The recent disclosure that the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has launched a funded programme – Women Growing Together in the Americas – which seeks to encourage women entrepreneurs in the hemisphere to integrate their businesses into foreign trade and regional value-chains, is deserving of region-wide acknowledgement. Here in the Caribbean, not least in Guyana, the customary ‘huff and puff’ about an entrepreneurial route to economic emancipation for women has not been, even remotely, adequately matched by practical action to realise that goal. Over time, the Stabroek Business has conducted a number of interviews with local women-owned micro and small businesses. A sizeable number of these have blamed a lack of any real institutional support from both government and Business Support Organisations (BSO) for their failure to place their businesses on a firm long-term footing.
We anticipate entirely the disapproving frown of our BSOs in response to our assertion that these, historically, have been gender-lopsided, the leadership balanced overwhelmingly in favour of men occupying mostly sinecure positions. We challenge them, however, to make anything even remotely resembling a persuasive case to the contrary.
