Creating Opportunities... for Women

A publication of International Finance Corporation's Gender Program

Second Quarter Edition, Global Newsletter: April 2008

Introduction

IFC's Gender Program welcomes you to its fourteenth 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 to further detail.

Table of Contents

News from IFC and the World Bank Group
Global Gender News
Inspirational Quote
This Month's Spotlight
Call for Consultants
Events
Links to Resources
Read PDF version of this newsletter (PDF, 259kb)

News from IFC's Gender Program and the World Bank Group

IFC CEO Gender Award Launched on International Women's Day
On the occasion of International Women's Day, IFC's Gender Program awarded its first ever IFC CEO Gender Award to IFC's Development Effectiveness Unit. The award recognized the team's success in integrating gender into the indicators that track the development outcomes of IFC's investment projects. The gender team also organized a panel discussion on "The Importance and Profitability of Financing Women Entrepreneurs in Emerging Markets." For more information, contact Esther Dassanou or visit the Private Sector Development Blog.


Creating Opportunities for Women: Innovative Approaches in Latin America and the Caribbean
Also in commemoration of International Women's Day, the World Bank's Poverty and Gender Group hosted this event to raise awareness on the need to promote greater women's participation in the economy and to demonstrate innovative approaches to mainstreaming gender issues in the region. Read more and watch the presentations...


Lessons on IFC's Gender Work Shared at World Entrepreneurship Summit 2008
The summit is a global gathering that was attended by more than 500 leaders in business, policy and academia from 40 countries around the world. Speakers at the event called on business leaders to embrace their role as "world's change agents." The manager of IFC's Gender Program, Zouera Youssoufou, shared IFC's work on gender issues during a panel discussion on "Women's Enterprise: Growth and Procurement." Read more...


Gender Topics Explored during the World Bank's Annual Sustainable Development Network (SDN) Week
Held in February, this year's SDN week focused on sustainable and inclusive globalization. As part of this theme, the World Bank organized a series of events around the issue of gender equality, including a session on the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in ensuring gender equality, and a session on making infrastructure work for women and men. Read more or watch the podcast...




Public-Private Dialogue Workshop in Dakar Addresses Gender Issues
Held in Dakar this April, the Public-Private Dialogue workshop brought together practitioners from 10 countries for a series of useful discussions and practical sessions. Following a presentation from IFC's gender program on its work on this subject, participants discussed the extent to which gender issues have been addressed in their programs, and developed gender-focused actions to incorporate into their 2008-09 work programs. Read more...


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Global Gender News

Grameen Bank – From Bangladesh to Queens, USA
In early 2008 about 100 women in Queens, USA, became the first group of borrowers of Grameen America. Read more...


Indian Politician Stripped of Tribesman Status for Taking His Father's Name
Leaders of the Khasi tribe in India have decreed that Mr. Waibha Kyndiah, an aspiring politician, will no longer be considered a Khasi because he has taken on his father's surname. As a matrilineal society, the Khasi require that children adopt the title of their mother. Read more...


Goldman Sachs Launches 10,000 Women Initiative
Guided by the belief in the power of markets to transform lives, Goldman Sachs will provide business and management training to 10,000 disadvantaged women, and build capacity for improved business education in developing countries. Read more...


Critical Half: Call for Papers
Women for Women International, a non-government organization focusing on women in conflict and post-conflict environments, is accepting submissions for the Fall 2008 issue of its bi-annual Critical Half journal. For further information and submission guidelines, visit the organization's website.


ILO Releases Report on Global Employment Trends for Women
A new ILO report, released on International Women's Day, finds that more women are working than ever before, but they are also more likely than men to be in low-paying, low-productivity and vulnerable jobs. Read more...





Reducing Women's Fertility in Africa - A Key Priority
A recent article in the Financial Times is arguing that reducing fertility is Africa's greatest challenge. The article finds that Africa's population could grow up to 2 billion people by 2050. Read more...


New Poll Finds that Large Majorities Favor Equal Rights for Women
A new poll of 16 countries from around the world finds a large consensus that it is important for women to have full equality of rights. While in most countries surveyed people perceive women to have gained more rights in recent times, they would like to see increased action by their governments and the United Nations to prevent discrimination. Read more... (PDF)

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Inspirational Quote

"Increased labor force participation of women has a great potential as a contribution to economic development, but only if the jobs in which women are engaged are decent. Most regions have a long way to go in working towards economic integration of women, and therefore a huge potential for economic development remains available to be tapped."

– ILO, "Global Employment Trends for Women"

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Spotlight On:

Immaculee Kalisa, Founder of the Rwanda Computer Network
Immaculee Kalisa was living in Paris and looking for business opportunities that would contribute to employment and development in her native Rwanda when the idea for a computer company occurred to her. With information and communication technology (ICT) being a major government objective in Rwanda's Vision 2020 strategy, Immaculee returned to Rwanda to contribute to her country's development. Her company is proof that women are breaking out of traditionally female sectors, and has the ambitious goal of "providing each Rwandan citizen with ICT tools and enabling them to acquire necessary related skills at a low cost."

Rwanda Computer Network provides computer assembly, computer parts sales, development of computer programs, network installation and configuration, and offers various courses on IT. Its main product is Gorilla 1000, a computer named after one of Rwanda's proudest trademarks. Though the company started operations only five years ago, it has already built an impressive set of facilities on a large company campus, with assembly, storage and training rooms for computer courses that the company offers. Immaculee's clients include government ministries and large banks. Following an order from the Ministry of Education to supply 4,000 computers to secondary schools, Gorilla 1000 can be now found in schools throughout Rwanda.

Starting out in a country with limited computer literacy was not easy. According to Immaculee, "What we are doing here in Rwanda is being done for the first time, so it is hard to find employees with experience." Immaculee had to travel to India and recruit computer engineers whom she brought back to Rwanda during her start-up phase. They stayed for two years, getting the operations up and running and training her staff.

One big challenge for Immaculee was "to convince the people of Rwanda that Gorilla 1000 functions like any other computer." Because the computers are manufactured locally, she is able to sell them cheaper than what her competition can. This has also enabled her to attract customers. Marketing has also been a challenge, though the company has sponsored radio shows and advertisements to convince skeptical minds.

Immaculee has ambitious plans for her company. She wants to focus on energy saving projects and is working on a mini PC, which takes up less space and consumes less energy than traditional computers.

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.

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Call for Consultant CVs

IFC's gender program is looking for women and men experienced in the field of private sector development and gender for future short-term assignments. If you have relevant experience and would like to be included in our database, please email us.

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Events

FCEM World Committee Meeting

Globewomen Global Summit of Women 2008

Arab International Women's Forum

10th International Interdisciplinary Congress on Congress – Women's Worlds 2008

Babson-Diana International Research Symposium - For more information, send an email.

Send us details of your event.

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Links to Resources

One Step Ahead of 2011: A New Horizon for Working Women

Internews: Women and Media

Gendered Nature of Natural Disasters Working Paper

Euromed Women's Rights

Website on Arab Women and Media

World Bank Group Gender Action Plan Newsletter

E-mail us to suggest a link.

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