Supported by INTEGRATING WOMEN IN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Women’s economic empowerment is critical for gender equality and for achieving the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. DFID India recognises the value of peer learning and partnerships between developing countries and through its Knowledge Partnership Programme (KPP) managed by IPE Global, hopes to share Indian and global evidence on policies that impact development outcomes for women and girls and support advocacy towards strengthening policy design and implementation. MITREEKI 2016: STRATHMORE BUSINESS SCHOOL, MARCH 03-04 2016, NAIROBI, KENYA BACKGROUND Women make up one half of the world’s human capital and yet women continue to be denied control and access to resources and decision making. Thus, empowering and educating girls and women and leveraging their talent and leadership fully in the global economy, politics and society emerges as the fundamental element of prospering in an ever more competitive world. Women's exclusion from development planning is one of the major reasons of backwardness in an economy as “society that fails its women and girls, ultimately fails itself.” Gender inequality and skewed distribution of assets and power within family, workplace and socio-political institutions are both the cause and consequence of multiple forms of discrimination that tend to reproduce themselves over time and over generations thus having a negative impact on development outcomes. Women’s economic empowerment is critical for gender equality and for achieving the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. As an indication of global commitment, the UN Secretary-General has set up a first-ever High-Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment, where the Government of UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) is a founding member, to provide thought leadership and mobilise concrete actions to close economic gender gaps and outcomes. Page 1 MITREEKI 2016: STRATHMORE BUSINESS SCHOOL, MARCH 03-04 2016, NAIROBI, KENYA The Knowledge Partnership Programme (KPP) supported by DFID India and managed by the IPE Global is a programme conceived and Developing countries have taken developed to provide a knowledge sharing platform to developing several measures for gender nations to expand their horizons through potential sources of equality, ending gender based learning. One of the priorities under KPP is to share Indian and violence and creating economic Global evidence on policies that impact development outcomes for opportunities for women. There women and girls and support advocacy towards strengthening are various models, initiatives policy design and implementation. As a part of the KPP initiative, to and success stories which can be share some of the successful Indian experiences of women leveraged for learning to empowerment with African counterparts and to provide an accelerate the process in the opportunity for mutual learning, Mitreeki 2016 was organized in respective countries to bridge the association with Kenya Association of Women Business Owners gender gap and change women’s (KAWBO) at Strathmore Business School, Nairobi, Kenya. lives at the ground level. Mitreeki provided an opportunity for partners to learn from each other. It examined both good policies and practices and partnerships to mentor, support and collaborate with each other. The workshop discussed key areas of financial inclusion; market linkages; opportunities in the emerging sectors and addressed social norms that impede women’s participation. Each session reflected on policies; programmes and models that have addressed these barriers. The workshop had representation from regional and national governments (specifically Ministers working on women and economic issues), bilateral and multilateral international agencies, UN agencies, Civil Society groups/ Non-Governmental Organisations, financial institutions, private sector, regional networks, think- tanks, academia and grassroots groups, from the participating countries which included India, Ethiopia, Malawi, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda. THE SESSIONS Spread over two days, the workshop was divided into four plenary sessions. Along with the Opening Session, the first day included four plenary sessions (i) Financial Inclusion and Market Linkages, (ii) Enabling Environment to overcome Socio-Cultural Barriers, (iii) Workforce Participation in Traditional and Emerging Sectors, (iv) Leveraging Partnership Potential. The second day started with a re-cap and learning from the first day, which was followed by a Practitioners Session and Conclusion. Page 2 MITREEKI 2016: STRATHMORE BUSINESS SCHOOL, MARCH 03-04 2016, NAIROBI, KENYA Financial Inclusion and Market Linkages: The two critical pillars of enterprise and business development that women often do not have access to. The session looked at: - Key elements of policy frameworks, financial products and services for women - Capital/business advisory services - Experiences of successful projects Enabling Environment to overcome Socio-Cultural Barriers: Social cultural norms can often hold women back and constrain them from achieving economic empowerment. The session focused on: - Safety and security – within homes, public spaces and in workplace - Time poverty and support systems; involving families, men and boys - Legal and regulatory frameworks Workforce Participation in Traditional and Emerging Sectors: With liberalisation and economic growth, a change in the workforce participation pattern is emerging. Women’s participation in some of the traditional sectors is dwindling, while there are opportunities opening up in new sectors. The session focused on both traditional and emerging sectors like agriculture and service sector and discuss opportunities and challenges to enhance: - Skills and employability - Income parity, and work conditions moving up the value chain Leveraging Partnership Potential: Africa and India share strong ties and several dynamic partnerships exist. The session discussed how partnerships have helped deliver better/greater impact and what have been the lessons/challenges. It also helped identify opportunities for linking partners. The workshop had around 70 participants from 7 participating countries: Ethiopia India Kenya Malawi Rwanda Tanzania Uganda DAY ONE OPENING SESSION Ms. Eva Muraya- Chairperson, Kenya Association of Women Business Owners (KAWBO) opened the event with a welcome address and highlighted the objectives of the workshop. She requested for participant engagement for an enriching learning experience. She expressed her heartfelt gratitude and thanked the organisers, the hosts and all the participants for being present and participating in the workshop. Page 3 MITREEKI 2016: STRATHMORE BUSINESS SCHOOL, MARCH 03-04 2016, NAIROBI, KENYA George Njenga – Dean, Strathmore Business School, Nairobi welcomed the participants and iterated his support for the workshop agenda mentioning that beyond insightful discussions, it was important that such fora come up with tangible outcomes that impact and transform people and societies. He also shared that the movement to empower the girl child has made great strides but that it should not be at the expense of the boy child. He also pointed out that the empowerment of women and youth includes both male and female youth. David Smith – Executive Director, IPE Global, in his opening remarks shared that cross learning is the key for advancing women empowerment. It is for this reason that IPE Global held the workshop so that it can benefit everyone at multiple levels. He referred to the progress made by women in breaking the glass ceiling and scaling new heights, with examples from Britain. Mr. Sunil Mitra- Team Leader, KPP, India emphasised on knowledge and experience sharing as imperatives for a “quantum leap” in women’s economic empowerment. He said that Mitreeki 2016 provided a platform for Africa and India to come together to complete the unfinished tasks for empowering women and to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. Mr. Mitra also shared that SDG 5 – that of achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls – is not a standalone Goal but one that has linkages with all the other 16 Goals. Addressing gender concerns across goals is the hallmark of SDGs in the global effort to end poverty, ensure zero hunger, education for all, potable water, and sanitation, clean energy, he added. Ms. Mamta Kohli – Social Development Adviser, DFID India, emphasised that the purpose of the workshop was to guide the process of empowering women and girls as well as boys and men, as it is folly to empower one and not the other. She stressed the need to sensitise and involve men and boys while addressing gender disparities. The significance of such forums could not be understated because the collective learning is deeper and more meaningful than what would be achieved from the internet as such events provide platforms to raise issues and discuss Page 4 MITREEKI 2016: STRATHMORE BUSINESS SCHOOL, MARCH 03-04 2016, NAIROBI, KENYA solutions together, face to face. Ms. Kohli highlighted key issues that are pertinent to women empowerment such as market-to-market connections, women-to-women connections, advocacy for better resources, better commitment and support from governments. Discussing the value of peer learning and partnerships, Ms Kohli recognised the role of women’s economic empowerment in gender equality and for achieving the SDGs. She concluded her remarks by reiterating