Business Environment Reform (BER) is critical to effectively supporting and fuelling enterprise creation and growth.
Read about Business Environment Reform here.
A critical element to BER is to recognise that every business – every entrepreneur – faces their own unique set of conditions and contexts which affect the business to some degree or other. We need to consider geographic conditions, cultural and social factors, political and legal factors, and economic conditions, and only by being sensitive to context can we hope to realise the potential impact of investment in business environment reform.
We need to recognise that each of the contexts outlined have many facets, creating complex layers that cannot realistically be addressed in isolation. However, to provide an illustration we might look at Gender as one of the cultural and social lenses that can be applied to business environment reform, the principles from which can be applied across other contexts to maximise the impact of any changes to be made. This has been an interest – a passion – of ICE and its Founder Dinah Bennett for decades.
A gender-sensitive business environment
A gender-sensitive business environment recognises the unique challenges and opportunities faced by men and women in the business sector, and seeks to remove barriers that hinder women’s full participation and advancement by creating an inclusive and supportive business environment.
A gender-sensitive business environment can be achieved through a deliberate effort to create and implement policies, regulations, and practices that consider and address gender disparities, and that respond to women’s greater vulnerability to business constraints. This might include:
- Gender mainstreaming, which involves applying a gender equality perspective in all aspects of policy and process associated with the enterprise ecosystem;
- Widening social dialogue to elevate women’s voices in the design, development and implementation of support infrastructure;
- Creating a gender-sensitive enabling environment which is equipped to address the multidimensional barriers faced by women-owned businesses, including recognising and responding to social and cultural norms which can limit women’s access to resources, markets, and business opportunities including less access to finance and credit which can impede the growth of their businesses.
- Alleviating the complex and lengthy administrative procedures that can disproportionately affect women-owned/led businesses due to their lower exposure to markets and access to information;
- Actively removing barriers associated with legal discrimination experienced by women, such as unequal property rights, inheritance laws, and family codes, which can hinder their ability to access credit, own land, and grow their businesses.
Gender-sensitive business environment reform aims to address these and other gender-specific issues to create a more inclusive and supportive business environment for women-owned and women-led enterprises. This is essential for promoting gender equality, empowering women economically, reducing poverty, fostering social development, advancing sustainable development goals, improving business performance, enhancing the legal and policy framework, and facilitating access to finance and resources.
Read more about why gender-sensitive business environment reform matters here
