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2017, DCED – 11 pages
The premise of this policy guide is that without addressing gender-specific issues or women’s greater vulnerability to business environment constraints at all levels, functions and components of the business environment, women’s employment and entrepreneurship will be hampered. This in turn will have serious implications for WEE, gender equality, jobs, income, and poverty alleviation. It is essential that donors mainstream gender considerations while further seeking to achieve transformative change during business environment reform interventions at all stages of the programme development cycle. As gender influences and is influenced by all aspects of the business environment, it also needs to be considered for all aspects and stages of programming. Critically, any gender-sensitive business environment reform will require addressing not only the factors that directly restrict women’s employment and entrepreneurship but also the socio-cultural binding constraints on women to effectively remove negative implications on economic empowerment and sustainable economic growth.