Here’s an interesting upturn even during a downturn. Amid all the bad news on investment banking, Goldman Sachs has a special program to train women in entrepreneurship in developing markets. The World Bank has a $100 million program for commercial credit to women.
This was in a Dec. 26 report in The New York Times: Businesses See Opportunities in Empowering Women. Here’s a quote:
Many corporate programs employ microloans, grants or gifts to promote business education. Goldman decided to take a different approach after its research showed that per-capita income in Brazil, China, India, Russia and other emerging markets could rise by as much as 14 percent if women had better management and entrepreneurial skills.
“It’s not only philanthropy they’re after,” said Geeta Rao Gupta, president of the International Center for Research on Women. Goldman “had the idea that investment in women means a return on the gross national product of the country, and on household income.”
The Goldman Sachs initiative is called “10,000 Women.” The story also mentions an AT&T donation to create a foundation for training women from developing nations.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 30th, 2008 at 5:45 am and is filed under entrepreneurship education, startup financing, startup stories, trends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.2 Responses to “Business Skills for Women in Emerging Markets”
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December 30th, 2008 at 6:48 am
Women can make a big difference i think in business, they are more human in business than men usually.
This is really a great news.
Thanks
Michel Richer
Hombyz
December 30th, 2008 at 7:06 am
Microloans have been a huge opportunity for small foreign banks for years. Goldman is simply taking advantage of the opportunity for the enormous returns made on high interest tiny loans made to the poor.
Funny thing is, loan sharks figured this out in ‘the hood’ a long time ago.
- Curtis
http://ShipItOnTheSide.come – Learn to ship profitable software as a side job.