Women in Business

About of project:

Description

Women's entrepreneurship, as all small business, plays a key role in the national economy. However, women-led companies often encounter problems with accessing finances and knowhow. The project provides support to small and medium enterprises with up to 250 employees and an annual turnover of less than €50 mln. A mandatory requirement is that the company must be led by a woman.

Goals and objectives:  By engaging women in private business and building their entrepreneurial skills, facilitate the creation of new jobs and economic development in general.

Intermediate outcomes: Donors of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) cooperate with local banks that provide earmarked funding to women-led companies.  EBRD also partially compensates the cost of consultancy support of such enterprises.

Under the project, Gofrobum, a woman-led company (manufacturer of paper products) was provided assistance with marketing and corporate website development. As a result, their productivity grew by 127%, and their customer base increased by 39%.

After completion of the consultancy project, the company applied for funding to an EBRD partner bank and took a loan for business development

An essential component of the project is mentoring. Training and other educational events help women managers develop their entrepreneurial skills and create new communication platforms.

Contacts:

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

70 Myasnikov Street, Suite 522, 5^th Floor

Minsk 220030, Belarus

Tel: +375 (17) 308 3930

Fax: +375 (17) 200 2192

knowhowbelarus@ebrd.com

www.ebrd.com/knowhow

Documents:

Advice for Small Business leaflet (in Russian): http://www.ebrd.com/documents/sbs/sbs-belarus-client-leaflet-rus.pdf

Application form for the Advice for Small Business in Belarus (in Russian): http://www.ebrd.com/documents/sbs/sbs-belarus-application-form-rus.pdf

Hyperlink: www.ebrdwomeninbusiness.com