THEME: Young women have greater interest in microenterprise than young men, but have less-needed skills and face stereotyped training.

Grenada has a high rate of unemployment compared with other Caribbean countries (15% in 1998). Unemployment is particularly high among youth. The report of a recent (2000) IFAD mission to the country recognizes this as a serious problem for rural and urban areas. In the past, unemployment resulted in many young men and women leaving the island in search of better opportunities. But feedback from those who leave has shown that their expectations are not matched with reality. There is now a renewed interest among many young men and women in remaining on the island to seek livelihood options. But, given the high unemployment rates in Grenada, only a fraction of trained youth will be able to find paid jobs in the public or private sector. Rural migrants will usually be at a disadvantage to those born in urban areas, who have better urban coping skills and more appropriate workplace and social skills. Since a large proportion of rural youth are no longer interested in agriculture, and cannot find off-farm employment, they are therefore likely to be interested in setting up their own small businesses.

Interest

When a gender comparison is done, it shows that, despite increases, male participation in the informal sector is still much higher than that of females (60.4% compared with 39.6%). However, in actual fact, women are more interested than men in starting up small businesses. A recent UNICEF survey in four communities in Grenada showed:

• Among those interested in small business, the ratio of females to males was 3 to 2.
• When males and females were compared in terms of available business skills, the males were ahead.

What these findings suggest is that more young women would start up a small business of their own if they could. But such women have less of a chance of doing so than males. This is not just a matter of fewer skills, but also of time constraints created by child care responsibilities. Grenada has an average of four births per woman, and a high proportion of teenagers are already mothers. Because of the fluid nature of many relationships, women need an independent source of income. In the case of married women, studies have found that they tend to see their earnings from their businesses as their own, either to spend on household needs or on themselves. Often, such income is seen as "insurance" against future desertion by their partners

Potential

If youth are to be helped to establish their own microenterprises or small businesses, a number of constraining factors will need to be addressed:

• Basic education: The Poverty Assessment Report of 1999 found that both males and females in Grenada usually had only a primary level of education: 71.2% among males and 74.4% among females. Particularly in rural areas, many may be semi-literate.
• Technical skills: An absence of technical skills is a problem. Vocational training programmes exist to make up for skill deficiencies, but are not always of adequate quality or with links to credit. Choice of training is still also strongly influenced by gender stereotypes, which may result in a mismatch with market potential (for instance, a surplus of beauty parlors and not enough carpenters or car mechanics).
• Business skills: An absence of business skills is also a constraint. Understanding of markets tends to be weak, and management expertise is usually lacking.

• Start-up capital: The large majority of lending institutions everywhere are reluctant to lend to youth for lack of collateral, experience and maturity.

Promotion of rural enterprise for youth, and particularly for young women, is an urgent need in Grenada, but it will require a long-term and multi-sectoral approach.

Adapted from:

IFAD. 2000. Grenada: Rural Enterprises Project: Formulation Mission Report. Working Paper I, "Socio-economic and Gender Equity Aspects of the Target Group." Rome.

 

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