Women-owned MSMEs and Financial Inclusion in Egypt

In Egypt, Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) play a crucial role in the economy, with their contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employment. Despite being the backbone of the economy, they are constantly confronted with challenges in the business environment. Primary amongst these challenges is limited access to formal financial capital at an affordable interest rate leading them to depend on other sources of finance like savings and informal financial services. Women-owned MSMEs especially, have been found to face more challenges in terms of financial accessibility and exclusion from the formal financial market. This work highlights the extent of financial inclusion in Egypt with respect to not only access, but also usage and quality of financial service problems faced by MSMEs in general and women-owned businesses in particular. The analysis of the study follows the comprehensive framework of financial inclusion including access, usage and quality of financial products and services. The findings of this research reveal that while women-owned MSMEs face certain challenges similar to those of their male-owned counterparts, the severity of their challenges is more pronounced by virtue of they being women-owned. Specific constraints faced by women includes risk aversion of banks, lack of financial services and products targeting women-owned MSMEs, lack of collateral and low levels of financial awareness and financial literacy. Whilst a number of interventions have been put in place by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) and the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) to address the issue of financial inclusion within the MSME sector, most of them do not take gender into consideration. The study recommends continuing supporting MSMEs financial inclusion especially women-owned MSMEs through addressing non-price barriers like supporting a secured collateral framework, raising the capabilities of financial institutions to better serve women-owned MSMEs and focusing on raising financial awareness and literacy among women-owned MSMEs

Establishing an Institutional Framework for the Handicrafts Clusters in Egypt/ إنشاء إطار مؤسسي لتجمعات الحرف اليدوية في مصر

The Egyptian handicrafts sector, which employs more than a million Egyptians, and contributes to local economic growth and to the export market, has a lot of potentials but faces numerous challenges. Aware of the potential of the sector, the Egyptian government is currently focusing on the development of handicrafts, mostly organized as clusters. Nevertheless, artisans face numerous challenges, some of which are related to access to financial resources and raw materials, access to markets especially international ones, access to marketing opportunities, access to technical know-how, among others. Whilst handicrafts production is mostly cluster-based in Egypt, it is highly informal. One of the direst challenges facing handicrafts clusters is the lack of clarity on the roles and mandates of the various stakeholders working in the sector. To address this challenge, this policy memo recommends three different layers of multi-stakeholder cooperation. At the national level, a ministerial handicrafts clusters steering committee is to be established and led by the Prime Minister. Its administrative arm, the technical secretariat would be led by the Micro-, Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency (MSMEDA). Also led by the MSMEDA is the operational arm of the national committee, and the executive committee, which would include members from the public and private sectors at the central level. At the local level, local handicrafts clusters platforms (HCPs) would be established and led by the governors in each governorate. These dialogue platforms would ensure coordination between the relevant stakeholders at the decentral level

Attitude of Syrian students toward GAD patients: An online cross-sectional study

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is a prevalent condition and a significant cause of mental disability and poor quality of life. People with GAD have chronic worrying, restlessness, and discrimination from the general public; Little is known about the stigmatizing attitudes toward people with GAD among Syrian students. The questionnaires contained demographic data about age, gender, social status, personal stigma toward GAD scale, perceived stigma toward GAD scale, social distance with those with GAD, the participants' usual source of their knowledge about GAD, helpful interventions, and supporting information. A total of 1,370 replies were collected, but only 1,358 were used for analysis as 12 participants declined to complete the survey. About 44.1% of participants agreed that people with GAD could snap out of the problem, most of them being females (32.4% of the total population). Compared to medical students, more non-medical students (7.1% of the total population) believed that anxiety is a sign of personal weakness. This study demonstrated that Syrian college students showed a high level of stigmatizing and socially distancing attitudes toward people with GAD, particularly female and non-medical students