Remarks at “Catalyzing Women’s entrepreneurship: National Consultations on Enabling Environment for Women’s Entrepreneurship

Your Excellency Dr. Ly Thuch, Senior Minister and President of the National Committee for ESCAP

Your Excellency Dr. Ing Kantha Phavi, Minister of Women’s Affairs

Your Excellency Ms. Donica Pottie, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Canada to the Kingdom of Thailand, Kingdom of Cambodia, and the Lao People's Democratic Republic

Ms. Cai Cai, Chief, Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Section, Social Development Division, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)

Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen

It is an honor to speak to launch the National Consultations on Enabling Environment for Women’s Entrepreneurship. Just last week, the United Nations in Cambodia, together with our government and development partners, including many young leaders, took part in a “Sustainable Development Goals Leadership Lab”.  The SDG Leadership Lab explored how we can co-design a multi-stakeholder process to innovate and collaborate to achieve the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development in Cambodia. Among the ideas that stood out was how private sector can drive the agenda of inclusive and sustainable business?  How can we  influence business to create social and environmental impact, in addition to making profit alone? At the heart of this exploration is to discover new and innovative ways for women’s entrepreneurship drive sustainable development in Cambodia.

Why do I say this?

First, Cambodian women are already an important force in the economy.  The percentage of Cambodian women who are economically active is almost equal with that of men, but women tend to be concentrated in less lucrative, informal and insecure occupations.

Second, for many women, especially in developing countries, entrepreneurship is one of the key vehicles for empowerment that can be jumpstarted easily.  Entrepreneurship allows more flexibility and freedom for women, who typically juggle multiple roles.  And this is one of the core challenges to overcome. For many women, self-employment is a necessity rather than a choice, driven by factors such as the need to accommodate care responsibilities for their children or ageing parents and even extended family members or job losses in the formal sector. 

Third, women own sixty-five percent of Cambodian businesses, but most of them are on a small scale, and fifty percent of women-owned enterprises are one-woman businesses. A recent OECD report stated that many of these businesses around the world are often concentrated in the services sectors with low profitability and often not related to the field of science, technology, engineering or maths (STEM). Women entrepreneurs are often reluctant to increase the scale of their operation, and this is also true for Cambodia.  This reluctance may well be because of the institutional barriers that self-employed women and small business owners face to start up and to grow their businesses. [That is true in both high and low-income countries.]

For these reasons, the approach that the project Catalyzing Women’s Entrepreneurship will take --  in exploring ways to build ecosystems in support of women’s entrepreneurship, is highly relevant and timely.  The barriers women entrepreneurs face are complex and require a network of solutions, including technology innovations that will ensure that women-led enterprises are fit for the 21st century.  The project will also encourage and support the existing national SMEs, relevant associations and key partner networks to access knowledge, finance, technological innovations and mentorships for women entrepreneurs to successfully compete and thrive in the domestic and global markets.

Technical fixes alone however are not sufficient.  For women entrepreneurs to genuinely be competitive, addressing barriers found in social norms need to be addressed upfront.  What do I mean by social norms as barriers?   For example, expectations that create beliefs that men are better at generating ideas, taking leadership roles, making money or engaging with the new technological innovations undermine efforts by women to succeed in business. Stereotypes affect women’s beliefs and can limit their ambitions or encourage them to take traditionally female and often less well-paid career paths. It is important to begin addressing these with young girls and boys from an early age, encouraging critical thinking and reflection about gendered social norms.

Role models are also important in supporting women’s advancement.  While men often have ready-made support networks to help them access business opportunities there is a need to develop networks, role models and mentors for women entrepreneurs. There are already excellent examples of Cambodian women, who became successful entrepreneurs. Take Sophie Meas, who is a co-founder of ShopRunBack. Her company helps leading online retailers to provide a seamless, customer-friendly returns solution, increasing customer satisfaction and boosting sales.

And many other women are leading the charge for change. For example, SHE Investments, which will be taking part in the event today, has collaborated with relevant government ministries and with the private sector to create an online platform to help small businesses register, helping carve out a pathway for women-owned businesses to formalize. Targeted and practical skills building and development of accessible tools and platforms to support women’s entrepreneurship are also a great way forward.

SDG 5, achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls have a specific target (5B), that focuses on enhancing the use of enabling technologies, in particular ICT, to promote women’s empowerment. The combination of using new technologies to support women entrepreneurs is exactly the new way of thinking that can help bring about positive change. Through entrepreneurship, digital skills and empowerment, women have the power to be the driving force for sustainable developments.

It is encouraging to see increasing efforts in promoting young women in science and technology in Cambodia. Recently, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, Development Innovations and IT Academy STEP Cambodia launched the first Cambodian female coding club - “Sisters of Code” - to encourage female students to try programming skills and develop their confidence, as well as equip them for successful digital future. I have shared this example at the TV Youth Debate organized by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs in March. And I know that many similar initiatives have been implemented.

In closing, I do recognize and applaud the many efforts in the past to support women’s entrepreneurship in Cambodia.  What makes this initiative stand out is its attempt, or what we hope it would do, to foster an ecosystem of collaboration and coordination – amongst government, the private sector, women entrepreneurs associations, technology providers, innovators and other unusual suspects.  We expect that such collaboration will create shared value, codify lessons and strengthen networks not only of women’s entrepreneurs but with regional and global players as well.

I congratulate the National Committee for ESCAP, the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, the Economic and Social Commission of Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the Canadian government and all of the partners of this initiative.  The United Nations in Cambodia is committed to work closely with you in this endeavor.

Thank you for your attention.