Kathmandu/ sep-26/ A four-month pilot project ‘Revitalizing Women’s Business Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic’, designed to support Micro, Small and Medium Women Entrepreneurs cope from the impact of COVID-19 on their businesses, set a base for disaster preparedness, economic recovery and resilience started since June 2020, implemented by Federation of Woman Entrepreneurs’ Associations of Nepal (FWEAN), with the support from Enterprise for Management, Economic Reforms and Gender Equality (EMERGE) as knowledge partner and Thulo.com as technical partner is expected to complete by September 2020. The project is being implemented under the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)’s Tayar Nepal. One of many such activities focused by this project is to mentor FWEAN’s Provincial Chapter Office Bearer’s in all seven provinces to enhance their lobbying and advocacy capabilities to lead the advocacy with local government and banks for relief packages for women entrepreneurs especially during disasters and pandemics . The mentoring of the Provincial Chapters was lead by FWEAN and as a part of the mentoring process FWEAN organized 3 online mentoring sessions on – i) conducting stakeholder consultation to identify advocacy needs of women entrepreneurs during disaster; ii) drafting advocacy documents; iii) organizing and facilitating collective bargaining. As a part of the third session of the mentoring process, a ‘Policy Discourse on Access to Finance for Women Entrepreneurs during COVID-19 Pandemic’ was organized on 31st August 2020 in Province 3.
The session was attended by dignitaries from various sections. Ms. Munu Sigdel, Honorable Member of Parliament (MP), Makwanpur; Dr. Sharan Kumar Pandey, Spokesperson and Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Division Chief, Ministry of Land Management, Agriculture & Cooperative of Province 3; Ms. Meena Pandey, Director, Regulation Department, Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) and representatives of Agriculture Development Bank, Sanima Bank, Global IME and Nabil Bank were present. Similarly, FWEAN’s board members, district chapters and other stakeholders participated in the program.
The participants were welcomed by the 1st VP of FWEAN, Ms. Neeru Rayamajhi Khatri. A short presentation regarding Global, South Asian and National level context of women entrepreneurs, their role in the economies and the impact on their businesses during COVID–19 was executed by 3rd VP, Ms. Darshana Shrestha. The appeal letter was then handed over by FWEAN’s Bagmati Province Representative, Executive Member and President of WEAN Kavre Ms. Laxmi Khanal to the decision makers of Province 3.
The major issue highlighted by the letter pertain to the easy access to subsidized collateral free loan scheme introduced by the government. On this issue, Ms. Sigdel highlighted that the future budget should be more focused on women entrepreneurs’ development and all related organizations should advocate for this. Dr. Pandey highlighted that 3 billion rupees has been allocated as soft loan for the agriculture sector. Additionally, Ms. Pandey shared the information regarding “Punar Karja” offered at 3% interest rate for entrepreneurs especially for difficult time like this which will help entrepreneurs to sustain, revive and recover their businesses which have been gravely affected. She also expressed that she will provide the feedbacks and the suggestions provided to the relevant bank officials for improvement. A common voice was heard from the banker’s side regarding the necessity of financial literacy for woman entrepreneurs and training them before approaching the banks for the loan. They all made commitment to work collaboratively in moving forward on this issue.
Ms. Shova Gyawali, 2nd VP of FWEAN ended the program by expressing her gratitude to all the participants for their presence and ended with the statement, “if you educate a man you educate a person and if you educate a woman you educate a country”.
This event focused on the advocacy for access to finance for women entrepreneurs held in the Bagmati Province has provided other provincial chapters a flatform to gain practical experience on hosting a policy discourse and conduct the advocacy session. Through this event, the Provincial Chapters have been capacitated to advocate for women’s economic empowerment. While the Bagmati Provincial Chapter will follow up on the decision and commitments made during the event by the government and banking sector, other Provincial Chapters are expected to initiate similar discourse and advocacy in the days to come.
