Skip to content Skip to navigation

GIZ report showing impact of Covid-19 on women-led businesses

By AT News |

The Covid-19 crisis in India has posed severe challenges to small and growing businesses in the country, widening the pre-existing gender gaps and diminishing considerable developments achieved within the women entrepreneurship ecosystem in the past decades.

In a bid to shed light on the unique and disproportionate impact of the pandemic on women-led businesses, GIZ has recently come out with a detailed report. The report titled “Women Entrepreneurs’ Resilience in Times of Covid-19” was based on GIZ’s Project Her&Now.  The Her&Now project is implemented by GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit) on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and  the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), Government of India.

The findings of the report will be based on a study conducted in December 2020. The data will be collated based on interviews of 211 women entrepreneurs operating across a diverse field of sectors.

Speaking about the report, Project Head Ullas Marar says says, “Given that the pandemic is far from being over and there are high possibilities we may have to tackle a third wave and subsequent waves in the near future, it has become imperative to understand the ways in which women-led enterprises (as well as the women entrepreneurs themselves) responded to the pandemic when it began, because we believe a lot of lessons and learnings lie there."

"Keeping that in mind, we have prepared, and are now glad to release the report -- “Women Entrepreneurs’ Resilience in Times of Covid-19” – which we believe will be of great help for the key stakeholders in deriving best practices, learnings and opportunities for the wider ecosystem of women entrepreneurship in India", he added.

The report comprises three main sections: 

Impact of Covid-19 on women entrepreneurs: This section reveals that for most of the women entrepreneurs, their customer demand was being most affected in the aftermath of the pandemic, followed by issues relating to working capital and operational processes. Several entrepreneurs also struggled with accessing the marketplace, retaining employees and receiving supplies in time. A smaller share of the respondents experienced negative impacts relating to inventory.

Responsive measures by women entrepreneurs: This section highlights the key measures that women entrepreneurs took to counter operational disruptions, such as: efforts to market digitally, diversifying distribution channels, adjusting the product/service offering, re-adapting operations or revising the financial model, investing in business development, optimizing the supply chain, revising the pricing strategies, among others. By using either a few or most of these measures, many among the interviewed entrepreneurs were able to turn the Covid-19 induced challenges within their business environment into opportunities, reveals the report.

Conclusion: This section contains six important conclusions that can be drawn from the findings of the report and attempts to outline the optimal way forward for the women’s entrepreneurship ecosystem in India. 

Add new comment

Random Stories

Mohilary presents BTC budget

19 May 2015 - 5:52pm | Hantigiri Narzary
BTC Chief Hagrama Mohilary presented council budget of Rs 59219.99 lakhs plan and Rs 141924.44 lakhs non plan amounting  of Rs 201144.43 lakhs for the year 2015-16 today on its first day of the...

Top Naxal arrested

9 May 2013 - 10:28pm | AT News
Police claimed to have captured a top Maoist leader on Thursday.Identified as Anukul Chandra Naskar, 65, a politburo member of the Maoist leader was taken into custody from Barak Valley Wednesday....

Eye check-up camp in press club

26 Feb 2015 - 12:37pm | AT News
Sankaradeva Nethralaya in association with Guwahati Press Club has organized an eye check-up camp for scribes and their families on 4th March (Wednesday) 2015. Th e day long camp will start at 10 am...

ULFA-Govt talk by 2 months

29 Sep 2010 - 1:39pm | editor
The government and ULFA are hammering out a slew of strategies to ensure the first ever round of peace talk by the next two months. This is what the message which came during the 2day long visit...

Other Contents by Author

NFAI restores 9th Assamese film Runumi

As the country celebrates 100 years of Indian cinema,, here’s a good news from Assam. The National Film Archives of India (NFAI) has digitally restored an Assamese film made in 1952, whose only print was missing for over 40 years till it was recovered in a village in Assam in March 2010.The film, “Runumi”, written and directed by noted writer-Sattriya dance exponent, the late Suresh Chandra Goswami, has undergone digital audio and video restoration after a painstaking process of manual cleaning at the Restoration Laboratory. NFAI, which spent around Rs 6.5 lakh in the restoration work, as also done the English subtitling of the film, and has sent a master DVD to Goswami’s grandson, National...

Story collection released

A collection of stories by a popular  televison anchor Shikha Saikia was released on Tuesday morning in the city. Published by Bristi Prakashan, the collection of stroies titled Nirab Jantrana Aru Anyanya was released by the senior journalst Kanaksen Deka.The inaugural ceremony was attended by a group of televison and print journalists incluidng Jerryr Hussain, Pranay Bordoloi, Nava Thakuria with Naresh Kalita, Nabajit Patgiri etc.Shikha Saikia used to create short stroies since her college days. Now associated with News Live and Rang channel, Shikha has expressed her gratitude to everyone present on the occasion and commited to continue writing creative articles.

People of Arunachal should not suffer due to anti-Dam Campaign

The common people of Arunachal Pradesh should not suffer due to the ongoing anti-big dam campaign in Assam. Hence the movement against the big dams in Arunachal Pradesh should not include any step that affect the supply of essential commodities to the neighboring State. Friends of Arunachal Pradesh, a platform comprising environment activists, civil society leaders and journalists, in a press meet at Guwahati Press Club on Tuesday, also argues that the controversy related to the big-dams planned in Arunachal Pradesh for generating thousands Megawatt electricity should be resolved amicably. While morally supporting the anti-big dam movement and criticizing the attitude of the Union...

Annada Gohain expires

Annada Gohain, a resident of Kharghuli, breathed her last on 19th September 2011 at a private hospital in Guwahati at the age of 81 years. She retired as Additional Director (Agriculture) under Assam Government in 1987. In 1948, she graduated with Chemistry Honours from Cotton College. In 1955, she went to Australia for a special two year Food Technology course conducted by the University of New South Wales under the Colombo Plan. After successfully completing the course, she stayed on till 1959 for research work leading to the award of her M.Sc. degree. Annada Gohain was the daughter of eminent educationist Mahendra Nath Gohain of Nizarapar, Guwahati. Her husband Jitendra Nath Gohain...

Anna Hazare’s supporters’ rock Kharsing Engti’s home town

Supporting the Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement, the people of entire the Howraghat area took out candle rally on Tuesday evening at Assam HAD Minister, Kharsing Engti’s home town Howraghat. It may be mentioned here that along with joining of common people, large numbers of Kharsing Engti’s supporters appeared coming out to the street and joined in the Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement taking candle lights and banners defying their party protocols. From the point of view, it is clear that people are now completely indifferent against the massive corruptions are on in the Country. It needs to be mentioned here that taking out rally by the Congress...

Sunita Bhuyan performs in Mumbai

Assamese violinist Sunita Khaund Bhuyan performed for the Shradhanjali ceremony in Mumbai, paying homage to Shri Rajiv Gandhi - the Late ex-Prime Minister of India on his 67th birth anniversary on Saturday, at the Mumbai Regional Congress Committee Head Office. The event was attended by few dignitaries. Sunita was felicitated by the CM and Milind Deora MP for her heart rendering recital.

I-Day celebrated in Karbi Anglong amidst the threat of militants

The people of the hill district Karbi Anglong celebrated the64th Independence Day defying the threat of Karbi militant organizations. The Tricolour national flag was unfurled by State HRD Minister, Kaharsing Engti on Monday, at Diphu Karbi Anglong Sports Association (KASA) stadium. In his speech, Engti higlighted on the different progresses that persisting round the clock by the State government. It may mentioned here that imcluding Diphu, and 11 Development Blocks of the hill district, at Howraghat Development Block too, Independence Day was observed with pomp and gaiety. The National triocolour was unfurled at Howraghat Development Block office premises by Premala Beypi, local MAC...

Friends looking for writers

To succeed in this competitive global environment, every student needs to have high motivation, ambition and perseverance to face the various challenges that they face. To do so, they require lot of positive attitude and inspiration from peers. Parents in this age are looking for resources, books and journals that would inspire their children to have ambition and a global outlook to excel in their chosen field of study. The magazine Friends is a sincere effort by the Non residents of Assam towards the upliftment of the Students and youths of the North East India. It contains articles on career guidance, education, travel and tourism, volunteering and Social entrepreneurism. Chief Editor...

Extra marital affair: man kills wife

In yet another bizarre incident that sends shockwave across the state, a man beheaded his wife in Dibrugarh district on Sunday. The accused, Polit Paik of Sessa Maoidamoni village under Barbaruah police station is believed to have killed his wife alleging extra martial affair. After killing his wife Pinky, he surrendered before the police. He said he caught his wife Pinky alias Rekha Paik in a compromising position with her lover. Paik beheaded his 30-year-old wife with a sharp weapon and later rushed to the police station with her severed head. Paik who has four children confessed to the police about the crime. The third person managed to flee the scene, the body of the woman has been...

Chetia deportation next week

Bangladesh steps up procedures to deport ULFA general secretary Anup Chetia next week. But the authorities are tightlipped on the date. Security has been beefed up at the Rajshahi central jail have for Chetia, who is has been languishing in the jail since 1997. Sources say Chetia was allowed to know the process. Home Minister Sahara Khatun is understood to have told the authorities to step up the process to push back the ULFA top leader after he assured her Indian counterpart P Chidambaram of steps to deport him. Chetia was arrested in Bangladesh in 1997 and is still under detention following completion of his jail term for cross-border.