Evaluation of the Transnational Conference
«Fostering Gender Equality -Meeting the Entrepreneurship and Microfinance Challenge»,
13th and 14th of December 2007, Madrid, Spain
On 13th and 14th of December 2007 EMN organised the Transnational Conference “Fostering Gender Equality - Meeting the Entrepreneurship and Microfinance Challenge” in collaboration with Women’s World Banking Spain.It represented the culminating point of the European funded project with the same title conducted under the coordination of EMN by nine of its member organisations in eight European countries. While the first day focussed on equality and economy in Spain, the second day dealt with the European dimension of gender equality, microfinance and entrepreneurship. All in all 171 persons participated at the conference.After the conference, EMN collected 23 evaluation formsrepresenting a response rate of 13.45%.
1)Respondents’ composition (institutional background and sex)
13 persons answered the question of their institutional background. Of them, 46% come from microfinance and/or support organisations (consulting, training, technical assistance, firms, resource centres). 15% are practitioners and 15% are government staff, 24% are independent consultants and 15% persons have other professional backgrounds. 12 persons responded to the question of their sex. Of the respondents, 75% are women and25% are men.
2)Participants satisfaction with the Conference organisation
First, EMN tried to determine the participants’general level of satisfaction as well as their satisfaction with the conference logistics, organisational aspects and opportunities to learn and exchange experience. The trend analysis reveals a very positive satisfaction level (as indicated in the following graph).
The following picture givesa more detailed analysis:
Participants were especially satisfied with the organisational efficiency during the conference and with the pre-conference organisational efficiency. They were less satisfied with the price in relation to benefits acquired. Furthermore, more time should have been granted to networking activities.
The following graph shows participants’ satisfaction level with opportunities to learn and exchange experience, satisfaction with conference materials and the relevance of treated subjects.
Participants were most satisfied with the opportunity to exchange experiences and to learn about experiences of others. They were less satisfied with the opportunity to promote their institution.
3)Participants’ satisfaction with the plenary sessions and workshops
In this section we are going to have a closer look at participants’ satisfaction with the plenary sessions and the workshops. The analysis shows that participants were most satisfied with the video projection, the female entrepreneurs’ testimonies and the plenary session on “Fostering Gender Equality” (second day). They were less satisfied with the debate “One size does (not) fit all” although the rate of “no answers” was relatively high for this question. They were also comparatively less satisfied with the plenary session on “Rural Women and Microcredits”, the presentation and the comments of the WWB on the study(first day).
4)Level of satisfaction with the additional events
Seven of the 23 persons indicated their satisfaction with the microentrepreneurs’ and microfinance programmes’ visit. All seven of them were either satisfied or definitely satisfied with the visit. With regard to the dinner, 31% were satisfied and 9% were rather not satisfied while 52% did not answer the question.
5)Other relevant topics/issues that should have been covered
Participants suggested the following issues that should have been covered during the plenary sessions:
-A sociological and historical presentation and an analysis of the "gender concept";
-the academic point of view on gender;
-practices that did not work;
-future activities;
-more expert opinions and
-a broader approach on microcredit and excluded groups of persons;
Other relevant topicsthat could have been covered during the workshops according to participants are:
-a comparison of the context of the educational programs and projects in different countries;
-male oriented microfinance activities;
-more time for practical exercisesduring the workshops;
One participant expressed the opinion that the form of the conference was too formal and the agenda too heavy which resulted in a rather "passive" audience that was not always well concentrated and did not participate enough in the discussions. The possibilities to exchange, do brainstorming, and show creativity were limited following this opinion.
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