Mauritius is currently holding a Gender mainstreaming workshop, focusing on empowering women through cooperatives at the National Cooperative College.
Gender mainstreaming conform to the United Nations (UN) Economic and Social Council formally defined concept, “Mainstreaming a gender perspective is the process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action, including legislation, policies or programmes, in all areas and at all levels.”
During his workshop opening speech earlier today, Minister of Business, Enterprise and Cooperatives, Soomilduth Bholah, lauded the contribution of women to the country’s economic development. He reaffirmed the government’s commitment to promote economic empowerment of women, while encouraging development and growth of women entrepreneurs. He noted that several measures and incentives have been put in place to support cooperatives.
“According to Statistics Mauritius, women make up more than 50 percent of the country’s population compared to the male population,” said Bholah, adding there are only 75 women cooperative societies. He encouraged women to fully tap their potential and avail themselves for schemes and incentives provided by government to become entrepreneurs and set up cooperative societies.
“One of the latest schemes pertains to the grant of financial assistance by the Development Bank of Mauritius ,by way of no guarantee loans up to a ceiling at a fixed interest rate of three percent to assist women to start a business.”
The Minister further pointed out that the Mauritius Women Entrepreneur Cooperative Federation Ltd, acts as a facilitator in helping women to improve their skills and aptitudes in entrepreneurship and encouraging women to engage in the cooperative movement in Mauritius.
Source: African Daily Voice
