The recognition of women as movers of development follows realisation that informal sector have been the supporting base of economies in the member States and women dominate the informal businesses.
Business women from the six-country regional Group have been meeting in Kampala to provide views of their challenges in business. IGAD would use their views to draw a regional action plan to mitigate problems faced by women especially in the informal sector. The meeting opened in Kampala last Wednesday.
IGAD member States include Uganda, Kenya, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia with a population of about 200million and a GDP of about US$2bn. Eritrea, which was the seventh member of IGAD, was suspended following allegations of its support to the Somalia militant group linked to the terrorist group, Al Qaeda.
According to IGAD Programme Manager, Joseph Rwanshote, statistics show that the informal sector is supporting development in the IGAD area and women form a very big component of it at over 50%.
He said that the majority of the women can only operate in the informal sector because they lack the resources to reach the threshold to enter the formal sector. He said that despite this, they shoulder a lot of responsibility in keeping economies afloat though there is very little recognition of their contribution.
Rwanshote cited an example of Uganda where one needs to have a minimum of sh500m to operate a small bank and sh200m to operate a forex bureau and women cannot raise that amount easily. He said that the situation in other IGAD countries is equally pressing for women, but they still use their meagre resources to operate and keep economies running.
He cited the Djibouti situation where businesses including banks close at 12.30pm and the women with their meagre resources stay around the street corners and other places to offer foreign exchange services.
According to Rwanshote, the IGAD has recognised the women’s vital role in sustaining the economies of the member countries even when they cannot easily access loans. He said that less than 50% of the women access bank loans to boost their businesses and those who manage to get any credit at all access it from micro- lenders.
According to The Director Trade, Industry and Cooperatives in Uganda’s Ministry of Trade, Eng. Samuel Ssenkungu, women in Uganda on average work between 4 to 8 hyours more than men, yet form the majority living on less than a dollar a day. The women, he said, work from 12 to 18 hours a day while the men work 8-10 hours.
He said there is urgent need to enable more women participation in business and improving the women business environment. He said that statistics here show that 90% of all rural women work in agriculture compared to 53 of the rural men. In addition, he said women are responsible for 50% of cash crop production yet they benefit les from their sweat.
He added that the Uganda government has decided to engender the national export strategy which he said will help increase real income for women, improve their standard of living with the attendant multiplier effect for family health and education.
He also said that this would help create and strengthen reliable partnerships for poverty reduction especially in rural areas where over 80% of the poor live. Other benefits, he said include expansion of access to productive assets and economic opportunities for marginalized groups and mainstreaming of women and other marginalized groups into the global value chain and multilateral trading systems.
He said that he Ministry would also create a Directorate of Micro-, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) to coordinate interventions and strategies to develop enterprises under this sector. The national development plan indicates that 40% of the private enterprises are owned by women only 25% of whom are in export trade, he said.
