Women entrepreneurs need digital tools, skills

More women entrepreneurs need to be equipped with digital tools and digitalisation skills to boost their businesses through e-commerce for post-Covid economic growth, speakers said on Wednesday.
The availability of digital tools and skills for women entrepreneurs can allow them to avail all the opportunities presented by the government's digitisation activities.
They made the observations at a workshop on two UNDP studies styled 'Empowering Women through E-Commerce: Digital Devices to Bridge Digital Divide' hosted in Dhaka city, according to a statement.
The event was organised by the Women's Empowerment for Inclusive Growth (WING) programme, a joint initiative of UNDP, UN Women and UNCDF, supported by the Netherlands embassy.
Quoting ICT Division's senior secretary NM Ziaul Alam, who joined the event virtually, it said, "Women's empowerment is one of the keys to economic development, political stability and social change."
The prime minister has adopted and executed various programmes aimed at building financial self-sufficiency and capacity building for women empowerment, he said.
Mr Alam thanked the UNDP for taking the initiative to reduce digital divide by providing necessary skills and training to the marginalised women entrepreneurs here.
Earlier, UNDP's national project manager for WING & SWAPNO Project Kajal Chatterjee, and UNDP's country economist Nazneen Ahmed gave the opening remarks.
They provided the country context while BIDS senior research fellow Dr Muhammad Yunus, who headed the studies, presented the findings.
BIDS research associate Rizwana Islam and Dhaka University of Engineering and Technology's Associate Prof Dr Abdur Rahman Forhad supported the studies.
A monitoring system is needed until the entrepreneurs become independent in their respective exercises and periodic follow-up training with continuous skill development support is also required, which are the major recommendations of the studies.
The needs assessment study explores women MSME entrepreneurs' challenges, needs and priorities with particular attention to their participation in online business operations.
The impact assessment study tries to understand the impacts of access to e-commerce through smartphones on business practices and empowerment of women entrepreneurs.
Embassy of the Netherlands senior policy adviser Mushfiqua Zaman Satiar, ICT Division's iDEA project director (joint secretary) Md Altaf Hossain, additional commerce secretary Md Hafizur Rahman and BIDS director general Dr Binayak Sen spoke as special guests.
At the closing remark, UNDP deputy resident representative Van Nguyen said, "There is a proven result of how digital devices increase the capacity of women to contribute to their livelihoods."
"However, without proper digital infrastructure and digital skills, we can't reap the benefits," she added.
The UNDP is working with the government and partners to reduce digital divide.
The workshop aimed to get feedback and programmatic recommendations from stakeholders, government officials, public/private financing institutions, UN agencies and other participants based on the findings of the studies and get suggestions on possible collaborative opportunities.
WING is a three-year programme that aims to contribute to women's inclusion in the local development process by supporting women's economic empowerment.
WING's 'Anondomela Initiative' programme was taken during the height of the pandemic to enable marginal women micro-entrepreneurs access to greater markets.

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