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In order to support women's business in Ukraine, the results of the study "Ukrainian Female Entrepreneur Profile" will be updated. The materials aim to highlight the main problems of entrepreneurship and direct the efforts of the state and donor organizations to its development in the war and post-war times.

 

For the first time, the study was published after the start of the pandemic to assess the impact of quarantine restrictions on the state of business of female entrepreneurs. The large-scale work was published under the authorship of the Ukraine Investment & Trade Facilitation Center for the Promotion of and Trade in partnership with the Ukrainian Marketing Group, with the support of the USAID Competitive Economy Program (CEP).

 

Presenting a portrait of Ukrainian women entrepreneurs, the authors considered the current state and prospects of business development, talked about obstacles and the gender aspect, and also gave their recommendations for creating a comprehensive program to support Ukrainian women's entrepreneurship.

 

The USAID Competitive Economy Program on an ongoing basis supports the development and implementation of analytical tools in various sectors of the economy - research and providing access to open data in understandable and consumer-friendly formats. Decision-making based on expert knowledge or data reinforces the design and implementation of initiatives, allows you to intelligently plan and allocate limited resources, and manage the implementation of initiatives. Conducting the next wave of research "Portrait of Ukrainian women entrepreneurs" is an opportunity to draw attention to the important role of women in small and medium-sized businesses, and the role of women in Ukrainian society during wartime, women who can be active in economic activity and increase their presence in many sectors of the economy. USAID CEP has supported past waves of research in previous years. With this stage of data collection, we hope to record the impact of the war on the role of women in entrepreneurship, and trace the dynamics of women's participation in the economy of Ukraine for several years, - notes Nataliia Petrova, Program Manager of the USAID Office of Economic Growth.

 

As a result of the war, Ukrainian business suffered significant losses. Some enterprises have stopped their activities, others need financial and informational resources for further activities. The updated study will be aimed at determining the scale of the impact of military actions, as well as identifying the current needs of women entrepreneurs.

 

Like the current one, the new study will contain a comprehensive analysis of businesses and the activities of female entrepreneurs. It is planned to conduct an online questionnaire and interview with the owners, which should reveal the extent of losses and effective methods of overcoming the crisis, which are currently used by entrepreneurs, - says Iryna Tytarchuk, executive director of the ITFC. - In the pre-war period, women mentioned lack of time, knowledge, financial assistance for development and the unstable state of the country among the factors that hinder modern activities. Currently, the ratio of these indicators has changed, and the study should show growth points and directions for attracting resources.

 

The authors of the survey "Ukrainian Female Entrepreneur Profile" have already prepared a list of questions and invite business owners to take part in it. Thanks to a simple format in the form of tests, the questionnaire will allow you to share important thoughts and your own experience. Now, more than ever, business needs to build a customer base, stabilize, relocate and scale through entry into European markets. Therefore, in addition to basic questions about the form and type of activity, the authors offer to give their assessment of Ukrainian business and its prospects, to note the role of women in entrepreneurship, to talk about the difficulties in their work and ways to overcome them. All in all, this will allow us to identify business weaknesses, develop methods and directions for assistance, and simply motivate others with incredible stories about the resilience of Ukrainian businesswomen, regardless of the circumstances. You can join the survey here.

 

Monitoring the situation of the functioning of SMEs and updating the results will allow institutions, state authorities, international organizations and funds to adapt their activities to support businesses in the uncertain conditions of the wartime and post-war period, to form directions for business assistance and to effectively develop them.

 

Ukraine Investment & Trade Facilitation Center:

The Ukrainian Center for Promotion of Investment and Trade is an independent non-profit organization specializing in the development of small and medium-sized businesses, women's entrepreneurship, support for exports and trade in various sectors of the economy

 

USAID Competitive Economy Program (CEP):

The USAID program "Competitive Economy of Ukraine" supports startups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in order to increase their competitiveness in the domestic market of Ukraine and in international markets, helps in building a simplified and transparent business climate, and also provides Ukrainian companies with opportunities to take advantage of international trade .