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"Will Women's World Banking Come to Croatia?" Vjesnik, (Croatian daily) Zagreb,
31 July 2000 "One has to work on human rights awareness, but what can you do with those rights if economic independence doesn't exist?" is the question that spurred projects for giving loans to women, says Jill Benderly, regional director of STAR for the Yugoslav Successor States, based in Zagreb. STAR supports such programs understanding that women's economic empowerment is a precondition for strengthening women's political influence. STAR is a nongovernmental organization working under the auspices of World Learning, a U.S. organization founded in 1932 and in Croatia since 1995. In June, STAR organized a regional conference in Porec on "Advocacy Strategies for Women's Political and Economic Empowerment." Some 80 women attended from Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia as well as Western Europe and the U.S. Participants from transition countries brought their experience from the economic sphere. Women from Slovakia and Poland raised the problem that women who had been employed in the public and private sector are frequently unemployed if the government doesn't regulate privatization. In addition, women aged 45 and older are often candidates for "technical redundancy" and lay-offs. If they lose their jobs at that age, prospects for new jobs or retraining are very few. In Croatia, businesswomen complain about expensive credit and the difficulties of locating commercial premises, which often require political connections. Labor union women warn that in our country private employers frequently hire women workers only on the condition that they won't become pregnant. Participants drew attention to numerous problems related to women in the business world and on the labor market. These include discrimination on the basis of gender, age, ethnicity, and disability. They advocated that bankers secure support for women's entrepreneurship and simplify credit application procedures, and that schools insert basic entrepreneurship education into the curriculum. They emphasize that when public enterprises are sold to private owners, technologically redundant workers must be guaranteed retraining. Also, they wish for greater public presentation of successful women business owners. (Benderly says that two successful Croatian women entrepreneurs attended the Porec conference: Ela Kureševic, owner of a health food chain, and Blazenka Hladnik, who learned during the conference that her hand cream won a gold medal at an international competition.) Financing of women's entrepreneurship began in the 1980s globally. From projects in Bangladesh to help women buy sewing machines so they could earn a living grew the powerful institution Grameen Bank. Another such institution is Women's World Banking, which may set up a program in Croatia. Microcredit models like those at Grameen Bank and WWB have been adapted by some associations in Croatia (NOA in Osijek and Baranja, Catholic Relief Services) although they are not aimed exclusively at helping women, and in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo. The criticism is that the loans provided are very small and the interest rates are very high (from short-term to three years, 10-18%). Still despite these unfavorable aspects, it has been shown that women are more reliable when it comes to repaying loans, says Jill Benderly. Group lending principles for microcredit are applied for women who have no assets to offer as collateral to guarantee the loan. The group lending process is based on a group of five to 10 women who will guarantee the loan. At the same time, that method of support for women entrepreneurs ensures meetings at which they can hear the experiences of others, get advice, and discuss any business or personal difficulties they face. According to Jill Benderly, this method of support brings close to 100% repayment rates. The Porec conference also stressed the importance of avoiding giving non-repayable support because it is shown to be unproductive, as is giving guarantees without economic justification and independent project evaluation. Representatives of the Croatian National Bank are reported to consider microcredit programs welcome competition to banks. Benderly says that support is expected from these institutions for a variety of actions. STAR states that banks currently don't collect specific data on credit for women's entrepreneurs, which should be changed, and that ordinary banks should get involved in this method of providing support for women's labor market participation. According to Jill Benderly, the issue of women's economic rights will be raised for inclusion at the working tables of the Stability Pact for Southeastern Europe-not only at the democratization working table but also at the economic and security working tables. STAR reports that a special working group is preparing a draft strategy for developing women's entrepreneurship. Social Democratic Party parliamentarian Dijana Cizmadija initiated this effort during the parliament's budget debate late February-March. She says that the strategy development issue was inserted into the workplan for the Ministry of Small and Medium Businesses and Trades. But ministry official Dragica Karajic says they have not yet received official confirmation of this. She added that this administrative unclarity does not decrease their commitment to support women's programs and participate in the working group. Parliamentarian Cizmadija told us that she and her colleagues want the draft strategy to be completed in time for the 2001 budget debate so it can include a line item on credit for women. It's in our interest for the state to support this, said Cizmadija. Asked how these initiatives are received in the Parliament, she said some were wondering "what is this now, why are we dividing entrepreneurs by gender." She reacted to such positions with the statement that it's worth learning from positive European experience in this field. We asked Jill Benderly if she anticipates negative reactions in Parliamentary debates on whether to protect women in such ways. She thinks there will be such positions, but states that "When women have equal opportunities, men also benefit. This strategy is only one among the affirmative action mechanisms that exist to engage women more in the economic-political scene." |
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