Difficulties in credit access
Across the five value chains supported in the joint programme on green production and trade to increase income and employment opportunities for the rural poor, households and cooperatives are often confronted with the need to borrow money to meet the needs for buying raw materials, equipment, meet production orders or to manage price fluctuations. However, households and producer groups often face difficulties to access loans from the banks and in some cases, they have to borrow from locals money lenders against interest rates as high as 10 percent/month.

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Like many Vietnamese farmers, Lang Thi Kieu, a widow who lives with her two sons and daughter-in-law, struggles to make ends meet. Farming doesn’t produce enough to support her family, so she supplements her income with weaving - but the silk she needs to make her crafts is expensive.

Now Mrs. Kieu is raising her own silkworms as part of the UN Joint Programme “Green production and trade to increase income and employment opportunities for the rural poor”. This UN Joint Programme targets about 4,800 farming and craft-producing households in four northern provinces of Viet Nam, including 1,400 beneficiaries from disadvantaged ethnic minority groups.

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Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu, a self-made businesswoman from Hoa Binh province, was proud to be selected as one of the ten finalists of UNCTAD’s global Empretec Women in Business Award. She travelled to Doha, Qatar, to take part in the award ceremony in April 2012.

There is ample evidence that enhanced opportunities for women lead to improvements in poverty reduction and to accelerated economic growth.

The Empretec Women in Business Award is presented to women who have excelled in developing innovative business ideas, providing jobs and increasing income in their communities. The prize honours businesswomen from developing countries who have founded successful firms, created jobs, and become role models in their communities. Many of the award finalists tell compelling stories of overcoming social and cultural obstacles to their business careers, as well as surmounting financial challenges.

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