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Assistance to women's businesses – evaluating the options
01.12.1992
The 'Women in Development' movement and women's income-generation programmes have traditionally taken a broad-based welfare approach which has emphasized improving women's general living standards rather than enhancing their independence and active participation in the main-stream of the economy. Over the past several years, people have become increasingly aware of the need to focus on entrepreneurship development as a more specific objective in the support of women in developing countries. The effectiveness of women entrepreneurship development programmes, however, has been hampered by the fact that people are still putting too much emphasis on gender, and not enough emphasis on 'entrepreneurship' as such. This article, based on experience in Kenya, presents a strategy for more effective women entrepreneurship development through a gender-neutral approach.