«European Network to Promote Women’s Entrepreneurship»

(WES )

Activities Report 2004

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Aims of the Report

1.2 WES’ aims

1.3 WES’ activities in 2004

1.4Main findings

2.ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT IN THE EU, EEA AND CANDIDATE COUNTRIES TO PROMOTE FEMALE ENTREPRENEURSHIP

  • Austria
  • Belgium
  • CzechRepublic
  • Cyprus
  • Denmark
  • Finland
  • Germany
  • Hungary
  • Iceland
  • Italy
  • Lithuania
  • The Netherlands
  • Poland
  • Portugal
  • Romania
  • SlovakRepublic
  • Spain
  • Sweden
  • Turkey
  • United Kingdom

ANNEX 1: List of WES members

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1Aims of the Report

This is the first Report drafted by WES[1], the “European Network to Promote Women’s Entrepreneurship”. It is aimed at presenting the activities carried out in 2004 by the National and/or Regional governments in the EU, EEA and candidate countries to promote women’s entrepreneurship.

Following the priority areas indicated in the Entrepreneurship Action Plan[2] adopted by the Commission in February 2004, most of the contributions are focused on the issues of “Access to finance” and “Networking”. However, many of the WES members also reported on additional activities that were considered as a priority at their National or Regional level (for instance mentoring activities, research and data collection, education projects, etc.).

Some of the activities reported are completely new. However, many of the activities described are a follow-up to previous actions and for this reason they may concern different areas in comparison to those included in the Entrepreneurship Action Plan.

It should be noted that in a few countries, the available information was limited. This is due to the fact that they apply a mainstreaming approach and instead of supporting specific programmes for women entrepreneurs, they integrate these measures into general support policies in favour of SMEs.

1.2 WES’ aims

WES is a network which was set up in June 2000 and is composed of government representatives responsible for the promotion of women entrepreneurship. WES currently has 27 members from the European Union, EEA and candidate countries[3]. The main aims of WES are to raise the visibility of existing women entrepreneurs and to create a climate that is favourable to increasing the number of women entrepreneurs and the size of existing women-led businesses.

From its creation in 2000, WES has actively co-operated with the EU institutions, in particular with the European Commission, in the implementation of activities that concern the promotion of women’s entrepreneurship, such as research, collection of information, exchange of good practices, etc. WES was therefore fully involved in the Best project “Promoting entrepreneurship amongst women” carried out by Enterprise and Industry Directorate General in 2002 and 2003. In particular, its members provided advice, support, information and contacts regarding the existing support measures for women entrepreneurs and helped in the identification of good practices.

1.3WES’ activities in 2004

Apart from the activities carried out at National and Regional level which are described in the next chapter, WES members participated in several European and International events, were involved in joint projects and followed up an important number of information requests and networking contacts from all over the world.

With regard to WES participation in International conferences and events, the 2nd OECD Ministerial Conference held in Istanbul in June was significant. For the first time, WES participated there as a network. In parallel to the Ministerial Conference, a Forum on “Accelerating Women’s Entrepreneurship” was organised by the OECD and the Turkish Federation of Women Entrepreneurs. WES also played an important role in this event by providing key speakers and contributing to the dissemination of European good practices.

A number of WES members also attended the event “Enterprising Women” organised in Brussels by the Commissioner responsible for Enterprise Policy in order to celebrate International Women’s Day. This event gathered representatives from WES, business organisations of women entrepreneurs and from other EU institutions and was aimed at discussing the Entrepreneurship Action Plan, which had just been adopted by the Commission, and the way forward.

In relation to European joint initiatives, a small group of WES members participated in the project “Women towards ownership in business and agriculture”, which was supported by the Community Framework Strategy on Gender Equality. This project was aimed at gathering information and experiences on women’s business ownership, with a particular focus on agriculture, in order to influence policy makers. It includes mapping exercises It includes mapping exercises on women as active owners and decision-makers in business and agriculture and their legal and social frameworks in Sweden, Iceland, Norway, Latvia and Greece. The final results will be presented in the first half of 2005.

1.4 Main findings

Some initiatives that have proved to be very useful and are adapted to the real needs of women entrepreneurs should be highlighted. First of all, in some countries there has been a significant step forward in the promotion of women’s entrepreneurship through the creation of governmental bodies to support women entrepreneurs. In particular, the German “Federal Agency for Women’s Business Creators” and the “Women’s Enterprise Panel” set up by the UK government are proving to be successful initiatives.

In other countries, there has been a particular effort to carry out research and to collect data on women’s entrepreneurship issues that can be used for policy-making purposes. The “Diane” project in Belgium and the “First National Report on Women’s Entrepreneurship” in Italy are two outstanding initiatives that can be taken as good examples to be replicated elsewhere.

Another interesting finding relates to those measures that have been in place for a long time (for instance the “Ladies Business School” that has run for almost 20 years in Finland, or the micro-credits programmes in Spain and Finland) which continue to be supported as they have proved to be very effective and relevant.

It is also encouraging that some countries have launched several projects linked to ICT and the use of electronic platforms, forums and portals. This has happened in Austria, Germany, Spain, Portugal and the UK, although some projects are still limited in terms of resources.

Another interesting issue concerns the attention now being paid to ethnic minority women entrepreneurs (as in Denmark and the Netherlands) which is an area that deserves further consideration in future actions, both at national and European level.

With regard to networking, it should be emphasised that most of the reporting countries have adopted measures to favour such activities (for instance Czech Republic, Lithuania, Sweden, Iceland and Poland), and are involving more and more the representatives of women’s business organisations in the implementation of their programmes (as for instance Turkey, Hungary and Belgium).

It should be noted that apart from the fact that the initiatives mentioned provide tailored support for women entrepreneurs, they also help to raise awareness and to keep the issue of women’s entrepreneurship in the political agenda at National and Regional level.

The participation of WES members in joint European projects has opened the road to a deeper and stronger co-operation and encourages the network to reflect on the way this common work can be further developed in the years to come.

WES would like to thank the European Commission for its good cooperation with the network. For WES to develop, it is vital to have discussions and an exchange of information with the Commission and with other national authorities in order to promote women’s entrepreneurship as a part of the task to increase economic growth.

Marianne Karlberg

WES co-ordinator

2.ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT IN THE EU, EEA AND CANDIDATE COUNTRIES TO PROMOTE FEMALE ENTREPRENEURSHIP

AUSTRIA

The activities to promote female entrepreneurship carried out in Austria, in public and private sectors, can be summarised as follows:

Networking

There were several events which were useful for networking purposes: for instance the meeting “Business Woman 2004”, an event by the APA-E-Business-Community, an event by “Ideas to business (i2b)”, the network-meeting of Austrians “Gründerinnen”- Centers, the platform “Women-network” and the networking-activities of the three “business.frauen.center”.

Other related support programmes and activities

On the initiative of Austria’s minister for health and women, Mrs. Rauch-Kallat, the first “women’s-business-mentoring-fair” took place in March 2004 in Vienna. The second fair was held in March 2005 in Graz. The minister also started an initiative for business-mentoring for women all over Austria.

In the field of mentoring, it should be mentioned that “Frau & Arbeit” continued working in an EU-project focused on mentoring during the start-up-period of their enterprises.

With regard to internet activities, in 2004 several new initiatives were launched, e.g. the Lower-Austrian “electronic business platform for women” (for e-business) or the new internet-platform “women2business”.

The Austrian “Institute for Social Research and Analysis” made a study on the situation of female entrepreneurs in Vienna.

Several institutions, e.g. the “WWFF-Frauenservice” or the “Gründerinnenzentrum

Steiermark” helped female entrepreneurs to start-up, gave them advice and coaching

and offered low-cost office accommodation for the start-up-period.

The unit “Women in business” (within the Austrian chamber of commerce) launched again its quarterly periodical “unternehmerin”, presented the new electronic market place ”women2business”, offered services through the internet-portal “wko.at/unternehmerin” and made a seminar program for female entrepreneurs in co-operation with WIFI.

BELGIUM

Promotion of female entrepreneurship basically focused on the results of the EQUAL project called “DIANE”[4] which was implemented at Belgian Federal level. The quantitative and qualitative results of this study led to the preparation of a new EQUAL project "DIANE II" for 2005-2006. The idea to launch this work and to analyze the current situation of women entrepreneurs[5] in Belgium came from the interest shared by the various stakeholders and from the commitment signed by Minister Laurette Onkelinx in July 2000 after the creation of WES.

The project had two main aims: first, to understand why there were still so few women in the business world and second, to analyze the figures and to collect evidence which would allow the political decision-makers to set up appropriate strategies for better support of women in starting-up and developing their companies.

The “DIANE” project was coordinated by the social partners of the sector, namely the “Union des Classes Moyennes” (“Middle classes Union”) and “Markant-Cezov”. These partners have developed, within this project, a gender analysis on entrepreneurial structures and also on how to improve women's place in these structures. The collected data has made it possible to take specific actions. Flanders, in particular, provided women with networking experience. Other actions will try to cover the image of the woman entrepreneur (“what do they read?” – to propose a positive image, to raise awareness among professional people, the media, etc.), to develop the participation of women within mixed networks, to develop training tailored to their needs and expectations (taking into account the balance of professional life and family), to continue the analyses of social status (by studying the feasibility of a replacement system and incapacity for work) and to continue the awareness activities aimed, for instance, at encouraging women to take part in commercial missions.

The results of this project were widely distributed during several open days "open doors women" organized on the occasion of the International Women's Day in March 2004.

Access to finance

The project “Affaires de femmes” ("Business of women") was launched in 2004. It is an initiative supported by the federal European Social Fund and is aimed at providing micro-credit and accompanying programs to women entrepreneurs.

Other related support programmes and activities

The ESF-Agency Flanders was asked by the Steunpunt WAV to create a booklet on women’s entrepreneurship. This booklet is entitled “Genderzakboekje: vrouwelijk ondernemen 2004” and gives a very recent overview of the situation of women entrepreneurs in Flanders. It includes a general overview on women entrepreneurs (figures in detail), and also on a wide range of topics such as education, vocational training and guidance for women entrepreneurs; the climate for entrepreneurship: and why women do (or do not) become entrepreneurs. This booklet, which can be used by the policy makers to adapt their policy towards women entrepreneurship and to raise awareness, was presented to the press and has been publicised throughout Flanders.

The ESF-Agency in Flanders has been partner in a Dutch project concerning “co-workers” (women, or sometimes men, working in the family business of their husband, or wife). In Flanders it was clear that there is no discrimination within the law for those co-workers (from 1 July 2005 they will even receive a complete social statute if they want) and that many of these co-workers do not know their rights. For that reason a publication was prepared and presented recently this year.

In relation to International co-operation, it has to be noted that the Department of Economy of the Flemish Community together with the ESF-Agency Flanders is preparing a study in cooperation with the OECD about the impact of women entrepreneurs on local development. Most of the research will take place in 2005.

CZECH REPUBLIC

Support for women entrepreneurs in the Czech Republic in 2004 was given particularly through the Ministry of Industry and Trade programmes for small and medium enterprises. This sector received aid from state resources within the programmes Guarantee, Start, Credit, Market, Marketing, Advice and design[6].

Access to finance

Grants were administered in the forms of guaranties for bank loans, loans with reduced interest rates, and subsidies. Small and medium-sized enterprise projects in the areas of manufacturing, trade and services were supported. In 2004, a total of 15,132 grants amounting to 157 million Euros were awarded within the framework of the support programmes for SMEs. Within the framework of these programmes, women who undertake business were awarded 2.584 grants, i.e. 17.1 % of the total, and they received subsidies to the amount of 9 million Euros, i.e. 5.7 %. Women entrepreneurs also own legal entities – companies that received grants. These companies represent approximately 11 % of the supported companies.

An important part of support for women entrepreneurs is the “investment grants” for starting entrepreneurs which are administered in the form of loans under the “START” programme. The programme provided grants to a total of 226women, i.e. 40.7 per cent of the total number of applicants (555). Grants to the amount of 7.7 million Euros were awarded under this programme and women received 2.8 million Euros, that is 37.2 %.

Other related support programmes and activities

The development of women's businesses receives special attention in the areas where unemployment rates were high. Thus, special support was administered to women entrepreneurs within the programme of support for SMEs called “ADVICE” which focuses on advice services and educational projects. Within this project, women were awarded a total of 1,859 services with lower prices, i.e. 18.2 % with a subsidy to the amount of 0.1 million Euros, that is 11.8 %. The Association of women entrepreneurs and managers provided a total of 241 services with lower prices under this programme in 2004 which represents 2.4 %, while the subsidy amounted to 3,700 Euros.

Within the framework of the Ministry of Industry and Trade subsidy policies, a public tender was announced in 2004 to award non-investment grants from the state budget programme “Support for enterprise and enforcement of equal opportunity for men and women”. Under the tender, grants were awarded to four associations of women entrepreneurs and managers. The average amount of subsidy per project was 3,100 Euros.

In the case of the Association of women entrepreneurs and managers[7], support was given to organise a conference on "Conditions for enterprise and employment of citizens in EU member states in practice".

The project of the South-Bohemian Association of women entrepreneurs and managers focused on advice about the factors necessary for entering the EU common market. The Central-Bohemian association of women entrepreneurs and managers submitted a project called "How to do it - Project to support women entrepreneurs in the CzechRepublic". In the case of the Moravian association of women entrepreneurs and managers[8], support was given to the activities carried out by regional clubs in Zlín and Ostrava.

It is necessary also to mention the project “The role of equal opportunity in the prosperity of businesses" in which the Ministry of Industry and Trade co-operated with the non-governmental sector. This involved sociological research aimed at mapping the methods of coping with gender issues in companies, representation of women in management positions, and company management efforts to strike a balance between professional and family life.

The project also included a competition for the best gender-friendly companies in the CzechRepublic in the large, medium and small categories. The competition focused on company culture, working hours, wage policies, services for parents, education possibilities for women, career opportunities and representation of women in management positions etc. This sort of competition should become one of the tools for enforcing equal opportunity for women and men in the future, not only in the labour market but also in other areas.

CYPRUS

With a view to fostering entrepreneurship among women, the Government introduced the «Programme for the Enhancement of Women's Entrepreneurship» in March 2002. The aim of the programme is to develop, support and encourage entrepreneurship by women between the ages of 18 - 55, who wish to engage in the sectors of manufacturing and/or in specific activities in commerce, services and tourism. This scheme concerns women who had not had any previous business experience in any sector, for a period of 12 months before the date of the submission of their proposal. Eligible candidates may participate in only one proposal and their participation must represent at least 75% of the total share / corporate capital. Successful candidates must register a limited company, whilst all shareholders must be employees of the company. Registered employees must attend a special training and development programme organized and subsidized by the Human Resource Development Authority of Cyprus.