For years, microfinance groups have sought to lift low-income individuals out of poverty by providing small loans so that they can become entrepreneurs.
But what happens when those entrepreneurs in impoverished countries begin to succeed -- and need mentoring and training to scale their businesses?
A new program launched by Cherie Blair, the wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, aims to help women business owners in Africa, South Asia and the Middle East further their marketing, technological and financial skills. In announcing the program Thursday in New York, Blair called such entrepreneurs the "missing middles" and said she hopes by 2014 to match 1,000 female entrepreneurs in developing nations with business mentors from around the world, primarily with the aid of technology.
"When you combine mentoring with technology, there are suddenly no barriers," Blair said, at an event held at the McGraw-Hill Building. "We come together as equals."
The nonprofit program, dubbed Mentoring Women in Business, is run through Blair's Cherie Blair Foundation and funded by a number of charities and companies, including Google.
The event featured a panel discussion moderated by ABC anchor Christiane Amanpour. During the panel, Google's chief business officer, Nikesh Arora, said the search engine wanted to get involved because "clearly we have a bias toward technology" but also because its translation tools seemed particularly suited for facilitating long-distance conversations between mentors and mentees.
Two participants of the Mentoring Women in Business program, which recently completed a 12-month pilot phase, also sat on the panel. Karon Shaiva, who runs a marketing agency in Mumbai, said she needed to learn more about raising funds, pitching investors and fine-tuning a business plan -- and received such help from Ritu Kumar, a senior advisor at Actis, a private equity firm in London. The mentoring "made all the difference," Shaiva said.
Blair's program, like many microfinance organizations, focuses on women in emerging markets, who historically have faced scant access to capital and sometimes cultural barriers to working.
In a light-hearted moment before the event began, Tony Blair gave welcoming remarks and told attendees he was supporting the program "not just as a dutiful husband -- I'm not good at that anyway" but rather "I really think it's a fantastic idea."
"Good entrepreneurship is part of a good country," he said. "If women do well, the region will do well."
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Comments:
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The Cherie Blair Foundation for Women and the Foundation for Women's Education and Training today announced a collaborative project to support women entrepreneurs in Malaysia.
It's always great to see more support for entrepreneurs.
What a great idea, and so true - it's great to give the help in the start-ups beginning, but the business owners could really benefit from mentor's business building tools and techniques. Access to funds, technology and mentors / guidence would be so important for these business builders. What a wonderful program!
I spotted Mrs Blair at Christie's South Ken buying yet more furniture. Here's my blog about their rise to millionairedom. Good luck to 'em: http://dasteepsspeaks.blogspot.com/2011/10/chair-of-blair.html
I agree with Blair’s concept but I’d take it a step further: What about the middle level of women entrepreneurs in developed countries? They could use a boost, too, and doing so would be good for the moribund economies of Britain and America.
I've followed and interviewed several Micro-finance organizations as well as groups of women receiving the loans in Latin America -- women who receive the training on how to choose, implement a business plan and market their products tend to be more successful than those who only receive a loan. Micro-credit organizations which only provide the small micro-credit without the proper training where loosing money. Therefore, money without proper training is lost money.
One thing this vile women never was is FIRST LADY, she was the wife of a former PM that does not mean she was first lady!
AS one pioneer in introducing micro finance in self help group in South India, I have found the concept is the most misunderstood and secondly the intervention on the part of change agent is continuous and varies temporally as the changing organizational dimension of this group.
Good start on a great idea long overdue. But with the accelerated growth of new women owned businesses in developing countries, over the next 3 years, I think the goal of matching 1000 'missing middles' by 2014 is too modest a goal.
This is truly a commendable effort whose outcome is not just profits but women empowerment. Mentoring does make a big difference in encouraging smaller businesses to grow. Fantastic to see mentorship happening in real life rather than just on TV :)
Great innovative idea for women entrepreneurs. In the last 5 years, the number of businesses owned by women has increased by nearly 58%, from 2.6 million to about 4.1 million.
We all know how UK people like you make a point to undermined anyone's good work. It is a great shame. UK managed to produce a huge amount of excellent individuals whose goal it is to represent their country in an elightened way, and then there are a huge amount of beer drinkers louters who think it is their duty to denigrate those hard-working people on an internationally read platform. I don't have any doubt about who I prefer. May be your sense of nationalism could go a little further and you could just avoid commenting at all rates rather than putting your foot in it when all you aim at is trashing your own country, its culture, its men and women. Thankfully you won't be remembered.
This is such a lovely initiative on the part of the Prime Minister's wife, and I am convinced that it will really help spur along women entrepreneurs, and encourage them in their startup endeavors. The most formidable thing about it is that the program is going beyond the traditional microfinance realm and is going to be fostering long-term growth in those regions.
I heard Cherie Blair interviewed on the Commonwealth Club of California. She is knowledgeable, experienced and most practical. Her idea is superior--it takes global to a depth of support at a personal level -- woman to woman. It is something each of us can easily contribute, with a grand impact on woman's economic independence. Also western women have so much to be learned from the developing countries.
I think the men who have posted comments about "First Lady" are missing the point. What she is called is irrelevant. What she is doing is very important. That is what they should be discussing.
In our place, we have small loans for women to run business, I think this is good to support their family income.
There is no formal position of 'First Lady' in the UK - and if there were it would be The Queen. Not some some money-grubbing champagne socialist who happened to have the good fortune to marry another champagne socialist.
As a woman in the marketplace, I love this idea and the fact that they are mentoring on an ongoing basis. Women need encouragement and open doors to be brave and take a step towards entrepreneurship and innovation. I applaud all these women for advancing the women in developing countries that wouldn't normally have these opportunities.
I think the Queen may have something to say about describing her as the former "First Lady"...
First Lady? Have you by any chance heard of "Her Majesy the Queen"?
This free loader was never 'the Furst Lady' She was however the Prime Ministers wife.
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