Commonwealth businesswomen Book

Globalisation and trade liberalisation are posing a number of challenges - as well as creating new opportunities - for the many women entrepreneurs throughout the Commonwealth. Since women-owned businesses play a key role in national economic growth, it is important to ensure that the policy environment, infrastructure and support mechanism for businesses are accessible to them and respond to their needs, addressing discrimination and the fact that many women entrepreneurs have significantly less access than men to some of the key resources required to grow their businesses This book offers a number of case studies which address issues traditionally seen as problems for businesswomen: access to credit, information, technology and markets, and equity issues. These are followed by a compilation of best practices: more than 30 stories from around the Commonwealth showing how, while developing successful businesses, women entrepreneurs have found innovative ways to integrate social issues and structures as well as to network and build cross-sectoral alliances. If these businesswomen are to continue to succeed in an increasingly competitive global market place, they need to understand how the global trading system works, so this publication also provides an overview of World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements and looks at the workings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.