Good Practice: Her&Now - Eco­nomic Em­power­ment of Wo­men En­tre­pren­eurs and Start-ups by Wo­men

For achieving sustainable economic growth in India and creating jobs, women must play a greater role in the economy as employees and entrepreneurs. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), the employment rate among Indian women is currently just 27 per cent. The United Nations reports that this means they make only a 17 percent contribution to India’s gross domestic product (GDP). The International Monetary Fund estimates that equal participation of women in the labour market would increase India’s GDP by 27 per cent. A current focus of the Indian Government’s economic policy is on encouraging entrepreneurship – and, in the process, particularly on supporting women entrepreneurs.

The project’s objective is to create a more enabling environment for women-led businesses in India.

Together with local implementing partners, the project provides incubation and acceleration programs to women to transform their business ideas into enterprises and set their existing businesses onto a growth track. It equips entrepreneurs with critical business skills, customized support through mentors, access to market opportunities and financial linkages for business success. It connects entrepreneurs and strengthens their self-image as business owners by building peer networks.

The project advises the partner ministry MoSDE as well as other state institutions on designing and implementing gender-sensitive government support schemes for entrepreneurs. Learnings from the incubation and acceleration programs are fed directly into policy development with the aim to make government support schemes more effective and accessible for women entrepreneurs in India.

Short film screenings and social media campaigns encourage a public debate about the great potential of women-led businesses and showcase role models with the goal of transforming socially entrenched norms and roles.

By mid-2020, the first group of women entrepreneurs has successfully graduated from the Her&Now support programmes in the North Eastern Region, Rajasthan and Telangana: 141 entrepreneurs received support to transform their business ideas into registered enterprises and to grow their existing businesses. Towards the end of the programmes, the cohort was – and keeps being – impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, the project extended the support programmes beyond their actual duration. Their determination to build successful enterprises that can scale, and their perseverance during this COVID-19 pandemic are inspiring:

• 37% of incubation participants have set up their new businesses.
• 94% of acceleration participants successfully scaled up their business.
• 37% of participants increased their revenue pre-COVID.
• 71% of participants established new market linkages.
• 57% of participants became part of business networks.
• 90% of participants improved the quality of their products or services.
• 71% of participants improved internal organisational processes.
• 91% of participants strengthened their self-confidence as an entrepreneur.
• 17% of participants' businesses are currently not operational due to COVID-19.