Guidance note for action: Supporting SMEs to ensure the economic COVID-19 recovery is gender-responsive and inclusive
Categories: Global Public Health
Sub-Categories: COVID-19, Economic Participation
Region: East Asia and the Pacific
Year: 2020
Citation: “Guidance Note for Action: Supporting SMEs to Ensure the Economic COVID-19 Recovery Is Gender-Responsive and Inclusive.” United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, 2020.
Sub-Categories: COVID-19, Economic Participation
Region: East Asia and the Pacific
Year: 2020
Citation: “Guidance Note for Action: Supporting SMEs to Ensure the Economic COVID-19 Recovery Is Gender-Responsive and Inclusive.” United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, 2020.
Executive Summary
This document illustrates how the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in starting and retaining a business are likely to increase in the wake of COVID-19. Among these challenges are less access than male entrepreneurs to information and communications technology, financial services and assets, legal rights, business management skills and networking opportunities. Recovery responses to COVID-19, therefore, should include a gender lens when supporting small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs), as well as the integration of gender-responsive procurement policies to increase the numbers of female suppliers in value chains.