47703 CREATING OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN Fourth Quarter Edition Global Newsletter ­ October 2008 Introduction IFC's Gender Program welcomes you to its sixteenth quarterly newsletter designed to keep businesswomen in touch with key events, relevant research and, most importantly, each other! We provide brief descriptions of news, events, and online resources that will involve, inspire and inform you and others like you. Wherever possible and appropriate, we provide a link for further detail. In this issue you will find news on IFC and World Bank Group activities, including IFC's gender initiative in South Africa to assist women take part in a Land Transformation program, global news reports from other sources such as the Southern African Development Community (SADC) launching it's Gender and Development protocol, upcoming events around the world which include the 'Femmes Chefs d'Entreprises Mondiales" (FCEM)'s 56th annual world congress and links to useful resources where you can find a research on "social capital" by the University of Bedfordshire. This quarter's spotlight is on Maria Victoria Caparas, a researcher on Work-Family balance and Women Leadership at the Asia-Pacific University's Business School in the Philippines. This newsletter shares helpful news and information with women entrepreneurs around the world. If you or your business association have an event you would like to make known, have a success story to share, or would like to tell us what you would like to read more about, please e-mail us. This newsletter is for YOU and we want to get you involved. News from IFC's Gender Program and the World Bank Group IFC supports Women Participation in Land Transformation Program in South Africa August is South Africa Women's Month and fittingly, August 12, 2008 saw the launch of IFC's gender initiative within the Thandi Land Transformation Program. The Thandi program is an agribusiness partnership between IFC and Capespan, South Africa's largest fruit exporting company, to effect land reform and black economic empowerment within the South African agricultural sector. IFC's gender program will implement a participative process to ensure that women farm- workers also benefit from the program and that socio- economic conditions on the farms are favorable to women and men. For more information, please contact Natalie Africa (nafrica@ifc.org). C Capespan staff at the Women's Day launch IFC Partners with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) to improve corporate reporting of gender issues IFC signed an agreement with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) for a twelve month research and consultation project to promote Gender and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reporting to help companies see the business value of gender inclusion. This global initiative, for which the governments of Iceland, Germany and Switzerland are lead sponsors, seeks to help enterprises tap emerging best practices in sustainability reporting, achieve bottom-line benefits, and create new opportunities for women in the private sector by better understanding and managing gender perspectives in their businesses. Read more on Gender and CSR. For more information, please contact Carmen Niethammer (cniethammer@ifc.org). IFC Rolls Out Financial Access Training for Entrepreneurs in Malawi IFC's Gender Program, in collaboration with NBS Bank Malawi, is rolling out training workshops for women entrepreneurs in Malawi to enable them to grow their businesses and improve their financial management techniques. The training is being offered as part of a 2- year IFC SME investment and advisory services program with NBS Bank Malawi. For more information, please contact Natalie Africa (nafrica@ifc.org). A women entrepreneur in a simulated bank negotiation with a NBS Bank staff World Bank Group Youth Community looks into Fashion Fashion for Development (F4D) founded by Priya Patel in collaboration with the World Bank's Youth Community, is a volunteer based initiative which aims to promote sustainable production and fair trade in the textile and apparel industry. Although women workers form the majority in the textile and garment industry, trade union structures are usually dominated by men and generally pay little attention to women-specific issues. Many of the designers in the F4D initiative have developed schemes to provide training for women workers in basic skills such as reading and writing, and ensure that they receive a fair wage. Read more about this initiative www.fashionfordevelopment.blogspot.com or contact Priya Patel at fashion4development@gmail.com for more information. Global News SADC Adopts a Protocol on Gender and Development During the 2008 Southern African Development Community (SADC) Summit held in Johannesburg, South Africa, from August 16 - 17 2008, SADC's heads of state adopted a Gender and Development Protocol which will have member states amend their laws to ensure equal rights for women. Read more... Britain to Pass a Law to Publish Wage Gap between Men and Women: The United Kingdom is getting ready to kick off a bill later this year which will have all public sector firms (including private firms with government contracts) publish figures showing their gender pay gap. This bill will also allow for discrimination in favor of women and ethic-minority groups with equal qualifications. Read more... Nigeria Launches its First Gender Mutual Fund The N2.5 billion (US$21 million) Women Investment Fund launched in Nigeria will be the first fund to specifically target women owned businesses. Read more... Women Believed to be the Biggest Victims of the Recent Food Crisis Although the recent food crisis has more men and women in developing countries falling deeper into poverty, it is found that women are the hardest hit. Read more... Empowering Pakistani Women Entrepreneurs The Islamadad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) together with the Centre for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) ­ an affiliate of the US Chamber of Commerce - plan on rolling out capacity building programs for women entrepreneurs in Pakistan to enable them to take on a more active role in the economy of the South Asia region. Read more... Spotlight on Maria Victoria Caparas, a Researcher on Work-Family Balance and Women Leadership at the Asia-Pacific University's Business School (the University of Asia & the Pacific's School of Management) in the Philippines. After a call for papers by a South Korean University Journal on Women in the new millennium, Maria Victoria Caparas' path took a different turn. Moving away from her established accounting and financial career, she decided to embark on an exciting journey as a teacher, researcher, consultant, speaker and author, focusing on gender topics such as the glass ceiling and work-family balance in Asia. In her first book entitled "Work-Life Balance: Best practices of Family ­ Responsible Employers and Executives", Maria Victoria (nicknamed "Avic") emphasizes the need to contextualize any work­life balance initiative by developing a deep understanding of local cultural values, the economic situation, and welfare regimes in a particular country for the development of appropriate strategies. "This," she reckons, "will ensure that we create culturally-sensitive solutions for a universal challenge". Avic also found that an effective work-family balance initiative can help companies attract and retain talented women employees. Another book for publication aimed to become a practical guide to implementing effective Work-Family Policies around the Globe (edited by IESE Business School), which she contributed to, also highlights the fact that much of the research done on work-family balance is based on living and working conditions in Western Europe and the United States. Much less is known about different challenges faced by individual families in Latin America, Africa, Asia or Australia. Hence human resources professionals are faced with the challenge of fitting westernized work-family policies into companies embedded in their unique national context. The forthcoming book offers guidelines and best practices for improving work-family policies around the globe. Avic plans on writing another book on graduates of a vocational-training school for girls she is involved with in the Philippines. The book will highlight best practices of such organizations and their corporate partners in carving career paths for young talented girls and developing fair compensation systems in the country. "In doing so, I wish to present not only role models for the young female population in the country, but also to showcase examples of companies who diversify their workforce and spend resources to develop women at lower levels of the organizations" says Avic. Avic received her doctorate degree in Management from the IESE Business School in Barcelona (Spain), has an MBA from the Tanaka Business School of the University of London (U.K.), and a bachelor of science degree in Business Administration (summa cum laude) from the University of the East in Manila. She also was a "topnotcher" in the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) board examination in 1987. In 2006, she became the first Visiting Scholar of New York-based Catalyst Inc. Avic teaches Human Behavior and Managing People in Organizations at the University of Asia & the Pacific in Manila In each newsletter we spotlight either a women's business association that has developed an innovative idea, a process that promotes women's entrepreneurship, or an enterprising woman who has achieved success. If you have a success story to share, please email us with the details. We look forward to sharing your stories. Did you know? Did you know that women in the US and Europe were involved in entrepreneurship as far back as 1739? Read more... Events "Turning tide: Women entrepreneurs in Africa" is an IFC- sponsored television series documenting the successful stories of African businesswomen. It aims at celebrating women entrepreneurs' achievements in the midst of challenges and highlighting their contribution to the economies of the African continent. This pilot television series, focusing on East African countries, will be launched on September 24, 2008, in Nairobi Kenya. For more information, please contact Makena Mwiti (mmwiti@ifc.org). On October 2, 2008, IFC will be launching the "Voices of Women Entrepreneurs in Bosnia and Herzegovina" report in Washington, DC, presenting the findings of research done on women's entrepreneurship in Bosnia and Herzegovina. For more information, please contact Carmen Niethammer (cniethammer@ifc.org). During this year's IMF/WB Annual Meetings, President Robert Zoellick and Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf will be launching a public-private partnership program aimed at empowering adolescent girls. This event will take place on October 10, 2008. Read more... Les "'Femmes Chefs d'Entreprises Mondiales" (FCEM) will be holding their 56th Annual World Congress in Brussels, Belgium from October 15-20, 2008. This year's theme is "Sharing Experience, Staying Informed". Read more... The 7th Global Banking Alliance (GBA) for Women Annual Summit will take place from October 20- 22, 2008, with "ice-breakers" starting on October 18, 2008. The event will be held in London, UK, and not in South Africa as mentioned in our previous issue. This year's Summit, hosted in collaboration with the Bank of Scotland, will be focusing on "Creating Opportunities for Women through Entrepreneurship". For more information, please contact Esther Dassanou or visit http://www.gbaforwomen.org. The Third Global Congress of Women in Politics and Governance to be held on October 19-22, 2008 in Manila, Philippines, aims at raising awareness on climate change and the potential role which women can play in addressing this very important issue. Read more... The 2nd New Arab Women Forum to be held in Beirut from October 22-23, 2008, will be discussing the evolving role of Arab women and the current issues and challenges they face. Read more... OWIT (Organization of Women in International Trade) will be holding its 17th World conference on October 22-24, 2008, hosted by the Mexico Chapter in Monterrey. This year's theme is "Trade and the Triple Bottom Line: Societal, Economic and Environmental Sustainability". Read more... This year's Business and Professional Women 26th International Conference will be held in Mexico City from October 24-28. The event, with the theme "Power to Make a Difference", expects participants from 82 member countries to discuss issues around leadership, action and advocacy. Read more... EUROMED will be holding its final conference on the "Role of Women in Economic Life" (RWEL) in Brussels from November 17 -18, 2008. This is part of a 3 year program which aims at promoting women's participation in the economy in the MEDA region. Read more... Resources The Global Banking Alliance for Women (GBA) Inc. would like to introduce their new and improved website. In addition to a new look and feel, the website features new categories such as: a "What's New" space, where all new members and events organized by GBA members will be featured and an "Events" space where viewers will get information about the GBA's summits and study tours. To access the site, please visit www.gbaforwomen.org. OECD Publishes Findings from Research on Funding of Women Organizations. http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/60/12/40954592.pdf "Make mine a million" is a program of "Count Me In for Women's Economic Independence" in collaboration with American Express OPENSM with the aim of helping one million women entrepreneurs reach US$ 1 million in annual revenue by 2010. Read more... Read about Female Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital, an article in Forbes Magazine. The Centre for Women's Enterprise at the University of Bedfordshire has undertaken a study to identify the importance of "social capital" in sustaining a business. Read more... IFC's Gender team continues to grow. Meet the new team members who have recently joined our team. We would like to thank the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the U.K. Department for International Development (DFID) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iceland for their support.