Gender and Development

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Uzbekistan

Training Unemployed Rural Women by Business Women's Association, Tashkent Oblast

Project objectives:

The aim of the project is to provide business education to women in 12 rural areas of Tashkent. Following the business training, women in the region will be able to (i) develop professional skills in finance and organising their own business; (ii) identify and carry out income-generating activities; (iii) improve socio-economic status.

Project Completion:

31 October 2001(The implementation period is 12 months)

Project Scope:

Each class consisted of 15 women. The course includes:

• Developing an Effective Business Plan
• Tax policy on Small and Medium Scale Businesses
• Starting a Small Business
• Legislation and Economic Rights
• Project Implementation Results:

Major outputs of the project include:

• Training sessions in 10 rayons were conducted;
• 181 rural women were trained;
• 72 women started their own small business;
• 73 new jobs were created;
• 7 women received loans from the local banks;
• 217 women were given consultation sessions on how to start their own small businesses.

The training programs were successful and there is a big demand for continuation of the program. The local Government gave a positive feedback. Four articles about the training were issued in the local newspaper. The financial reports for the covered period were submitted to ADB. The Resident Mission Gender Specialist took part in the training in Bekabad and Pskent rayons in order to monitor the project implementation.

Integration of Gender Issues:

This grant is clearly a women-targeted project, which calls for women’s participation in the small entrepreneurship activity such as handicrafts, weaving and fancywork, sewing and tailoring, off-season vegetable and fruit production and new enterprises. The understanding of gender as a crosscutting subject was developed from the very beginning. Initially meetings were held in rayons of Tashkent Oblast with the Chairperson of BWA to brief training participants about the need for looking at gender issues in the project and the role of URM, GS in assisting the RETA. Emphasis was given on ADB’s approach of mainstreaming gender in its projects. As a result of the above activities, a better understanding on GAD issues has been created within the project

Other issues:

• Women participants emphasized that they need more training to increase their understanding of business promotion and marketing, money management and record-keeping, banking training for group leaders and management training. They also were unanimous in their desire for further skill development training for income generation.
• Future requirements for group formation and training include (i) skill development training need to be associated with microcredit program (ii) knowledge and skill for developing a cadre of new entrepreneurs to adopt off-farm microentrerprises (iii) institutional strengthening of NGOs; (iv) provide essential banking training to the NGOs staff;
• There is considerable unmet demand among women for credit of the local banks for business expansion in small enterprises. These women have difficulty meeting the complex requirements of the bank;
• There is a need to improve dissemination of entrepreneurial knowledge, especially among rural women, having a lack of experience and skills of managing small enterprises;

Findings:

• Project was designed particularly to address gender considerations and improve the status of women;
• The local Government supports the BWA activities and welcomes the increasing number of new jobs created.
• Empowerment of women was confirmed by their involvement in business activities and social interactions with other group members and BWAs. They now actively participate in household matters in terms of financial contribution and decision-making process in the family;
• Project has provided benefits to families, particularly women, through the provision of improved access to the banks, property and business education;
• The BWA has enough training and technical capacity and staff to continue and replicate this project to another rayons in the country;
• The RETA of this nature provides an opportunity to finance small NGOs such as BWAs at low cost, requiring minimal processing and ADB resources. At the same time, it generates an overall increase in ADB activities targeting women. It assists local institutions to develop their GAD capacity, and pilot-test new initiatives.

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