According to the United Nations (UN), the global economy could shrink by up to 1% in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, a reversal from the previous forecast of 2.5% growth. The world has now begun to witness the severe impacts of the pandemic on the global economy. The UNESCAP-SANEM South Asia Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) Model suggested that as many as 132 million people could be pushed into extreme ($1.9/day) poverty in South Asia, the bulk of them being in India followed by Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka. We have already sensed the immeasurable impact in the lives of women caused by the pandemic.
The COVID-19 crisis comes with an ominous economic outlook, especially in the context of Nepal because of its strong reliance on foreign remittance. This has unfairly impacted women. According to the World Bank, in 2019, the remittance rate in Nepal was equivalent to 27.3% of the GDP, of which 8.5% was accounted for by women. As per World Bank estimates, remittance to Nepal is expected to drop by 14% this year. As a result of the pandemic, women migrant workers are at higher risk of returning to Nepal, thereby limiting their employment status, sources of income, and purchasing power.
The National Labor Force Survey (2018), in Nepal, states that 90.5% of women employment is centred in informal sectors. Women are often dependent on public space as street vendors to earn a living, which is now being restricted to contain the spread of the pandemic. The lockdown has exacerbated weakness in informal workers and food security is a growing concern for them.
It appears that COVID-19 has reversed the substantial growth and improvement in terms of women’s economic empowerment impacting women-owned businesses, market supply-chains in SMEs, thereby disturbing the livelihoods of women and their families. The Department of Industries, MEDP Report 2019 states that out of total 923,356 operational SMEs in Nepal, only 247,880 (29.8%) is owned by women entrepreneurs. With the continuing spread of COVID-19, both the demand and the supply side of the SMEs have been altered dropping the credit level at the financial markets.
After COVID 19, it will be a tough journey for women entrepreneurs to move ahead with their pace, hence development organizations should come together with the government to pave their path to circumvent financial inaccessibility and gain the confidence to restart their business.
To support women entrepreneurs, we need to bring a gender and diversity lens to our responses, or else decades of hard-won gains will be lost. In this context, the much needed PPP model could be taken wherein the government, private sector and development partners could support and invest to revive the toppling women entrepreneurship.
South Asian Women Development Forum (SAWDF), a regional organization representing national women entrepreneurs’ associations- federations and chambers has been working towards the economic issues of women in South Asia. SAWDF has been bringing together a consortium of women-led institutions and facilitating in taking forward the deliberations and recommendations to develop women SMEs policies through SAWDF Chapters in South Asia.
Realizing the urgency, the forum has collaborated with its chapters in the SAARC region to measure the impact and develop sustainable strategies/programs for their business recovery as women SMEs employ a fairly big number of semi-skilled workers in Nepal. As a building block to identify how businesses are currently coping with post-COVID crisis, SAWDF in partnership with development partners – ICIMOD has been initiating an online survey for women entrepreneurs across the South Asian region and few ASEAN countries to assess impacts and design present and future measures from an economic and policymaking perspective to build resilience and adaptability.
SAWDF is in the process of undertaking the government’s support focusing on women migrant returnees to bring out sustainable strategies to help their income avenues adopting agro-based skills, production, manufacture from agro by-products to set up agro-enterprises. The agriculture sector accounts for 24% of economic growth as per Nepal Development 2019, World Bank. In this context, commercial farming can be economy-boosting in the context of Nepal and the use of technology can be value addition. Specific strategies can be adopted to increase trade and diversification of products such as the establishment of herbal hubs processing centres on agro products, to commercialize agro by-products, etc.
More than ever, post-COVID 19 has been critical to upholding deliberate focus for women entrepreneurs to nurture their fledgeling SMEs and retain their business for the long run. While there can be sustainable initiatives to integrate the strategies to cover up the economic downfall, Nepal still has a long way to go on its journey to bounce back in the national economy.
Ms Pramila Acharya Rijal
President
South Asian Women Development Forum
(SAWDF)
