Gianluca Eramo, MENA Program Coordinator, attended on behalf of No Peace Without Justice, a "Roundtable-Discussion on Women's Entrepreneurship in the Middle East and North Africa Region", held in the Brussels office of the World Bank, on 21 January 2008.
The meeting was aimed at presenting a recent
World Bank survey which analyses the environment for women's entrepreneurship in the MENA region. Ms. Nadereh Chamlou, WB Senior Advisor to the Chief Economist of the MENA Region and lead author of the report, illustrated the results and recommendations of the study while Ms. Haleh Bridi, head of the WB Brussels office and World Bank Special Representative to the European Union Institutions, chaired the session. The meeting was attended by 20 participants, representing European Institutions and Brussels-based NGOs.
The study is based on data from the World Bank's Enterprise Surveys of thousands of business establishments throughout the world. The surveys ask firms to assess their country's investment climate along 18 categories, rating restraints as minor, moderate, major, or severely binding. Participants in the Middle East and North Africa region included some 4,832 firms in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Gaza and the West Bank, and Yemen.
Access to finance is often perceived as a barrier to female entrepreneurs, but, according to the study, this was not the case in MENA countries, with the exception of Yemen. Access to and cost of finance was a high barrier for both men and women. Corruption was also seen as a high barrier for all. The study found the investment climate to be fairly gender neutral, with fewer gender-based barriers in the business environment than presumed.
The study also states that women have strong economic rights under the sharia, but other legislation reinforce gender roles, such as viewing men as the main readwinners, which lead to "overprotective laws or gendered legal interpretations". For instance, labour codes include provisions that disallow work during certain hours and require the husband's permission to work. The labour codes of Yemen, Egypt, Kuwait and Lebanon bar women from working during evening or night hours. In most countries, women must get the husband's legal permission to travel or obtain a passport.
The study conclusions address the need to:
- reduce the barriers to opening and closing firms, which will be of benefit for all entrepreneurs, but particularly will help women;
- address gendered social norms and differential treatment under the law to level the playing field for women.
