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Dhaka, Bangladesh, March 15, 2007 –
IFC Advisory Services for South Asia—the SouthAsia Enterprise Development Facility—and the Bangladesh Federation of Women Entrepreneurs today signed an agreement to launch a series of training workshops that will increase the technical and business management skills of women entrepreneurs and workers in the light engineering sector. The initiative will enhance productivity and raise income for women in the light engineering sector.
Light engineering is a growing sector that employs about 800,000 people, but very few are women. To help women benefit from opportunities in the sector, IFC plans to organize the workshops at locations in several subsectors connected to light engineering where women are directly or indirectly involved. The first session will focus on women entrepreneurs and workers in machine shops. It will be followed by other similar training sessions.
The project will also train people and develop a training curriculum that will allow them to become independent trainers. “We look forward to promoting the sustainable development of training services to help women compete in the light engineering sector,” said Rokia A. Rahman, Executive Director of the Bangladesh Federation of Women Entrepreneurs.
“This project is the first of its kind in the light engineering sector. We hope it will lead to the creation of a critical mass of women-led enterprises and change perceptions about what women are capable of doing,” said Deepak Adhikary, Deputy General Manager, IFC-SEDF.
About IFC
IFC, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, promotes open and competitive markets in developing countries. IFC supports sustainable private sector companies and other partners in generating productive jobs and delivering basic services, so that people have opportunities to escape poverty and improve their lives. Through FY06, IFC Financial Products has committed more than $56 billion in funding for private sector investments and mobilized an additional $25 billion in syndications for 3,531 companies in 140 developing countries. IFC Advisory Services and donor partners have provided more than $1 billion in program support to build small enterprises, to accelerate private participation in infrastructure, to improve the business enabling environment, to increase access to finance, and to strengthen environmental and social sustainability. For more information, please visit
www.ifc.org
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About IFC-SEDF
The IFC SouthAsia Enterprise Development Facility is a multidonor funded facility managed and operated by IFC. It is one of the 11 regional programs managed by IFC worldwide. Set up to promote the growth of small businesses in the region, IFC-SEDF is funded by IFC, the governments of the Netherlands and Norway, and the European Commission, DFID (U.K.), CIDA (Canada), and the Asian Development Bank. The facility provides increased access to finance and quality business development services to projects in Bangladesh, Bhutan, northeast India, the Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. IFC-SEDF also helps create a business enabling environment and assists in the value addition to firms through sector development and organization-specific advisory services, capacity building programs, training, and research. Its ultimate goal is to assist in private sector development to create market opportunities for SMEs and promote economic growth in the region.
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