabul family is of moderate means. Her husband Korban works as a government security officer.
They were spared the harsh years in Afghanistan under Taliban rule, having fled to Pakistan where she worked as a carpet weaver in Peshawar.
Upon their return to Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban, she once again began working for others until she learned of MISFA — the Microfinance Investment Support Facility for Afghanistan, and its partner agencies that are making small-business loans available to the country’s poorest entrepreneurs…{click this link to read the rest of the article}
The MiFi Report
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