Women's entrepreneurship is becoming increasingly important in the world to create new jobs and promote the socio-economic development of countries. The lack of a clear and universally accepted definition of women-owned and women-led enterprises makes it difficult to develop a strategy for the development of women's entrepreneurship and to conduct a comparative analysis of the development of women's entrepreneurship, both nationally and globally.
On March 31, 2022, at the initiative of the State Committee on Investment and State Property Management of the Republic of Tajikistan, Secretariat of the Consultative Council under the President of the Republic of Tajikistan on improvement of investment climate with the Central Asian Program of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development “Women in Business” funded by the Women Entrepreneurs Financing Initiative (We-Fi) a round table was held on the topic “International experience in the legislative definition of women's entrepreneurship”.
The welcoming speech was delivered by the Deputy Chairman of the Committee, Khursheda Khavzade regarding the aim of implementing the state policy of supporting entrepreneurship, strengthening the private sector through the creation of favorable condition, effective implementation of state programs to support entrepreneurship, the development of dialogue and public–private partnership in order to carry out work in this direction.
The purpose of the event is to discuss acceptable criteria for the adoption of a unified definition of "Women's Entrepreneurship" in the Republic of Tajikistan, taking into account the peculiarities of the legal regulation of entrepreneurial activity. During the round table, international practices of legislative consolidation of the definition of "Women's Entrepreneurship" and standard criteria for defining women's entrepreneurship developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO 01.040.03) were presented, as well as an analysis of approaches to the implementation of a unified definition of "Women's Entrepreneurship".
During the round table, reports and presentations were made by Nigina Alizoda - First Deputy Minister of Justice of the Republic of Tajikistan, Dildora Tajibayeva - Regional Coordinator of the EBRD Central Asian Program "Women in Business", Nigorakhon Gafforzoda - First Deputy Committee on Women and Family Affairs under the Government of the Republic , Farhod Mamadshozoda - Deputy Director of the National Legislative Center under the President of the Republic of Tajikistan, Shodion Shokirzoda - First Deputy Director of the Agency on Statistics under the President of the Republic of Tajikistan.
Representatives of relevant ministries and departments, representatives of the private sector, business associations and development partners took part in the work of the round table and discussion.
At the end of the event, the participants summarized all the proposals and recommendations and also noted that the adoption of a legislative definition will facilitate the collection and use of gender-disaggregated data in the field of entrepreneurship, the development of evidence-based public policy in the field of women's entrepreneurship and provide consistent and internationally comparable data for measurement the growth of women's entrepreneurship and its impact on local and national economies and job creation, as well as the development of the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
