Pal-Think delivers episode three of «Ambassadors of Freedom & Entrepreneurship»

The trainees Walaa Bakhit and Najwa Bakr presented their research paper titled “The obstacles facing small enterprises managed and owned by women”, during the third radio episode of the radio programme “Ambassadors of Freedom and Entrepreneurship”, broadcast on the local Zaman radio at noon on Tuesdays and Thursdays — within the project of empowering youth in entrepreneurship and small enterprises, implemented by Pal-Think for Strategic Studies with funding from the Atlas Network.

Walaa Bakhit opened her remarks by describing the training programme, which extended over ten days, as marked by a highly stimulating training environment and by competent trainers of experience and specialisation in economics.

She said: “The entrepreneur must hold to self-belief, determination, and ambition, must manage time efficiently, and must believe that failure is a teacher, not a discourager”.

The trainee explained that among the most important obstacles facing women is funding, because the lending institutions demand difficult conditions — such as the woman owning a plot of land — and impose high interest on her, at a time when unemployment among women reaches 63.6% compared with 42.1% among men.

She showed that only 26% of women's enterprises are officially registered, noting the absence of laws regulating women's lending for small and micro enterprises.

For her part, the trainee Najwa Bakr said this training was her first experience, and it helped her apply for a regional entrepreneurship programme to which she was accepted.

She explained that the number of enterprises owned by women is 5,236 in Gaza and the West Bank, of which 1,304 are in the Strip.

Bakr added: “Women in Gaza always look for enterprises that are socially acceptable and not mixed, because customs and traditions affect the entrepreneurial project and may cause it to fail — which is why their enterprises fell within the informal economy”.

She stressed that “our current generation endures the bitterest of hardships, and despite that many young people still face reality with entrepreneurial projects”.

As for the obstacles facing entrepreneurial projects, they lay — from her point of view — in the blockade and the ban on importing machinery and many raw materials.

She concluded by saying: “Women entrepreneurs must be supported by their families, and the banks must fund women in full”.