Women: The Emerging Economic Force
CIPE Conference Highlights the Growing Influence of Women in Business

"Even though women's contributions to business are one of the major engines of global economic growth, too often women do not have access to basic business education, commercial credit, and marketing opportunities . . . It is in everyone's interest to improve the status of women. Studies show that societies that promote women's rights are healthier and more prosperous. Societies that restrict women's rights are just the opposite."

With those words, J. Brady Anderson, Administrator at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), opened CIPE's most recent conference, "Women: The Emerging Economic Force." The June 15 & 16 event drew 175 participants from nearly 50 nations, making it the largest private sector-driven conference of its kind dedicated to women in business.

Another keynote speaker, U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky, described the event as an "ambitious and comprehensive set of briefings, covering the full range of issues facing women entering business and international trade." Barshefsky went on to highlight the important role that women play in today's global economy, placing special emphasis on the need to make the trading system more accessible to women, "more inclusive, more open to smaller and newer businesses, and more effective in promoting economic development."

"Women: The Emerging Economic Force" is CIPE's second conference dedicated to women's issues. The first conference, held in Washington in September 1997, was entitled "Organizing for Success: Strengthening Women's Business Organizations."

Participants in the June 15 & 16 conference included entrepreneurs, representatives of business associations, government officials, heads of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and journalists. The goals of the conference included:

• Energizing women to overcome barriers to full participation in the world economy
• Mobilizing women to share success stories so that others may grow and profit
• Cultivating advocacy skills and developing strategic plans
• Increasing knowledge about how to access accurate information
• Learning the rules of international trade and how to participate in the World Trade Organization

On June 13 and 14, in the two days leading up to the conference, CIPE held a trade training program for women's business associations. Nearly 150 women participated in workshops concentrating on export promotion, foreign direct investment, globalization and e-commerce, the World Trade Organization, and the role of business associations in a democratic society. The workshops provided a solid grounding in these issues and complemented the two-day conference.

Barshefsky, the U.S. Government's chief trade negotiator, noted that the U.S. Trade Representative's work "rests on a simple foundation: the commitment to open markets, freer trade, and the rule of law in world commerce." She pointed out that the day of her speech, June 16, commemorated the 70th anniversary of the Smoot-Hawley Act, which she described as the "largest single restriction on trade in American history" and a major contributor to the Great Depression of the 1930s.

She went on to say that the free trade policies of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and successive administrations have led to:

Growth and Rising Living Standards - Since the 1950s, trade has expanded fifteen-fold, world economic production has grown six-fold, and per capita income has nearly tripled. The result, Barshefsky said, has been "historically unprecedented social progress: since the 1950s, world life expectancy has grown by 20 years, infant mortality dropped by two-thirds, and famine receded from all but the most remote or misgoverned corners of the world."

Economic Security - In 1997-99, with 40 percent of the world in an economic recession, the "system of mutual benefit and the rule of law represented by the WTO helped prevent a cycle of protection and retaliation like that of the 1930s and ultimately averted the political strife that can erupt in economic crisis."

Peace and Stability - Barshefsky praised the international economic system for its role in reintegrating Germany and Japan in the 1950s, nations emerging from colonial rule in the 1960s and 1970s, and the nearly 30 nations that have broken with communist planning systems and sought economic integration since the end of the Cold War.

According to the United Nations, nearly half of the world's business owners are women, and they are responsible for more than half of the economic activity in developing nations. Despite this, according to the U.N., only one-third of the work that women do in the developing world is measured and counted in national economic reports.

In providing microenterprise loans to women around the world, USAID has been working to end those disparities. In 1998, more than 3.5 million people - eighty-four percent of them women - were involved in USAID microenterprise programs. Active loans during that period totaled $1.3 billion, and the average loan repayment rate has been over 95 percent. As one conference participant suggested, "This shows that even under the most extreme conditions, women are good credit risks."

Microenterprise loans were also a key topic of discussion last November, when CIPE played a lead role in a conference in New Delhi, India organized by the Federation of Indian Women Entrepreneurs (FIWE), a CIPE partner organization. That three-day session attracted nearly 200 women leaders from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and Bangladesh.

The Washington conference also explored such issues as corporate governance and the need to combat corruption. These are areas in which CIPE has dedicated considerable resources in recent years, and women business leaders have become increasingly familiar with such issues as they become leaders within their respective communities.

Dr. John Sullivan, CIPE's Executive Director, said that without a strong rule of law and good corporate governance, investments become little more than bets: "Bets that people will keep their word, bets that firms are telling the truth, bets that employees will be paid, and bets that debts will be honored." He concluded, "No investor wants to take that kind of risk."

Anderson, USAID's Administrator, emphasized some of the same themes: "Both CIPE and USAID understand that there are few things more central to the success of international business than sound rules and practices - what some refer to as corporate governance. There is no substitute for transparency, accountability, and good management." For women entrepreneurs, he suggested, establishing these practices and principles early on "helps attract private investment and helps businesses compete internationally."

In the end, Anderson suggested, markets will be looking to the private sector to serve as the engine for economic growth. "The challenge facing business in the 21st century," he concluded, "is not only how to get the business off the ground, but how to transform the very fabric of societies in developing countries to make them more friendly to private enterprise."

More information on "Women: The Emerging Economic Force" is available on CIPE's website at www.cipe.org.