Women face various constraints to entrepreneurship

Gender mainstreaming is one of the five drivers of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), said Shireen Lateef, ADB's senior advisor on Gerder issues speaking at the sub-Regional Workshop on 'Gender, Entrepreneurship and Economic Empowerment in South Asia' organised by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Nepal Resident Mission (NRM) here today.
"Women are facing various constraints like lack of access to finance, land and market to entrepreneurship," she said, adding that 42 per cent of the total ADB projects are in line with the ADB policy of gender and social inclusion.
"Entrepreneurship can help women gain their status in the society," said Meena Acharya general secretary of Tanka Prasad Acharya Memorial Foundation. "Government intervention to improve climate for investment for women is a must," she said, adding that it could help them benefit.
The three-day workshop aims at expanding opportunities for entrepreneurship for women in South Asia and raising their economic empowerment through knowledge and skills will be its focus.South Asia is the home to two-third of world's poor and of the total 1.8 million live on less than $2-a-day.
"ADB's experience has shown, if left unaddressed, gender disparities will seriously undermine otherwise well conceived policies and programmes," said Barry J Hitchcock, ADB’s country director for Nepal. "Any meaning effort to reduce poverty and improve the quality of lives of people in the region must include targetted programmes to assist women," he added.
Senior government and private sector officials from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka are attending the workshop.
ADB's Strategy 2020 recognises gender equality and empowerment of women as fundamental elements in realising the vision of an Asia-Pacific region that is free of poverty.