Constraints to productivity improvements for female nano entrepreneurs – Is training the answer?

1. Constraints to productivity improvements for female nano entrepreneurs –Is training the answer? Louise Fox World Bank Sub-Saharan Africa Region

2. Regional study on household enterprises (HE) • What are they? • Household enterprises are very small enterprises not legally separated from household activities. • They consist of self-employed workers and unpaid family members engaged in non-farm business activities. • They are at the lower end of the spectrum of what is often categorized as micro, small and medium enterprises. • They are the fastest growing employment category in SSA

3. Household Enterprises are common in rural and urban areas - but most are low productivity

4. Why are HEs growing? • Low qualifications of labor force • Initial conditions – few wage and salary jobs relative to growth of labor force • Household need for cash (more “push than “pull”) • Growing demand for goods and services (traditional and non-traditional) with economic growth • In E. Africa, equally males and females; in Ghana and some other W. Africa countries traditionally female

5. What do HEs identify as constraints? • Work spaces, markets, security • urban planning not include this group, market stall are expensive, lax security brings theft • Access to markets, lack of demand • need for infrastructure to lower transport charges, bring connectivity, but • often in easy-entry sectors such as trading • Working capital, access to finance • most households in SSA lack access to financial services (savings and lending) • under both for profit and non-profit models, micro-finance interest charges are high

6. HE owners rarely access training programs – especially females because apprenticeship programs biased toward men

7. Is training the answer to low productivity? • Our field work did not yield high demand – other constraints more important • Publicly provided training rarely effective (not designed for this group at all) • Donor financed NGO: very limited success • Need to organize the target group to be effective • Ghana model: organize into associations at district level • Assess demand for technical training (e.g. soap making), find providers (IFAD, JICA finance) • Micro finance model could work • Combine basic business skills w/loan – some evidence for effectiveness