Guidance Note for Action: Supporting SMEs to Ensure the Economic COVID-19 Recovery is Gender-Responsive and Inclusive

This Note, the third of a four-part guidance note series related to gender-sensitive COVID-19 response, shows how the barriers women entrepreneurs already face in starting and retaining a business are likely to increase in the aftermath of COVID-19. Those barriers include less access than male entrepreneurs to information and communications technology, financial services and assets, legal rights, business management skills and networking opportunities. Recovery responses must include a gender lens on SME support measures including integration of gender-responsive procurement policies to increase the numbers of female suppliers in value chains.