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Business, Enterprise and Employment Support for Women in South Asia8th Network Meeting | September 21-23, 2015 | Kathmandu, NepalBEES 8th Network Meeting Minutes

According to a report by UN Women limits on women’s participation in the workforce across the Asia-Pacific region cost the regional economy an estimated US$ 89 billion every year. The level of women’s exclusion is particularly high in South Asia, where women currently comprise 49 percent of the population, but only 36 percent of the labor force. In May 2011, the World Bank began facilitating a regional network of CSOs and World Bank clients – at least one from each country in South Asia – with the goal of providing a forum for knowledge sharing, learning, collective action and advocacy on women’s economic empowerment so that good practices can be shared and successful interventions could be scaled up to help women climb out of poverty.

The network has named itself Business Enterprise and Employment Support for Women in South Asia (or BEES) and has been supporting progress on livelihoods central to women. The BEES Network works on keys areas through a combination of activities that promote knowledge capture and exchange, learning, policy discussion and reform, and cross-border collaboration. Since its inception, BEES has met regularly through a series of meetings and workshops and it has facilitated several learning exchanges looking at issues around mobilization, management training for rural women, and institutional development – observing how a particular enterprise has been successful, despite challenges shared across the region. Until 2013, the general body of the BEES Network met twice per year since 2011 to share knowledge from their operations and identify shared priorities for the network. Each meeting is hosted by a member or group of members from a participating country, and that member sets the agenda, highlighting a particular issue related to women’s empowerment that they focus on. This Network Meeting in Kathmandu, was hosted in collaboration by the Federation of Business and Professional Women, Nepal (FBPWN) and the Poverty Alleviation Fund (PAF) and was the 8th Meeting of the series with participants of CSOs from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and for the first time, Myanmar. Participants arrived on the 20th of September and visited ‘Camp Hope’, interacting with earthquake survivors from Sindupalchowk. A list of all participants is in Annex I.

September 21, 2015

Field Visit A – Entrepreneurs @ Work (Federation of Business & Professional Women, Nepal)

One of the two field visits organized, was an exposure visit to ‘Kirtipur Hosiery,’ run by Sabita Maharjan, a survivor of domestic violence. She registered her business through FBPWN’s Business Service Center (BSC) support, and now employs 300 individuals of which less than one percent are men. Man Devi Maharjan, another BSC support grantee, who now

Business, Enterprise and Employment Support for Women in South Asia8th Network Meeting | September 21-23, 2015 | Kathmandu, Nepalexports felt products including to the UK, also attended the exposure visit with her own products. Man Devi’s house and workshop were destroyed during the April earthquake and the workshop will be shifting to a temporary shelter soon. Participants of the Network Meeting were welcomed with vermillion tika, silk khatas and flowers. After an initial round of introduction of Network Meeting participants, FBPWN staff and local entrepreneurs, most indicated a notion of wanting to learn and share each other’s experiences.

Participants subsequently saw ‘Kirtipur Hosiery’s’ knitted products on display as well as Man Devi’s felt products and had an opportunity to interact with the local entrepreneurs. Unfortunately a language barrier prevented the foreign and Nepali participants from interacting with each other, but both groups were able to exchange stimulating ideas and experiences with the local entrepreneurs. Sabita had received the national prestigious Surya Nepal Asha Social Entrepreneurship Award in 2011. She informed participants that she trained individuals based on their interest and talents. Her designing staff have been trained by foreign designers, a market survey has been accomplished and new components were added as per needs. Sabita’s company has a website, facebook page and exports products through these media as she posts pictures of her products online.

With FBPWN’s Business Support Centre’s (BSC) help, Sabita managed to register her company six years ago, through training and assistance in registration. Her company provides salaried employment for women to knit, sew (including producing linings). The company first trains women and then they work together to produce and sell knitted goods. Currently, operational costs are at Rs 10 lakh a month (approximately $10,000), and her company is valued at Rs. 1 crore (approximately $100,000). Production of a sweater provides NPR 1500 (approximately $15) for the knitter and NPR 500 ($5) for the person who sews the lining. 100 pieces can be produced in a day; production is based on orders.

Panga, an extremely earthquake-devastated area was located near the Field Visit site and participants walked around the community. Streets were still filled with rubble and people were still clearing their properties of debris showing participants the damages brought on by the earthquake. What was clear was also that the concrete houses, belonging to those of higher classes were still standing – it was the houses of the poor, made of mud and brick that had mostly collapsed entirely, support in rebuilding will be critical.

Field Visit B – Women fighting Violence against Women (Shakti Samuha)

The second field visit organized was to Shakti Samuha, a local NGO. A brief background by Charimaya Tamang, Founder and former President was given.

Business, Enterprise and Employment Support for Women in South Asia8th Network Meeting | September 21-23, 2015 | Kathmandu, NepalIn 1996, the Indian government ordered the rescue of girls under the age of 18 from Bombay's brothels. More than 500 girls were rescued. They were from India, Bangladesh and Nepal. Bangladesh repatriated its girls. But Nepal refused to repatriate almost 250 girls, who then had to stay in Indian centers. The Nepal government refused repatriation stating that the girls did not have Nepali citizenship - they were already spoiled and would spoil others, and could spread HIV/AIDS in Nepal. Inside the Indian centers, the police and caretakers mistreated the rescued girls and verbally abused them. In Nepal, human rights organizations lobbied with the government to repatriate the rescued girls. Seven organizations worked hard and were able to bring back 128 of the 250+ girls. 6 months had passed before this was possible. During that time some of the rescued Nepali girls ran away, some died due to diseases they had caught earlier. Sunil Shetty paid for the return tickets as the Government of Nepal was unable to.

At the airport, when we landed, we were elated with joy to reunite with our motherland. But after the first few steps outside the airport, the media harassed us by trying to take our photos. We were verbally abused. Of the seven organizations, WOREC was one helped us in Nepal. They gave us shelter and also training. They made us realize that we are not criminals, the people who trafficked us are criminals. There were only 15 of us who attended WOREC's training. At that training we decided to organize ourselves. We were so young - only in our teens. We decided to start an organization to help others - to turn tears into strength. We wanted to register but the government officers would say that we were too young, did not have capital and did not have necessary documents. We organized ourselves informally in 1996 but were registered only in 2000. And then it took us 10 years to be recognized nationally and globally. Currently our work areas are prevention, protection, prosecution, capacity building and advocacy.

There appear to be new forms of trafficking such as through surrogacy or fake marriage. There are small groups who are able to lead a normal life and many stay to work with Shakti Samuha. Job placements appear to be particularly difficult. The Shelter House provides borading to about 20 women and girls. They currently have 3 shelter houses. One had been located in Sindupalchowk, but due to the earthquake, it is now in Kathmandu. In the safe house, immediate medical care, counseling, trainings and life skills are provided. People usually stay upto six months but can stay longer if necessary.

Gender Based Violence – Review and Curriculum (Udyogini, Nepal Monitor)

Half of the participants had visited Shakti Samuha, an anti-trafficking organization with halfway homes that tries to develop livelihood skills for those rescued. Participants had interacted with these girls during the Field Visit. Two presentations were made in the afternoon – one by

Business, Enterprise and Employment Support for Women in South Asia8th Network Meeting | September 21-23, 2015 | Kathmandu, Nepal‘Nepal Monitor’, set to track and monitor incidents of violence, reported through electronic mediums and the Review of a GBV curriculum developed by Udyogini.

First, a Tamil song from the ‘One Billion Rising’ campaign was screened. Lyrics are translated below:

They said we are like flowers: was it to crush us and throw us awayThey said we are like the moon: was it to conceal and put us out of sightBut we can be flowers, the moon and at the same time be firm as a mountain with unwavering determinationWe are the new wave that changes the lines of fate to bring in a new orderWe want, we want freedom. We don't want, we don't want gender-based violenceTo go about fearlessly at any time or place is our right – we want freedomIn a household when we live with others – we don't want violenceWe will not allow abuse even if it is inflicted by close relativesWe will create a country and society where children, who are a precious gift from god can be safe and secure But we can be flowers, the moon and at the same time be firm as a mountain with unwavering determinationWe are the new wave that changes the lines of fate to bring in a new orderMen and women wake up wake up, Now is the time to rise up(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBbnucPCH5w)

Nepal Monitor

Nepalmonitor.org is a project that alerts local organizations to human rights and security incidents happening in their area and allows anyone to easily share incidents with local and international organizations. The objective of this project is to enhance security and the capacity of local human rights defenders of Nepal through increased situational awareness, also by enabling them to respond to more incidents in coordination with other human rights defenders.

While focus is not exclusively on Gender-Based Violence (GBV), more than 50% of the reports tracked are cases of GBV or related to it. Nepal Monitor also provides training on security for human rights defenders and conducts advocacy for human rights defenders at risk, both within Nepal and at the international level. Nepal Monitor acts as a help desk for victims of human rights violations, taking down cases and following up.

Nepalmonitor.org is based on a web system based on the ‘Ushahidi’ system, created in Kenya in 2008 after their elections. High incidences of post-election violence caused the creation of a system that could crowd source incidents of electoral violence. The system is multipurpose and

Business, Enterprise and Employment Support for Women in South Asia8th Network Meeting | September 21-23, 2015 | Kathmandu, Nepalnow used in over 130 different countries. GBV cases in India calls for a similar system to be set up there. Prominent examples of this system include the Haitian and Libyan crises, the Syrian conflict, corruption in Macedonia (if someone asks for a bribe, it can be reported through SMS) and the origin – election monitoring in Kenya. Kathmandu Living Labs utilized the system, named quakemap.org where people could send in the damage of the earthquake and relief needs. Quakemap tried to match needs with people and organizations trying to provide relief.

What Nepal Monitor Does – Daily work consists of mapping reports from media or collected by human rights defending organizations (large and reputable organizations) such as INSEC, or from reports sent directly by individuals. Reports can be filed through SMS, phone, email or through the website. People can subscribe for email or SMS alerts, in Latin script but Nepali language. This has become very popular with human rights defenders working in the field. Many places in Nepal have poor connectivity, newspapers only come after a couple days, but mobile phones and radio have greater reach. Subscription can be location-based, can select categories and the medium (email or SMS). Main categories are human rights and security issues with GBV as separate category. GBV is further delineated into different concerns.

The website is interactive and thematic maps with certain categories of reports are visible. Maps showing the incidents of human trafficking or GBV can be viewed. Hovering over a specific dot on the map shows the title of the report (e.g. traffickers using marriage bureaus to trick women into the flesh trade to China and Korea). Often relatives are involved as traffickers – someone in the extended family persuades the victim to go abroad and tricks her into trafficking situations. Most of these reports on the site are from when girls are rescued at the border. A number of organizations are currently working together with customs officials and do checks at the border to India – particularly if girls/underage children seem to be with individuals not related to them. Hence, on the site, a number of incidents appear to at the border with India – this is not necessarily where the girls are from but rather where they’ve been rescued.

There is very little hard data, but a lot of suspicion that trafficking has increased from areas that are earthquake-affected. It is hard to tell how much the increase is since these cases are undocumented, and these areas were plagued by trafficking before (so networks of traffickers already existed). The government took prevention measures, children are not allowed to be taken out of the district without parents – otherwise approval from the District Administration Office are required, and there are checks at the border.

Witchcraft allegations and subsequent abuse have also been reported and tracked – incidents not only limited to women, but more vulnerable women are singled out. Only July 28th, an Anti-Witchcraft Punishment

Business, Enterprise and Employment Support for Women in South Asia8th Network Meeting | September 21-23, 2015 | Kathmandu, NepalBill was introduced, which made it explicitly a crime with a 15 year sentence for perpetrators and a NPR 100,000 fine – finally adopted after a lot of advocacy and lobbying by Women’s Groups.

The last thematic area is political – the Constitution has just been promulgated, however a number of protests over the last two months related to the Constituent Assembly process have been mapped, including all the clashes over the last three months (eg Police, Tharu clash in Bardiya, 2 protestors injured – Nagarik News). More than 40 people have died in these demonstrations. The protests have not been limited to federal demarcations but also by women’s groups, particularly regarding the discriminatory citizenship provisions – especially the question of whether Nepali women can confer citizenship to their children without proving that the father is a Nepali citizen. Unfortunately, despite several amendments, the article is still discriminatory.

How can you use the platform – Interested individuals and organizations can get real-time updates of geographic areas and topics of interest. Nepalmonitor.org can also be used as an archive that can search and filter based on topic, district and timeframe. Data can be exported to develop interactive maps. Incidents can also be reported, which are shared with the subscriber base. In addition, Nepal Monitor puts victims in touch with local human rights defenders, and in cases where mainstream organizations are not responsive to these needs, particularly in regard to GBV, lawyers in Kathmandu have been reached out to. Nepal Monitor also conducts advocacy for human rights defenders at risk and conducts training for them particularly on ICT security.

Questions (Q), Answers (A) & Statements (S)

Q - Is the software free or licensed?A – The software is open source, free. Ushahidi is a whole community with a php database, it can be used on their server or the software can be installed on own server.

Q – Is training required?A – Some level of training is probably required, particularly during installation. Ushahidi as a community is very eager to help NGOs and initiatives using their tool, they can be approached for help. There are many manuals to help install the software including many online forums to answer questions. An IT background is probably required for installation but not for use.

Q – What about server-related problems?A – Nepalmonitor.org is actually not in Nepal, to access the site and upload to it, you need an internet connection, but do not need to rely on a server in your country and can be accessed via the internet. If the internet connection is very bad, it can be hard to access, but there’s a

Business, Enterprise and Employment Support for Women in South Asia8th Network Meeting | September 21-23, 2015 | Kathmandu, Nepalprovision to send and receive reports by SMS, especially for areas where the internet connection is not good, so this is the way around it.

Q – Have you screened/categorized subscribers, particularly based on gender and/or age?A – Subscription is done either through email or phone and Nepal Monitor does not want to risk human rights defenders for identification purposes. Facebook provides some numbers – 45% of the subscribers there are women, but this is not representative of all the subscribers on the ground.

Q – Is there any screening process for false reports, any kind of authentication?A – Nepal Monitor cannot verify all reports, particularly those from newspapers, however, the online report marks whether they have been verified by Nepal Monitor or not. News is generally marked ‘unverified’, direct reports are occasionally not put online because they might be too sensitive and are just forwarded to trusted organizations. Anonymity is key, personal names are not published on direct reports. Reports are ensured for public viewing before uploaded. Security is also assessed in terms of the possible effects of publication of the information – it is not published if the information will cause harm to the reporter or the community.

Q – Ever faced problems regarding sensitive reporting?A – Nepal Monitor started with a pilot in 2012, in four districts with 13 organizations. Since 2014, there has been stable funding for three years from the German Ministry, the database itself goes back to 2011. Nepal Monitor is not big enough yet to face problems regarding sensitivity – since cases are not taken up publicly; rather only the reporting aspect, advocacy is conducted on a one-to-one level and not with public press releases, so far not facing any problems.

Q – How effective is it? How did you get the name Ushahidi?A – Ushahidi is what the system is called – it is actually a Swahili word from Kenya meaning testimony. Nepal Monitor follows up on reports are there are some success stories, though most are protracted for months. Some stories are not quite successes, but half-wins, sometimes compromises are made even when you think they shouldn't be. One case is of a single woman in Rupandehi, who was driven off her land by a gang of politically connected people, also connected to her family. She was put in touch with local human rights organizations, but she reported that they behaved badly with her, so she has been put in touch with an organization in Kathmandu and also with the National Human Rights Commission in Rupandehi. The problem is that she is probably the legal owner, but the land is unregistered.

Q – How many people work in Nepal Monitor?

Business, Enterprise and Employment Support for Women in South Asia8th Network Meeting | September 21-23, 2015 | Kathmandu, NepalA – The team includes five people, four working directly on reporting; a mapping coordinator and assistants. The last two months have exhausted capacities due to the incidents related to the protests.

Q – Sources of funding?A – This project was started by Peace Brigade International (PBI), which is like Amnesty International but works directly for human rights defenders. When PBI closed their office, an independent evaluation of this project found it useful, so it is currently funded by an initiative of the German Ministry.

Q – Has there been any resistance from established people such as lawyers etc, considering the touchy topics?A – There has been no backlash yet from lawyers, human rights defenders or organizations. Never had any journalist complain, the organizations whose reports are listed know and are ok with it, and appreciate that it is sent out to the subscriber base. Marginalized groups who feel unrepresented in mainstream media are able to send in their reports and these are mapped on the same day.

Q - Transparency International in Nepal could benefit with real-time data, any idea on collaboration?A - At the moment Nepal Monitor is standalone, currently cooperating with Saferworld’s ‘Capacities for Peace’ project, which does capacity building for local organizations on peacebuilding. There had been plans to set up an early warning and response systems for violence, and since this one already existed, an explicit collaboration was made, cooperation with others is loose.

S – A World Bank consultant wanted to share their activities for the last two years, particularly in piloting an ICT-based initiative: fightVAW.org. Maybe collaboration with NepalMonitor.org is possible. The fightVAW initiative started from a hack-a-thon two years ago, where homegrown youths set up prototypes. There are five components: - One can report incidents of GBV – there is a case management system, - 24-hour call in or online reporting, - There is also media monitoring, any news that comes on mainstream media, is compiled and disaggregated, - A CSO directory is being built of all organizations that provide services to GBV survivors, anyone can find and use it, - A self-help application and an emergency alert service - Session on mero katha – this initiative tried to collect inspiring stories, so not only depressing cases are known, Scale-up for this initiative is being attempted, particularly in creating a GBV hotline in collaboration with the Women’s Commission.

Udyogini

Business, Enterprise and Employment Support for Women in South Asia8th Network Meeting | September 21-23, 2015 | Kathmandu, NepalUdyogini, a BEES Network member from India, had taken on the task to find the bridge between Gender Based Violence (GBV) and entrepreneurship. Best practices within the BEES Network were researched to develop a curriculum and reported. Developed modules are going to be tested.

Udyogini is a Business Development Service providing organization that has been working since last 23 years, particularly to turn women into entrepreneurs. Udyogini means women entrepreneur in Hindi. Different patterns are noticeable when working with women entrepreneurs, for example, most women want to work as producers, want to provide labor. This is a phenomenon quite true in South Asia – however, some get overburdened and drop out.

Another phenomenon is that men take over when revenue is generated. These observations led Udyogini to study in an attempt to understand these phenomena, in patriarchal societies. There are similar practices observed in Afghanistan – right from childhood, boys and girls are given different roles – role that control behavior, and they become accustomed to certain things and accept violence.

Violence after marriage is accepted and perpetuated. Often people don't want to discuss it or come forward – getting women to open up was very difficult. Hence, within the enterprise module that Udyogini runs, a module was needed that helped people talk about it – particularly once women learn how they have been conditioned over time. Udyogini worked with women on the grassroots level to come up with such a module. Apart from India, Udyogini wanted to see what was happening in South Asia – so a study was conducted in the region regarding GBV and how different organizations were tackling this. The idea was to then come up with a module that could be used by different people, for it to be piloted and eventually strengthened.

The objective of the study was to understand GBV in the context of enterprise development – what kinds of GBV does a woman face as she runs an enterprise. The secondary sources for the research attempted to generate a macro picture of GBV and violence against women, narrowed down to an enterprise related context. The primary research was conducted across the BEES network through a questionnaire - what could the BEES network do and what would a curriculum do, especially towards alerting stakeholders. In terms of the definition used in the study, generally Violence Against Women (VAW) is taken as GBV, but this module ought to be piloted with men as well, so in this area VAW falls within GBV, with GBV as an umbrella term, referring to men and women.

The secondary research findings were limited in the enterprise context, a lot more on economic inequalities such as access to resources, ability to make choices, sex ratio, female foeticide, preference for male child. Not

Business, Enterprise and Employment Support for Women in South Asia8th Network Meeting | September 21-23, 2015 | Kathmandu, Nepalmany policies and legislations exist, many interesting facets but not much on what to integrate into the curriculum.

For the primary research, 15 organizations part of the BEES Network were sent questionnaires to ascertain what they are doing in the context of GBV.- Manusher Jonno Foundation, Bangladesh is creating a strategy paper that does refer to the entrepreneurship context in a smaller way- Tarayana Foundation, Bhutan believed that integration into existing programs should be part of overall enterprise development curriculum - Viluthu, Sri Lanka reflected that GBV in conflict affected areas gets intensified, and believed that awareness generation programs should involve local government- Khwendo Kor, Pakistan has also started working on GBV, people are becoming aware and have started making inroads, but depending on context- Kashf Foundation, Pakistan believed in a multifaceted approach – started working on integrating into gender empowerment programs, utilizing social theatre, producing TV serials and working with both men and women in the community- SEWA India has been working on capacity building programs - PPAF Pakistan started a pilot on ending GBV in a couple locationsHowever, the common response was that it was too early to talk about good practices, programs were just beginning across the Network.

A summary of the report’s recommendations include:• GBV is all pervasive, and needs to be included in all initiatives and programs • People need to come out, talk about it and understand it• An integrated approach is critical• Gender includes both men and women• A comprehensive needs assessment needs to be done for each organization• Knowledge creation and sharing should not only be about lessons

learnt and good practices, but also about the process itself• A pilot program should be tested with a couple organizations • Capacity building programs need to be scaled-up• Identify the GBV curriculum as a knowledge sharing tool and learn how it can work


Q – Curious about the definition of GBV, in awareness raising campaigns the US usually refers to it as domestic violence, in Africa as transaction based sexual violence, does this definition go into financial abuse (withholding money from women)?A - When we spoke with BEES members, the definition referred to was VAW/GBV, financial abuse was not mentioned, however at Udyogini, we have come across cases of financial abuse (controlling resources).

Business, Enterprise and Employment Support for Women in South Asia8th Network Meeting | September 21-23, 2015 | Kathmandu, Nepal

Q – Is this integrated into the enterprise module? A – The entrepreneurship module covers anything – what to select as a business, to making a business plan. This module now talks about GBV in general (e.g. if women are not able to take a leadership role, what are the factors – some could be more relevant to India or Nepal). We are not arguing that GBV is solved after the curriculum but it is more about awareness raising, to identify controlling factors, help clients understand the power equation/relationships they are part of, and how they can go about talking about it at least, if not completely addressing it. The enterprise curriculum has 3 stages: 1st stage talks about the need for ownership of property, 2nd stage about accessing markets. Women generally settle into enterprise production at home, whereas they need to go to market and negotiate, not just let men take over. Men can accompany the client, men should be a part of the enterprise. Men should know what GBV is and why it is being spoken about, the next stage will be an adaptation of the module for men.

Q – What was the sample size, qualitative/quantitative methods used, any other issues in study? A – For the primary research, the sample size was the BEES network organizations. The study was purely qualitative, not accumulating data on numbers. The objective was to create a curriculum that could be tested – so information on what organizations were already doing and what did they needed help with was researched – it was more about capacity-building.

S – Most BEES Network organizations are supporting women entrepreneurs, helping them go to scale, and what they want to be achieving. Udyogini has been looking at what stages are women being in hindered similar to Shakti Samuha dealing with women who are already abused, but doing it beautifully. Through this GBV enterprise curriculum, women can be made aware before they are abused and don't understand. For example, girls from Jharkhand are trafficked to Delhi – girls are shown dreams, they go and never come back, very few come back. If there are opportunities in the village to earn a decent income, and they are aware of patriarchal society and its conditions, and before they get trafficked maybe they can make a choice.

Q – Were the GBV programs rural?A – The programs were mostly in rural settings, but Kashf Foundation’s training sessions were only in Lahore. Kashf Foundation has been addressing middle classes as well through TV serials.

{A Workshop piloting the GBV Curriculum was conducted. Participants were split into three groups for brainstorming sessions on Needs Assessment, Monetization and Knowledge Sharing. Each of the Group’s discussions are summarized below}

Group 1 - Needs Assessment

Business, Enterprise and Employment Support for Women in South Asia8th Network Meeting | September 21-23, 2015 | Kathmandu, NepalThe Group did a role play exercise to identify the needs and the potential issues in terms of GBV and entrepreneurship. One participant was an entrepreneur, one was a controlling family member, one a neighbor who would report to human right defender and a harassing money lender. The moneylender came lent money to entrepreneur and formulated an agreement but since the entrepreneur was illiterate, he tried to take advantage of her, although the loan was for 5,000, the moneylender claimed it was for 50,000. The controlling family member wanted all the money, and attempting to control behavior. The human right defender came and informed the entrepreneur of legal processes. The lessons were that the entrepreneur needs basic life skills training (conflict resolution, diplomacy, business planning, legal aid available and access to it); family member needs training on masculinity, patriarchy. The enterprise should be developed in a way that makes it a family-business, not limited to the women, but the group was divided, if the enterprise is given to family then it might disempower the woman. Ideas were generated on sensitizing the community by involving religious leaders.

Group 2 – Monetization- Cash in young - Involve religious institutions- Involve both men and women - State institutions and the media needs to be sensitized- Cost benefit analysis - Men/boys understand when explained in

terms of family incomes and the losses due to GBV, especially when told young.

- Need positive role models for men, so they stop perpetuating VAW- Target group needs different types of interventions - Facilitators of change also need to be more than women

(patriarchal societies – if women talk, people get defensive)

Group 3 – Knowledge SharingThere are already newsletters that can be used, including Facebook pages, particularly to share documented case studies that can be used by different countries. Feedback on those case studies is needed, so learning can happen. Videos can be shared. A discussion ensued on the different spaces where gender relations can be experienced (personal, community, market spaces) where space is encroached. The health of different countries in terms of gender can be analyzed, where they are and what they’re lacking. For example, Afghanistan, there is no community space at grassroots level (women are not allowed to take up roles in the community). In order to go forward, different mechanisms would have to be devised. A video channel could be opened, to share videos to be inspired and to get information on how things are done (how much did it cost, how did you develop case study). It can also be organized by problems (harassment as they go to market, what’s been done).

Conclusion of the day

Business, Enterprise and Employment Support for Women in South Asia8th Network Meeting | September 21-23, 2015 | Kathmandu, NepalMelissa Williams - thanks to all for participating in the pilot, it helps everyone think about training programs in the pilot. One of the strengths we have as a network, one of the purposes, is to help all the organizations working on women’s economic empowerment to stop reinventing the wheel – this is a concrete example of this. Building this module, linking it to other curriculums, and getting a whole slew of knowledge – case studies, customizing them and sharing. All the learning that has been done can be shared – information on various entrepreneurship skills for example. We can also discuss how to move forward on the website, if BEES member can host a new website, it could be more user-friendly than what we have. There’s also a Facebook page, and some are very active users. There are a few studies underway, and we need further discussions on how to build on those next.

September 22, 2015

{The day’s session was opened with a traditional Newari folk dance performance with baja (traditional instruments) played}

BEES – Four years and buzzing! [Introductory remarks by a distinguished panel]

Ambica Shrestha – President, FBPWN Welcome to all, panel members, World Bank colleagues and friends from all of South Asia, welcome to Kathmandu, thank you for being here. We were supposed to have this get-together on the 3rd of May, it was postponed due to earthquake, and this is also a momentous time with a constitution after many years.

This BEES Network is something Business and Professional Women (FBPWN) have been working at. PAF has been involved with funds, attention, training – so great that we are in partnership. I hope we will all go back with a lot of ideas, we will have a good sense of sharing of what we have been successful in, and what has been a failure. We have an opportunity to gather all this information to be better in South Asia. It is always said that South Asia is the poorest - but let’s say we’re not! The best people are here, we should be proud and work together. We have not been able to show the world till now, so it is up to you all, and up to the gentlemen to help the ladies.

A little about FBPWN – FBPWN is an international organization with membership in more than 100 countries operating since the 1930s. It is all about women and the development of women in business and in professions. It was formally established in 1975, at a time when NGOs were not even allowed in Nepal, except Rotary. Nonetheless, we got established and started working. We have been leading and breaking the path for women to follow – started day care centers, which even UNICEF followed. Our way of doing it is the simplest way possible, always geared for the local context. We saw young ladies without skills, so started job

Business, Enterprise and Employment Support for Women in South Asia8th Network Meeting | September 21-23, 2015 | Kathmandu, Nepalcenters; some had degrees, but not good jobs, so started trainings. At the time, there were no secretaries from Nepal, they were imported from India (Darjeeling, Calcutta), so we started a secretarial class – the first ones in Nepal. When this started gaining popularity commercially, we withdrew and let commercial people and organizations come in.

After that went into marketing. When we started, I was scoffed at, people remarked: which parent would let their daughter go into sales, as you see now marketing is the most important thing, and others are doing it, so we moved away from that as well. Then started a health center, we needed to ensure good health for our working women. We kept a family clinic open on Saturdays, which were very important, then private clinics came and we moved away. There are now chapters around the country, we worked on literacy; learning from Bangladesh, micro-credit is an ongoing program working with MEDEP. But that’s not the limit, microcredit has been more successful with women, we want them to move up and become an entrepreneur, so we started the Business Service Center (BSC) – young ladies are trained to become entrepreneurs. We train them, put them in an incubator without walls. Trainers go to their localities, train women, catch them by the hand till they are successful and then are weaned off. One such young lady is here, Sabita, a victim of domestic violence, and now is a medium businesswoman, employs up to 300 women!

Now that there is cooperation/collaboration with PAF and BEES, I am sure that we will go forward, not only as entrepreneurs, but as successful professionals. The young ladies from the valley who performed, their outfits were usually hand-woven by themselves, appropriate for their work in the fields, hopefully their energy sets the pace… Thank you

Yubaraj Pandey – Vice-Chairman, PAF NepalWelcome to all, distinguished panel members and honored guests, I’m very pleased to be here at this illustrious event.

PAF has been working in more than 55 districts with 27000 community orgs - 30 lakh (3 million) people who are members of community organizations. 75% of those organizations are represented by women. PAF has been working to enhance entrepreneurship and we are happy that this program will provide information in making our programs more effective.

Enterprise development plays an important role in poverty reduction. BEES is an important network in South Asia to enhance women’s’ entrepreneurship. Hopefully we will make our collaboration more effective through partnership.

Welcome to the participants from different countries, I heartily wish you success in this program.

Business, Enterprise and Employment Support for Women in South Asia8th Network Meeting | September 21-23, 2015 | Kathmandu, NepalShobha Shetty - Practice Manager, Agriculture GP, World BankWelcome to all and especially the colleagues from Myanmar; panel members for joining this occasion to participate in this 8th Network Meeting. Ambica and PAF, thank you for hosting this event and for the dinner last night.

Social inclusion and the economic empowerment of women remains a top priority across different levels at the World Bank. Everyone here is aware that it takes passion, creativity and patience, to translate this from a strategic position to getting results on the ground. It’s been four years since the 1st BEES meeting in Delhi, I’ve been personally associated to it in the last three years, the only country that hasn't hosted a meeting is Maldives.

There has been extensive progress made: 15 cross-country training exchanges; several knowledge events on land reform, seeds, artisanal development, accounting, entrepreneurial training and much more; met with women from all walks of life - street businesswomen from Ahmedabad, organic farmers in Bhutan and women escaping trafficking right here in Nepal. Most inspiring has been the independent outreach and support after the earthquake here, virtually or in-person support – this really epitomizes what this network is all about, independent agencies, but coming together for mutual learning and support.

We currently have seven studies in progress including the GBV training module. I saw energy of the members, and the ability to solve complex problems with right people together at the right time. We need to look at how to move this network forward, what focus and how to do it together.

Finally, I’d like to take a moment to remember our dear colleague Shanti who passed away last month. A moment of silence please.

Chandni Joshi – Former Regional Director, UN Women Welcome to the panelists, participants from across Nepal, and friends from all over South Asia, colleagues from the World Bank and my friend Bina.

I’ve been the Regional Director for South Asia at UNIFEM, working with the government to give production credit for rural women. I’d like to congratulate the organizers, for setting this up at the most opportune moment of promulgating the constitution. I’ve been tasked to wake you up intellectually so I will attempt it.

September has always been very significant; this is the month when whole world meets at the General Assembly in NY. This September 2015 is more special, marking the end of the MDGs – it’ll show what has been done, what hasn't, and what still needs to be achieved. On the 27th of September, heads of governments are going to sit in New York and are going to talk about women and girls empowerment.


Beijing + 20 happened in March and was a shame to the world, none of the 193 countries had reached any of the goals. MDG Goal 3 on gender equality and empowerment was not reached. I am very happy talking about what we have achieved, but a large amount of work still has to continue. The expiry date for gender equality is 2030, and now only 15 years are left. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are going to be launched. One separate goal, Number Five, is only going to look at gender equality; planet 50/50, equality by 2030. Our governments have signed the document, but we owe it to ourselves, as citizens of our countries, to fulfill them. Looking at results, we really need to gear up, it cannot be business-as-usual. We need to think out of the box.

One thing we have done well is the mutual learning, there is no need to reinvent the wheel. There are so many successful stories in South Asia, you just need a good ear and open mind. In 50 years, there has been nothing more powerful than peer-learning, and BEES is a wonderful forum for it. BEES is very symbolic – it's the only insect known to be so busy, participatory, produces results, and also has a sting!

Let’s not compartmentalize, let’s break the divide - organizations work on different issues with women. Economic empowerment is not sufficient, we have to look at other factors; let’s take holistic approach, make her life an entity in itself. Talking about women’s empowerment becomes welfare-ish. Anything that women do should be counted in dollars and rupees and the contribution to the GDP needs to be valued – and I’m not just talking about poor women. Generally women are always lumped with the marginalized – in speeches, and even in the Constitution: the categories are marginalized, minorities and women. There is a notion of bichari aurate (poor/pathetic women in Hindi). Economic empowerment is the second freedom for women and the only way for poverty reduction.

We also have to consider that she is double-burdened, she could be the CEO or the Prime Minister, but when it comes to home affairs, she is responsible. She could be the top official of government, or civil service, but go back home and she is responsible for what is being cooked, or if someone is sick. So, for the women who you work with, what are we doing in terms of saving her time and drudgery – she is the first one to get up and last to sleep, what about her health? When starting PCRW, I was told, if you don't bring water here, you cannot get into microcredit. Take SEWA, for example, we talk about empowerment in terms of childcare centers, crèches - what SEWA did for two years, was to monitor the growth of the child (weight and performance) as well as the performance and production of the mother. There was growth on both parts – the child was healthier, sound and the mother was producing more. This interpretation was given to the government, this is really about nurturing citizens for tomorrow’s country.

Business, Enterprise and Employment Support for Women in South Asia8th Network Meeting | September 21-23, 2015 | Kathmandu, NepalTwo issues for you – one is the ‘Care Economy’ and the earthquake in Nepal. The Post-Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) reflects that women will have to carry water more often, due to the destruction of water and sanitation infrastructure. And, gender inequality, 17% of income is lost in a woman’s lifetime due to the ‘care economy’, she loses opportunities to study and well-paid jobs. 39% of the GDP is unpaid/domestic work. The SDGs are gearing towards looking at CARE economy. The other menace is Violence Against Women (VAW) – it is a silent menace. 1 in 3 women faces violence, this is not a minority! Violence can be mental and physical. We have not calculated the cost of violence in South Asia. They have in US – the cost of VAW is $5.8 billion a year! In Asia, the gender gap in the workplace similarly costs us a lot – the cost of gender inequality in Asia is $45 billion a year! If you talk in terms of money, people understand, if you talk in terms of bichari aurate, welfare, no one understands. Violence by intimate partners alone costs 5% of GDP annually hence, someone working on economic entrepreneurship also needs to work on violence – being a victim affects economic productivity.

Whenever it comes to women, why does it have to be microcredit? It is always piece-meal, a two-three year program, what kind of results will you see with that? In countries, the Ministry of Women, or women’s’ organizations, are always small, stingy – we need to think big. She has to be rich, like Sabita, hiring 300 people. Like any other big business, let’s think big and let’s talk big. Whenever we talk about women, its self-help group related or microcredit, let’s think bigger! Why are we always in the welfare-ish group, with minorities, disabled. There are dalit/disabled women; but there are women contributing to the national accounting system of the government, that portion is not talked about. The marketing training that Ambica spoke about was market-driven; whereas generally the vocational training is supply driven - why should it not be market driven? Find out the demand of the market and produce that. Very good example from Sabah, in all countries of South Asia has shown a remarkable difference. I’ve been amazed it links grassroots to glamor. Let’s be more innovative. Look at where the money is – infrastructure, tourism, food sector – let’s think of training women, getting them in, and finding linkages because they cannot do it alone. We also cannot forget macro-policies, we need to ensure that micro voices are heard in macro policies. The gender responsive budget in Nepal is working well where the government is made accountable to women.

Best practices will be shared here, it was one of the things that worked well at UNIFEM. In Andhra Pradesh, working with tribal women, who were earning Rs. 8 a day, got to a point where they were claiming business wasn't that good, because this year they earned only 50 lakh! This is the kind of paradigm shift that I saw. Especially in Nepal, we learnt so much from Sarvodaya in Sri Lanka, AKRSP in Pakistan, BRAC, SEWA to name a few. In the economic empowerment arena, women are the reservoir of untapped resources. This is an extremely opportune

Business, Enterprise and Employment Support for Women in South Asia8th Network Meeting | September 21-23, 2015 | Kathmandu, Nepalmoment for this meeting. When you plan for your way forward, maybe you’ll keep this in mind.


Q – In terms of the estimation of women’s unaccounted work, we recently did a big study on this topic. The whole idea behind doing this was, to highlight women’s contribution - society doesn't know what women do. The hypothesis was that this would raise status and reduce discrimination, which is the larger goal for MJF. The other idea was to draw the attention of policymakers and the globe, that the system of national accounting is done in a way that does not include women’s’ contribution. We wanted a challenge to go to our policymakers and the globe. A – Chandni Joshi– Charity begins at home, we need to lobby at home first. This group could play key role in lobbying and advocacy. We need to get a bunch of feminist economists; need economists to verify what you are saying, to interpret it in their own language. Policymakers understand that language, whereas we speak as activists, so involve them.

Q – (to the World Bank representative) – Chandni mentioned that need to focus on macropolicy. We have a Development Policy where only a $5 million project is allowed in country. This is problematic because want to start a project with the National Women’s Commission, but the project is less than that. Within the Bank, there are smaller projects; little money is a lot for the National Women’s’ Commission. Can the Bank merge projects so that the lump sum can be expanded on and projects can actually happen? A – Shobha – We tend to do a lot through pilots, for example through PAF there is now a pilot project on livelihoods in peri-urban areas. We are now looking to do more in enterprise development, one way to do this would be to piggy back on existing projects so you have space to do more. Most World Bank projects have flexibility to accommodate pilots. Another way to incorporate sub projects into main projects is through the JSDF for example, specific issues related to artisanal livelihoods and cultural heritage are currently being addressed – I advise you to look at existing projects. We can influence to some extent what the government of Nepal does. We used to have a learning and innovation loan. I would strongly recommend to test new approaches is through pilots, then can scale up. There is also a program on agribusiness, also working on new horticulture and livestock development, social safety nets; many projects with different international partners so there is an opportunity for bringing this into larger picture.

Q – What is one goal you think should be on the agenda – how can it be pro-women and sustainable? A – The MDGs had elements of gender equity but it didn't work. Now there is a separate goal on gender; after Beijing + 20, every government was ashamed. As a result, they are meeting on the 27th and every goal

Business, Enterprise and Employment Support for Women in South Asia8th Network Meeting | September 21-23, 2015 | Kathmandu, Nepalnow is geared towards gender equity. Just having a dedicated goal on gender was not sufficient - it was a bitter learning. Every goal has to have a gender impact component. When I was at UNIFEM, we thought BRAC was an excellent model, based on education and credit. We asked if a study could be done, on the kind of violence women faced in BRAC. In the beginning, there was a lot violence, due to the change in gender roles – there was a conflict in power relations and men couldn't take it, later when there was a sustained income, violence decreased. So when you talk about the economic empowerment of women that happens, good learning.

Making Women’s Work Count: Estimation of Women’s Unaccounted Contribution to the EconomyThis was talk-show type session, with Gitanjali Chaturvedi [GC] (World Bank) asking questions to Shaheen Anam [SA](Manusher Jonno Foundation) and Bina Pradhan [BP] (Federation of Business and Professional Women, Nepal)

GC - MJF and FBPWN have been very active in gender accounting advocacy - both did a very important study on accounting for women’s’ work. Can you talk about findings and what motivated you to take up this very important work? Was there any intellectual resistance?

SA –Many have been grappling with these issues - gender equality, VAW, discrimination. Many strategies have been adopted by women’s’ organizations in Bangladesh but were in a state where we feel quite depressed. Maybe we’d missed out on something. The main obstacle is that women have lower status in society, while they’re contributing in every level – garment workers bringing in the most foreign exchange, agricultural women working invisible miracles. If their contribution can be highlighted, then maybe their social status will change. So we launched a campaign in Bangladesh – ‘Equality through Dignity’ – we want to show what women actually do and how they contribute – particularly through their unaccounted work, and its contribution to GDP. We contracted the Center for Policy Dialogue, a prestigious, high profile organization and had them do this study. There were very interesting findings, things we knew all along, but is now defined in dollars and taka.

BP – This goes back to the 70s, beginning of the 80s. We wanted to quantify women’s contribution in different sectors, but didn't get us anywhere. From the Day 1 of the feminist movement, we have been talking about recognizing women’s work, but it has not been done. It was a challenge in the 2007/8 interim plan post-conflict. I served as an was advisor to National Planning Commission, arguing that if you’re not counted then you’re invisible, and if so, then you’re seen as welfare-ist or as a burden. Then they were trying to set targets for growth, but didn't have actual data. We have three generations of ‘Status of women in Nepal’, all this evidence but no change. I am an economist, unless this

Business, Enterprise and Employment Support for Women in South Asia8th Network Meeting | September 21-23, 2015 | Kathmandu, Nepallanguage can be spoken, it will not make a difference, micro studies will not count, samples are too small. I took up the challenge of analyzing National Labor Force data, it is the only one where there is time input data and saw what the women’s contribution was. That was the starting point – I was a New Century scholar in 2010 and further analyzed the data. When I saw Shaheen doing this study last year, I believed as well, unless their work is accounted, then we will not get anywhere. So proposed using preliminary analysis of national data, supplemented with qualitative on unpaid work where we are going with paid labor.

SA – The main finding is very interesting. Two methodologies were used – i) Replacement cost method where a woman was asked, if you didn't do this work, and someone was hired, then how much would it cost – 76.8% of GDP; ii) Willingness to accept method where she was asked, if you did this work, how much would you ask for - 87.2% of GDP. The results were 2.5-2.9 times higher than income received from paid services. For women in the garment sector, the reason why women’s contribution to GDP is so negligible, is because they are relegated to low paid jobs. In the agricultural sector, of 22 listed activities (from sowing to harvesting paddy) – 17 are done by women, I cannot see why this not included in GDP.

BP – I compared Labor Force data of 1999 and 2008/9 to see significant changes in the pattern of work – subsistence and household activities remained the same, this was the first finding. In the informal and formal market sectors, it appeared that more women are going into these sectors. Time allocation data, shows the structure of household changed across these sectors. In terms of the male-female distribution – women are contributing 72% in care economy. In the subsistence sector – the contribution is almost equal.

Finding 2 is related to the concentration of women in the informal/subsistence/household economy - 67.25% are women. The reproductive sector is where women are concentrated.

Finding 3 – In the labor market there is increasing labor force participation, the highest in South Asia. In the informal sector, women’s employment increased by over than 27%. If this continues, we can catch up with men since we are increasing at higher rate. Even in the migration sector, women increasingly getting in. All this work is invisible and remittance is becoming important source of income.

SA – Migration of women compared to men is still a lower number – but in Bangladesh, male migration is having a huge impact on women. There are many social implications. We looked at mostly unpaid work, which is considered unproductive, but is actually productive; even women think it is unproductive because she doesn't take it to the market. We took this data to minister, who realized, if I go buy a cake from the market, it will be counted in the GDP, but if my wife makes it at home, it is not counted

Business, Enterprise and Employment Support for Women in South Asia8th Network Meeting | September 21-23, 2015 | Kathmandu, Nepalin the GDP. Challenge is, how do we make policymakers understand; Standard way of accounting in GDP has been set up. Feminist economists in Bangladesh and the global level need to be found to bring attention to women’s contribution. Even now, when a girl child is born, parents are not happy because she is considered a burden, weak and needs to be married off by a certain time

BP – In terms of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), a vast amount of women are getting into microcredit, more women in micro enterprises than SMEs (Only 10% in SMEs) and ownership is less than 5%. You can see the trend - as unpaid labor, women are not recognized, and in paid labor, we have been unable to break the ceiling.

Finding 4 - on contribution to the national GDP, analyzing labor in each sector using actual wage rate from survey, we can calculate the valuation of women’s contribution. The non-economic activities at household/subsistence level – women actually contribute 337 billion rupees (subsistence sector) and 303.4 billion in the household sector – using an equal wage rate 59% and 86% of contribution to the GDP. This drops to 52% and 65% respectively, using the differential wage rate as women are paid 1/3rd to 50% less, not only is the contribution invisible but it is worth less.

SA – Through the replacement cost method, both men and women were asked in a household survey with 25000 respondents if you didn't do this work, how much was it worth – the resulting estimated value of women’s work was 76% of GDP. From the Willingness to accept method – suppose you were paid for this work, how much would you charge – resulted in 87.2% of GDP. This is 2.5-2.9 times higher than the income women receive from paid services. The labor force has increased from 1998 – 8.6% to 36% with 4 million women work in garment sector. Women get less for the same work that men do so their contribution to GDP becomes negligible.

Our report has recommendations for different sectors (government, civil society, women’s’ orgs). For the government - do comprehensive time use survey, BBS has done one, but do a more comprehensive one; show and compare the time use pattern of both men and women; change the estimation practice of the accounting system - so that women’s’ unaccounted activities are reflected in the GDP. Form a commission, take it seriously. Undertake programs to contribute in decreasing the household burden. Take legal measures for eliminating wage discrimination.

BP – We already had the data, we just needed to see that the gender system is strongly incorporated into the macro-economic system. We needed to show how macroeconomic structures are exclusive and gender biased; structural issues have to be addressed.

Business, Enterprise and Employment Support for Women in South Asia8th Network Meeting | September 21-23, 2015 | Kathmandu, NepalHouseholds do not have a direct connection to market, this intermediated by institutions; we need to use a holistic approach.

From a socioeconomic perspective, if income increases, education increases and then there is empowerment; but this hasn't worked and there are no concrete measures of this phenomenon. A whole group of feminist economists globally have done a lot of studies, but new generations are still learning un-gendered economics - academia needs to catch up. We have to take our old assumptions, values, question them and they need to be redesigned based on the reality of women’s’ roles/contributions. The whole concept needs to be redefined - divisions between economic and non-economic activities/contribution is so arbitrary – the rationale is not understandable. It shouldn't just be feminist economists talking, academia needs to catch up. There is this disconnect between academia, research, government agencies and development agencies. We have to look at household initiatives, how households are strategizing their own survival, wage labor/migration needs to be taken into account. What are women contributing even at the conflict level – post-earthquake, shops are being taken over by women. We need to change concepts and go beyond academic arbitrary boundaries.

The UN’s System of National Accounts’ divisions of work needs to be revisited/redefined. Whole reproductive sectors comes into it, not just productive sectors. Formal sector data has to be gathered properly – we don't have data on how many people are involved in the informal sector; it is undocumented and there is no account of this work. We have to develop a mechanism about how service is delivered. The households has to be recognized as an industry – producing goods and services.

If you are invisible as a producer in a the GDP, you are invisible in the distribution of benefits in the economic framework of the national budget - Marilyn Waring

SA – I totally agree with Bina – there is a disconnect between academia, research and practice. The family as a unit has to be thought of as an industry. The position of women – at home, society and state level – needs a redefinition of the roles that men and women play, as well as what is work. The outside work is considered more prestigious that men do; women work inside and is less prestigious.

BP – Finding 5 - We’d been arguing that women’s work is productive – but no one believes it so far. One hypothesis was that non-economic activities at home have an impact on national economic outcomes. From labor force data we took poverty indicators (available at district level) as macro output and did a regression. The results were unbelievable. I regressed human development poverty indicators - male/female literacy, market activities, remittance against district level poverty indicators and found that household care activities have significant a relationship in

Business, Enterprise and Employment Support for Women in South Asia8th Network Meeting | September 21-23, 2015 | Kathmandu, Nepalreducing poverty – almost 18%! This maybe farfetched, but there is statistical analysis – each household doing these activities affects outputs. Female literacy has a greater impact on improving human development indicators. This is going to be authenticated with a market behavior study.


Q – This Women’s unaccounted contribution – is it recognized by men at the macro level? What legal steps need to be taken? What will the impact on micro level/grassroots women, power relationship be? This research launched in both countries, how did policymakers take the data? Where can we get the research?A (SA) – The report has not been published yet, but the data/findings can be sent. The whole rationale was – if society can understand that this is the way women contribute then it would change their status. There was a high profile launch – policymakers came and said yes, women contribute, but no change in thought/behavior.

S – This data is critical and the work is worth it. Now we can quote at least 2 countries - maybe this can be shared for the meeting on the 27th. I agree, we need to treat the household as an industry. We also need to change our ways, change our definitions, and simplify what we say. 2 examples: at a meeting on the need for a gender responsive budget with ministries, I spoke about missing women in South Asia, and the person genuinely said, who are these missing women? Are women really discriminated? We also need to go through non-converts – let’s get out of our comfort zones and talk to non-converts that have such an impact on women’s lives, so it can be taken seriously and this data you have produced will be the trump card – this should definitely be shared!

Q – The data is definitely needed and thank you for conducting these studies, it now has be linked to action – how do you do it? Otherwise it remains data – one aspect is policy, if not implemented well then it remains policy. We need action that pushes the government and so we can get something out of it. A (SA) – We are using this research as part of a larger campaign of informing society about what women do. MJF has over a hundred partners all over Bangladesh, and this will be part of each of their work plans – they are going to tell people - at grassroots, mid and policy level, that is where we are trying to push action.(BP) – We’ve used different platforms for action – started with Interim Plan, one of the intentions is to influence the National Planning Commission, the Ministry of Finance. I’m hoping this platform itself could be a good advocacy platform, not only for Nepal but other countries as well since there is quite a lot of awareness and willingness. But the how and where to start, with the conventional models of development is a constraint – we need to get academia reformed, not just the government.

Business, Enterprise and Employment Support for Women in South Asia8th Network Meeting | September 21-23, 2015 | Kathmandu, NepalMaking technology work for women

Smita Bhatnagar (SEWA, India)There has been so much technological advancement – but do grassroots women benefit? We believe women can benefit from technological advancement through partnerships. We have training centers also known as business resources centers for community learning. These centers are equipped with technology that we use, like projectors because young people more interested in visual media. The pico projector is very mobile, the trainer takes it with her and can be used to project on village walls. It is even possible to should PowerPoint presentation slides which especially younger people are attracted to. People need to be trained to use this technology so we provide that as well.

We also brought in driving simulators, to help members learn how to drive without sitting in cars. They are not confident enough to sit in car and this is helping rural youth get jobs as drivers.

There is a brand of agricultural producers company based on Gandhian philosophy called RUDI. Our business centers are also RUDI processing centers – where products are processed, packaged, and sold to consumers. RUDI women go door to door to sell these products and have a huge network. The RUDI application can even be loaded in non-smartphones – members are given a code book and the application operates in Gujarati. The center informs them about stock, consumers can give orders through this application. Many users are illiterate women, so we are trying to make it a voice based application.

There are applications for mobiles to monitor credit or mobilize savings – whenever a group member provides savings, the amount deposited/loaned is informed through the phone. Simple technology exists where mobiles can be used to spread information on prizes or sending messages for various trainings introduced. Women artisans are using the internet to search for designs and even participated in Lakmé fashion week. We are also using applications, trying to strengthen membership management system – to understand how the profile of our members is changing. There is a livelihood portal but we want to track members on whether they have jobs, or are continuing with jobs. IT can be used for monitoring and understanding demands.

Tanvir Hossain (BRAC, Bangladesh)We have one application built so far towards promoting social accountability in rural areas. It is related to social compliance, it is no different from legal compliance but highlights social and environmental aspects. It has been adapted to fit micro, small and medium enterprise sectors. The philosophy behind this initiative is that a ‘Made in Bangladesh’ should be a mark of, pride not shame. Lack of social compliance leads to things like the Rana Plaza incident. There are four

Business, Enterprise and Employment Support for Women in South Asia8th Network Meeting | September 21-23, 2015 | Kathmandu, Nepalcomponents to this social audit to monitor social compliance. We find that people are not unwilling to do compliance, they are just unaware.

The context for the intervention was the Artisan Development Initiative, which has 606 sub-centers that hold 1300 monthly sessions with 25000 attendees every month. There are a variety of awareness programs and services. The Initiative involves 651 producers (as of 2014) across industries range from tailoring to other handicrafts. We provide a code of conduct to every producer – compliance to national laws, fair trade principles, good working conditions, respect for environment, artisan management (paid on time, discrimination, forced labor, child labor), transparency (with buyer), monitoring and enforcement of social compliance standards. There is a social audit where each producer is audited annually; a re-audit is conducted in cases of failure. A self-audit application is going to be initiated.

All data for the social audit is recorded through this application, which shows an overview of statuses. Based on the audit, a corrective action plan is given. The audit records where the factory is, its ownership, artisans within factory (disaggregated by gender), how much each artisan makes (wages), field locations, standards (personal protective equipment). The application also allows pictures to be uploaded that show security and safety as well as interviews.

We can already see the impact of this audit. (In pictures) For example, a small factory that was congested, insecure, after the social audit, people are wearing masks, taught how to use fire extinguishers, there is fire protective equipment and a first aid box. Employees are using gloves, there is more lighting, ventilation, hazardous conditions have changed, facilities are renovated with safe machinery and exposed wiring is changed.

There are still a lot of challenging industries for which intervention plans have not been decided such as wood carving, metal and jewelry (causing smoke inhalation), loom weaving (dust, poor infrastructure).

Moving forward, we want to do more regularly scheduled audits using university students, which would allow us to do on a more frequent basis – perhaps, 200 audits in a month. The development goal is to build model SMEs – so people can look at them and build similar ones, and link these to export markets.


S – One of the challenges is certification, the process is expensive and difficult to confirm as well as verify/approve. It would be interesting to explore how technology can help small entrepreneurs to document certification.

Business, Enterprise and Employment Support for Women in South Asia8th Network Meeting | September 21-23, 2015 | Kathmandu, NepalQ – Are the costs of compliance shared between the producer and AARONG? It seems to involve a lot of costs, mainly for cottage and small producers and who bears brunt? Has the self-audit been implemented? And how do you monitor it?A – Most compliance activities don't cost a lot of money, like the extinguisher. And there is a 0% interest loan for high cost interventions – like the chimney. Self-audits have not begun. We have 3 fulltime officers monitoring real time data inputed by field officers

Q – How is the social audit applied to home-based workers? A – There are over 600 sub centers and home-based workers come to a small central shed in their village. They have similar compliance requirements, but much fewer in terms of working space or ventilation. Different industries have different standards and home based have their own.

Q – Are there any fees for the self-audit application?A – The one we use has an annual maintenance fee but the compcare is open source software and is free.

S - There are organizations that have apps to track poverty and government and could be investigated in Bangladesh. Iprobono helps a lot with certification and is based in UK.

Q – In terms of children in the workplace or forced labor, workplace harassment - how does it get addressed?A – Employee management is one of the main criteria of the social audit. Adolescent artisans can be 15 years of and above (according to law), those between 15-17 of age can only engage in certain type of work. The application lets you see how producers are ranked based on standards – and the interviews capture workplace GBV. GBV will be added to audit interviews.

Q – What are the investment costs of supplying an activist with pico projectors?A – We did a pilot to test it out, and it is not very costly. We provide a 0% interest loan, which we have offered for phones and will be offered for pico projector or any technology that is developed at the center. It costs an average of 5,000-10,000 rupees, if larger then clients are linked with banks.

Nepali women entrepreneurs - Members of FBPWN or PAF were invited to the Network Meeting, they introduced themselves and two successful entrepreneurs shared their stories. Products of some of the entrepreneurs were displayed at venue.

Sita Maya Tamang - Candle-makerShanti Shakya Dolma - Dye-masterChan Devi Mali - Jewelry

Business, Enterprise and Employment Support for Women in South Asia8th Network Meeting | September 21-23, 2015 | Kathmandu, NepalSunita Sentang - Garment-tradingKalika Chaudhary - Vegetable farmingAsmita Chaudhary - Same community organization as KalikaShailu Bhuda - Organic vegetable farmingLal Kali Bhuda - Herb-farmingSunita Mahottara - Social MobilizerGanga Jagebu - Member of Health Co-operative (Social enterprise)Maya Devi Neupane - Financial Co-operative ChairpersonMechung Lama - Financial Co-operative memberKritika Rai - Family Planning Counseling Center proprietor/health workerManju Khadka - Organic tea farmer

Sabita Maharjan Sabita has worked in the handicrafts industry for the last 20 years and started a garment industry 3 years ago with a BSC project. She had been unable to register due to the government’s policy but managed to do so with BSC support. She works with women and started a literacy class for the illiterate. She’d had no family support at the time, particularly as a victim of domestic violence, and without property her business could not get funds. The cooperative loaned her 50,000 NPR and now the business is valued at 1 crore (approximately $100,000). She employs 300 women and a minor 0.2% are men. In 2011, she won the Asha award, finally banks had faith in her and she got a small loan of 13 lakh ($13,000) to buy machinery. She started her garment business for 15 lakh ($15,000), supported by the BSC, who gave her a guarantee letter for the bank. It was challenging because she had no collateral, but her team members are very honest and she is happy to work with them.

Shanti Shakya Dolma Shanti is a dye-master, and her venture is located in Kakani, Nuwakot. She has zero chemical use in her dyeing which is all natural. She uses the skin of pomegranate, walnut and indigo imported from India. The venture is located in Kakani because the raw materials can be collected from the community forest. She works with 23 ladies, some collect, others stitch and some are dye-masters. She started with 5 women, each of whom contributed 1000 each – the company started with a total of NPR 5000, and is now at NPR 550,000. When she first got acquainted with the BSC, she was part of a cooperative with 101 members and only got salary of NPR 3000, but now can stand on her own feet and employ other women. It makes her very happy, without BSC she feels that she would not have anything. She won the Social Entrepreneurship Award of NPR 100,000 and is now supplying Sabah Nepal. She also works with Himalayan Atelier – possibly Nepal’s first business in natural and non-extractive dyes.

Health Security Scheme: Insurance for Artisans


Tanvir Hossain – BRAC BangladeshWithin BRAC, we discovered that the health program was working with the Rockefeller Foundation for insurance in rural areas. This was the basis for starting this health security scheme, however, we don't refer to it as ‘insurance’ due to regulatory purposes.

It appeared that the greatest expense that artisans have, second to living costs/food was health and the only way to address it was to have a Welfare Fund that they could apply for - if they were lucky, they got the money. This Health Security Scheme includes not only the artisan, but also members of their household. The husband is also covered under the insurance plan because wife works in production center. This scheme costs the artisan 25 Taka per month for the months that they work, and it is directly taken from their wages. The Ayesha Abed Foundation that manages the factory matches this fund with an additional 25 Taka per artisan.

Artisans can register up to 4 family members, for example, children and either the spouse or parents. The months that the artisan doesn't work, they don't have to pay the 25 Taka but are still covered. Eligible beneficiaries can seek emergency care or those hospitalized at an empanelled hospital are provided with fixed amount of money before entering the hospital. The payout is 1000 Taka for emergency incidents, 500 Taka/48 hours up to 3000 Taka for medical conditions (infections like dengue, or diarrhoea) and up to 10,000 Taka for surgical cases.

Hospitals are meant to be free but there are a lot of hidden costs and the payout is intended to cover those costs as the public system does not address all needs. A lump sum is given for empanelled private clinics and tertiary care facilities as well.

The operations of this Health Security Scheme are as simple and low cost as possible. In event of an illness, the artisan gets admitted to a hospital and has to inform the in-charge at the production facility (to qualify the artisan has to have worked for 4-6 months). This point person will call the health Program Organizer (PO), (every call is 150 taka) who verifies that this is our artisan, and the payout scheme. The PO has an android form. The beneficiary only has to provide an admission form and then has to get a verification form signed, by a co-artisan.

This scheme has been piloted in 2 locations Manikgonj, and Nilphamari. People are sensitized by first asking them what happens when you get ill, then are informed about the plan, which costs essentially 1 taka per day. There has been 100% buy-in, we are currently at 3800 artisans, covering 15000 people (including family). We had to create unique artisan codes for each artisan and all this information is in the android database. Annually this service can be used twice. Every month we collect 110,000

Business, Enterprise and Employment Support for Women in South Asia8th Network Meeting | September 21-23, 2015 | Kathmandu, NepalTaka so we collected over 6 lakh Taka, but only 430,000 taka was spent in that time so there is a healthy surplus.

The Rockefeller Foundation had given us estimates of usage, but the reality was less than estimates. We assume it will go up as more people get to know about the scheme. There was an artisan whose son was hit by a cricket ball in his eye and there was no local care. He received 1000 taka that was used for transport to tertiary care. Another artisan went through an illegal abortion, which resulted in uncontrolled bleeding, she received 10,000 taka to go to Dhaka for treatment.

Usage is more by artisans than their families. 79% of benefits go directly to women and children. Most people have been using public facilities, private facilities used for cases such as appendicitis etc.

What’s next? We want to upscale to all 13 districts that the Asha Abed Foundation works in. There is an ongoing impact assessment by BRAC University, we want to explore whether preventative care measures can be added. M-health, sending messages to mobiles is being considered as well as a discount for prescription drugs coverage.


Q – How did you come up with these ideas?A – This resulted mainly through conversations with the BRAC health program. Partners have the health background but we also had to understand how to design the program.

S – After the earthquake, this could be something worth implementing in Nepal – it could have been very usefulA – We are looking to add other value added services, insurance for life or disaster. The challenge is convincing the artisan to pay a little bit more. Maternity leave is still covered.

Q – What is the scalability of the initiative?A – This is extremely scalable, we are mandated to scale completely next year. We have 25000 artisans that work at any given moment in time. Luckily there are very low administration costs – which was the main challenge by the CFO.

Q – Does the surplus include the 25 taka contribution? Where do you see the surplus going? When people are hospitalized, costs are often more than 10000.A – 25 taka is earmarked by the Foundation with 25 paid by the artisan. A safeguard is the welfare fund, they can apply for money if they go over the payout, but it is offered only for the artisans, so we are looking to change upper limit. AARONG is a social enterprise so all money goes to BRAC development programs.


Q – Does the government have any insurance schemes in Bangladesh? Are there any efforts to link them? The 25 taka that you put in, where does that come from?A – Government is observing this program to see what they can do. The 25 Taka comes from the Ayesha Abed Foundation.

Q – Are there any problems with doctors not providing good service?A – We found that at public hospitals, doctors only work there till 2 pm and instead the doctor makes an appointment at his own private clinic. There is no incentive to provide service in public system. Private clinics need to be brought into system.

S - Andhra Pradesh project had some similar issues with ultra-poor from rural areas, getting them into hospitals and communicating with doctors. They worked by having community professionals, who had a schedule, and could be advocates for ultra-poor.

Ilam Health Women: Social Enterprises[Introduced by Bina Pradhan]FBPWN had funding from the American embassy and we were exploring different ways to mobilize health services at community level, PSI gave us some funding as well. The only way to get people registered as a service provider was as a cooperative; there are many health cooperatives but none exclusively run by women.

Ganga – Health Co-operative IlamAlthough Ilam as a district is relatively developed, the western part has no health services. The area is deprived and people have to drive 3-4 fours for a small problem. There are cases where people have died due to a lack of Cetamol. Even pregnant women had to travel several hours for delivery. So, an ANM, CMA, pharmacists, health service providing females got together – we started with 25 members and now have 55. We currently have 4 health workers per VDC and work in 10-15 VDCs. We collected NPR 500,000 through membership fees and can now treat pneumonia, tyhoid, diarhhoea, perform deliveries without a doctor, and also have a pharmacy. We have 3 beds in a rented house and will soon have an ambulance service. We offer lab services and have a USC machine, ECG machine, video-X-ray. Before it would cost so much to travel to district headquarters, now the service is available locally. We want to bring a doctor weekly depending on needs, we need your help and support to go further and become a SME. We have 3-4 lakh of medicines in stock, so although we don't have high profit, we have significant assets. We have four employees and are planning to hire a radiologist.

Q - Putting it as social enterprise builds in sustainability. What convinced you that social enterprise approach could work?

Business, Enterprise and Employment Support for Women in South Asia8th Network Meeting | September 21-23, 2015 | Kathmandu, NepalA – There’s service and fruits/profits, we have to economically empower women, and to get something, and we are giving something.

Kirtika – Family Planning Paramarsha Kendra I opened this center a year ago. Aside from implants, I can provide all other family planning services. PSI supported me for training, and to develop it into a business, BSC gave support. I’ve had an increase in income and have risen in social status through this business. The service record is sent to PSI. I worked with them for 4 years in skills/capacity training with a quality assessment every 6 months. PSI trained me on IUD insertion. Before the BSC, I hadn’t thought that I had ability to do business. I have children and now with my income I can buy shoes for my son, and pay his school fees. I save NPR 1500 every month or more when there’s a surplus. I combine household work and also have a small plot cultivating tea, fruits - it's a small scale microbusiness. I have to be able to look after my husband, social status and carry everything forward. I have to balance husband, house, business and respect that I command now is much more, but still have to respect my family’s demands. My husband is a singer, and younger son going to be one too.

{A Professional Tea Tasting and Interaction Program was held with Chandra Bhusan Subba and Twistina Subba from Sandakphu Tea Processors where participants learnt about the quality of tea and the professional sampling method.}

Stock taking of issues covered, questions and collaborations

Nimali – Sarvodaya in Sri Lanka takes care of 400 orphans and abandoned children, as well as 900+ disabled people and women. This is a story of one of the 400 girls. She had 5 brothers, 3 who were older and 1 older sister. When she was seven years old, her father and brothers were alcoholics, and the father used to touch the 7-year-old girl. She didn't what kind of love it was. The girl was just starting school, and learnt that it wasn't real love. She decided to tell the teachers everything, she shared her story about her family and said she didn't want to go back home. She asked for this story not to be shared with her family, as they would kill her. She went to the police station with the teachers, a court case was decided but didn't punish the parent. Between the years of 7-25, she lived in the Sarvodaya children’s home. It was me.

I was very naughty, transferred to 3 different NGOs. At 11 I was told you can’t study, only fight. I liked to play cricket, someone said something about my mother, and I beat her with a bat. She got sent to hospital ICU for 2 weeks. Everyone said I couldn't study. Between 7 years -18, I went to court, it was always postponed. Eventually my father and brothers were only fined 25000. That day I decided I would become a lawyer. Everyone said it's a job for liars – the lawyer asked me why my mother didn't say anything when my father was touching, I said ask my mother, why ask me. That day, I said, I would become a lawyer and answer your

Business, Enterprise and Employment Support for Women in South Asia8th Network Meeting | September 21-23, 2015 | Kathmandu, Nepalquestion. Instead I decided to become a journalist. I did very well in my exams studying a BA in journalism and mass communication (2011-14) and received many chances to work in media, but decided to work for Sarvodaya to help people like me.

The children at the Boys home were also radical. They don't have parents. The NGO was going to close because they were too radical and I said don't close, I will find out. Apparently the problem was with the matrons, so they were removed. I went for one month, and the boys thought of me as mother. Yesterday I got a call from Sri Lanka, one of the boys said 1st mother died, why are you not here? At the parents meeting in school, I am always referred to as mother. Being a journalist was a dream, but want to become everyone’s mother.

I’m Sarvodaya’s success story.

Dr. San Shwe – We recently did some qualitative research and interviewed more than 30 victims. It is very good to hear about your story, your empowerment, and courage. You passed all these difficulties, obstacles by yourself. Even rich women, when they face violence, they feel sorry for themselves and commit suicide – throughout your life, you can achieve whatever you want, now you’ve overcome that.

Shaheen – 3 years ago, some girls had heard me speak and sent a message saying they wanted to play soccer and could some funds be allocated. These were village girls that work in the field with their parents. A local journalist decided to be a coach, and through our funding they bought tracksuits and other material. 6-7 months later they were competing in soccer, competing with other villages and at the district level. They caught the attention of some national soccer player and now four of them play in the national soccer team. It took the coach a month to teach them how to wear shoes! 15 of them are taking training in the national soccer training academy, we are telling the government to support girls like this, one of the girls even went to play soccer in Pakistan.

Raheema – We have been working on women’s empowerment in the islands of Maldives. Geographically, we are located in the sea, and have to travel by boats. For our work, it's a big challenge, as it’s costly. With the BEES Network support we were able to conduct 9 training programs on different islands. We wanted to see the percentage of domestic violence in these islands, and there was no data at government level. On each island, first we told them how to identify domestic violence and sexual harassment, and afterwards we gave a form to fill with answers. Most of the women started talking about it, within a session, started sharing their stories. The domestic violence is not less than in any other country – in the south 80% of respondents were abused mentally, sexually – women who are working, even in the micro level, have challenges working independently - husbands with controlling behavior.

Business, Enterprise and Employment Support for Women in South Asia8th Network Meeting | September 21-23, 2015 | Kathmandu, NepalWe are now collecting data, and hopefully presenting it at government level to show them the percentage in Maldives, maybe in February or March. In November/December the Indian government is sending a girl for management training, from 1-15 February, 5 girls in handicrafts will be going to a crafts fair.

Melissa – Jamie came back from Maldives and said this is what Raheema found. We contacted the Gender team who responded, look at macro data, and said there is no gender problem in Maldives, and we were able to say actually, there is.

Smita – There is an application called safetypin to help with GBV, which can be downloaded on phones. It has questions about police stations, lights, and one can pin where/when harassed. The data will feed into the app, and everyone who has the app can access this data. It is also used for advocacy with the government – showing areas with the highest rate of street harassment, so they can take action in the city.

Shaheen – We are piloting this (application) in Dhaka city, it’s like a safety audit as part of a safe cities program. We have done in 10 areas in Dhaka city, analysing data in the process, and want to take it to each police station in the area. First we will have dissemination with a superior police officer and see if it makes sense to them and they will do something about it. It helps city governance, it’s a simple app, anyone can download it. There are a list of indicators, I would like to share results after analysis.

Tanvir – Maya apa developed by BRAC and Maya lets anyone post anonymously - any kind of questions and incidents. Questions are meant to be answered within 24 hours and there is an anonymous hotline. One can also post pictures.

Melissa – Is anyone interested in piloting the GBV Curriculum? Kashf, Khwendo Kor, PPAF, MFJ, Association of Lady Entrepreneurs volunteered.

Chime – We feel good and bad SAFANSI is coming to an end. We got experience accessing the network’s expertise. The team went to Champi and learnt many new things and finally managed to get to Chittagong hill tracks, Jamie struggled getting team there, but managed. Learning from there also been fantastic, particularly the empowerment of the team that went there and felt they could contribute to various activities. There is a possibility of linking and working with local NGOs. Food officers managed to pinpoint modules of entry, a majority of young field officers came back with reports. Although formally, SAFANSI closes, many other activities branched out.

Tarayana used this to link with UNICEF, day care centers was selected as a success story and will be documented. We just wanted to be useful

Business, Enterprise and Employment Support for Women in South Asia8th Network Meeting | September 21-23, 2015 | Kathmandu, Nepalto the women in the community, a place to safely invest in growth and development of young children, and it is a success story that has now caught the attention of government of Bhutan and UNICEF. We will now be collaborating with UNICEF in slowly scaling up.

I reflect on Chandni Joshi’s message, about when it comes to women, why is it always small. We used the resources of this network to do this next thing called scaling up, one of the intentions was to go to scale quite quickly with all these organizations partnering together. As Tarayana, a small NGO working with small group, we had to reflect on how we would prepare if we were going to take this to scale. The end story is we have a strategic shift. We were working in 300 villages, and are now thinking about taking it to 2000+ villages over the next 5 years. The next step is to find the donors, without some amount of investment, it’s not going to happen. The practical reality of things, if going to scale, then need to hire more people. We have to think about how to do this sustainably, maybe by partnering with the government. We did for a project for more than a million dollars, and gained the government’s confidence, which is a good thing. There is a limit to what we can do, at a crossroads – whether we continue doing project based initiatives. We have to look at generating funds, maybe creating a trust fund – or the next best thing could be to get as many donors to create one fund and work through that, maybe through the Bank. Lots of learning still taking place.

We are looking forward thinking about collaborating with apps – link with all pregnant women in villages. Perhaps, some kind of database, where people can sign in through the mobile app and can be tracked - issues like antenatal visits, dietary information as there is lots of misinformation. We need to be proactive, maybe start from pregnancy and take them all the way through as SEWA’s example has showed us with their huge network reach. There is an opportunity there.

Janaki – The districts that SAFANSI was working on, could not be sustained. We didn't have much time to mobilize these women that were traumatized, ensure that service providers are properly qualified as counselors. Women lack basic management and entrepreneurship skills in these areas. We opened a stall but had to be closed, because the woman who took leadership had taken money to migrate from an agent. She later changed her mind because was doing a successful job in the stall, but the agent wanted her to go and physically abused her. The 3rd stall started 3 months ago and so far it’s functioning. These areas are facing so many problems. Although there are INGOs doing so many programs, water and transport, needs to be given by the state, hopefully things will improve with change in regime. Many women as agriculturists, but not recognized, the work is marginalized and they are paid half as wage laborers. Women are unable to interact with state service providers - if seed is poor quality, they cant raise voices as they are not in the relevant committees, only males are members and interact

Business, Enterprise and Employment Support for Women in South Asia8th Network Meeting | September 21-23, 2015 | Kathmandu, Nepalwith state service providers. These are some of the issues women farmers face, they need long-term counseling.

Melissa – We are putting together a SAFANSI proposal and want to see how many members want to participate. The anchor members and Nepal is on board. We are looking at making an impact, the proposal will be circulated. In the first round, we let a thousand flowers bloom, now we need a more manicured garden, we need to be very strategic to push agendas forward. I will ask for feedback and ideas, we want to push innovation. I want to make sure there is a coherent storyline to push.

Tahir – We have graduated 3000 women entrepreneurs and they are developing their linkages with other clients. Business graduates had the opportunity to set up stalls at different occasions, like Id – such kind of collaborations help them to grow. We scaled up – hired 20 more trainers, 6 different labs, and have small funding to set up 5 labs in different places. 27 gender trainers have been hired to provide gender sensitive training, 30,000 young boys and men have been trained. We will keep scaling up these activities. 10 more business incubation labs have been initiated for skills enhancement - different trainings on livestock, stitching etc. After yesterday’s knowledge sharing, we will be giving gender sensitivity training to business vendors who face harassment and fraud activities.

Bina – Our situation is quite different right now to when we were involved in the SAFANSI project, thinking about earthquake context. Livelihood is a core issue – at that time we didn't have enough seed, and thanks to the Bhutanese colleagues for bringing the seeds to experiment with. The earthquake has not been featured here, or the violence during the relief period. We still don't have authentic figures, but incidence reporting has happened – so the GBV module will have to be adapted to this context. The SAFANSI project which we applied will have to be adapted to earthquake realities with a livelihood focus, and in the earthquake context, the nutritional levels of women and children will have to be the focus area of this project. Also, as an enterprise, how to make it sustainable will have to be addressed.

Melissa – 2 Elements, 1) SAFANSI phase 2 – we can do multi-country, but need space for customization. Food security post-earthquake, health, livelihoods, water is a nexus. Food-nutrition security could possibly be acted on through the Just-in-time window, which grants up to $50,000. We will have to focus on re-establishing the seed system, among others, to achieve food security. We need to crowd-source ideas- there are opportunities for funding, for example, Promote trade facilitation Bangladesh Bhutan northeast India Nepal (BBIN) – there are lots of high level studies, looking at optimal transport corridors, road vs water. The government of Australia has created a fund for trade facilitation and is very interested on women’s economic empowerment; working with them on opportunities in this area. I’ve been asked for feedback on some

Business, Enterprise and Employment Support for Women in South Asia8th Network Meeting | September 21-23, 2015 | Kathmandu, Nepalstudies to impact transport planning; for example special lines and waiting rooms for women at customs posts, there could be some opportunity there.

Jamie – Our online web presence the BEES Hive has now opened up easing connectivity issues. As we move forward, we will be creating a designated space for a resource – there is information there already on curriculum development that has to do with training and various protocols. BEES Hive can even been accessed on a smartphone or iPad, just requires internet.

A Request for Pakistan PAF – Baluchistan community/women groups have been doing food preservation and processing, it is now a microenterprise that also prolongs food availability for the household – Janaki would like this information and some training/knowledge exchange opportunities.

Tahir – We have a good practice of livestock insurance in earthquake-prone areas and asset transfer programs. In one rural area, livestock were dying due to drought but luckily there was insurance. Nokri and Karobar placement model - 100 established as social enterprises. 1 man 1 woman trained to map all available resources, connecting with different employers and this converted to franchise model. We also have an artisan program all over Pakistan, any artisan who can be registered with hunar ki manzil. Last week, there was a 3 day exhibition in Islamabad with a 100 artisans who had a total sale of 5 million - these are initiatives that can be shared. In terms of gender sensitization, we talk about grassroots level, but we also need a refresher at the institutional level with regular refresher courses, perhaps helpful if this is done through BEES.

Bina – One of the things the federation is doing is rebuilding houses and livelihoods. One of the things we want to do is get access to packages that the government has promised – unless communities are empowered, they cannot access that, and we want to build their capacity to access that. We want to do it in Nuwakot where lives and livelihoods are gone and also at Camp Hope. One of aims is to collect donations. We have an account with global giving… any help would be useful to spread the word, or donate.

Conclusion – Ambica Shrestha

It has been great, that you’re here, from all over and especially Myanmar. Thank you all, thank you to Gitanjali, The World Bank, Melissa and PAF. If we work together, can achieve, thank you for all the information. We are working here, but need to move forward and look at the bigger picture. We are workers, we work; let’s not have research/studies all the time; let’s work on the studies we’ve already got; we should be utilizing the money where its needed, people need the money. Let’s all work on that, not just studies. BEES are workers, when

Business, Enterprise and Employment Support for Women in South Asia8th Network Meeting | September 21-23, 2015 | Kathmandu, Nepalthey build a hive, it's the queen bee that's mostly important. Wish you and all of us, workers, all the best. There’s a glass ceiling, we’ll have to break it. The sky’s the limit.

September 23, 2015

{Participants had a curated walk around Kathmandu Durbar Square and a discussion on disaster management, heritage conservation, tourism and the economy.}

A brief discussion over lunch while participants began departing resulted in the decision to have the next Network Meeting in the Maldives and planning began on the best time to attend, so the agenda could be developed collectively. Hosts were thanked by all as well as offered assistance for rebuilding and the preservation of cultural heritage. The Bhutanese delegation also offered to send a trainer for organic vegetable production within two weeks of this meeting.


Annex I: List of Attendees/Participants

Raheema Adam Association of Lady Entrepreneurs, MaldivesTanvir Hossain BRAC-Aarong, BangladeshAmbica Shrestha FBPWN, NepalBina Pradhan FBPWN, NepalMangala Karanjit FBPWN, NepalGeeta Shrestha FBPWN, NepalNavaraj Acharya FBPWN, NepalYubak Raj Ghimire FBPWN, NepalSalike Ram Kalathoki FBWPN, NepalShanta Sharma FBPWN, NepalKay Thi FSWG, MyanmarSan Shwe GEN Network, MyanmarNasir Mumtaz Kashf Foundation, PakistanGul Lalai Khwendo Kor, PakistanShaheen Anam MJF, BangladeshTahir Malik Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund, PakistanNahakul K.C. Poverty Alleviation Fund, NepalYubaraj Pandey Poverty Alleviation Fund, NepalMeena Nakarmi Poverty Alleviation Fund, NepalRupesh Shakya Poverty Alleviation Fund, NepalFriso Hecker Nepal Monitor, NepalChari Maya Tamang Shakti Samuha, NepalKalpana Mishra Organization of Human Welfare, NepalMonica Raina SABAH, IndiaNimali Kumari Sarvodaya, Sri LankaChime Wangdi Tarayana Foundation, BhutanYuden Dorji Tarayana Foundation, BhutanArvind Malik Udyogini, IndiaSwati Parasrampuria Udyogini, IndiaJanakie Seneviratne Viluthu, Sri LankaErisha Suwal World Bank, NepalMelissa Williams World Bank, Washington DCJamie Greenawalt World Bank, Washington DCGitanjali Chaturvedi World Bank, IndiaShobha Shetty World Bank, India

Nepali Women Entrepreneurs

Sita Maya Tamang Candle-makerShanti Shakya Dolma Natural DyesChan Devi Mali JewelrySunita Syantang Garment-tradingKalika Chaudhary Vegetable farmingAsmita Chaudhary Same community organization as KalikaSailu Bhuda Organic vegetable farmingLal Kali Bhuda Herb-farming

Business, Enterprise and Employment Support for Women in South Asia8th Network Meeting | September 21-23, 2015 | Kathmandu, NepalSunita Mahatara Social MobilizerGanga Jagebu Member of Health Co-operative (Social enterprise)Maya Devi Neupane Financial Co-operative ChairpersonMechun Lama Financial Co-operative memberKritika Rai Family Planning Counseling Center proprietor/health worker Manju Khatri Organic tea farmerSabita Maharjan Knitting & GarmentBimala Rai Tea Entrepreneur

collaboration.worldbank.org file · web viewbees 8th network meeting minutes. according to a report...

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