UNDP launches @Her Entrepreneurship Plan

By Chen Boyuan
0 Comment(s)Print E-mail China.org.cn, July 1, 2015
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The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is stepping up its effort to empower Chinese women, especially those in rural or poverty-stricken areas, by providing working opportunities to them through a new online entrepreneur platform.

Patrick Haverman, UNDP Country Director in China, delivers a speech at the launch ceremony of @Her Entrepreneurship Plan in Beijing on Tuesday, June 30, 2015. [Photo by Chen Boyuan / China.org.cn]

Patrick Haverman, UNDP Country Director in China, delivers a speech at the launch ceremony of @Her Entrepreneurship Plan in Beijing on Tuesday, June 30, 2015. [Photo by Chen Boyuan / China.org.cn] 

The platform "@Her Entrepreneurship Plan" (hereafter known as @Her) was launched on Tuesday, June 30, 2015 jointly by the UNDP, China Women Development Foundation (CWDF) and All-China Women's Federation (ACWF), both national societies for women's rights.

@Her is an online platform of integrated resources aimed at mobilizing new thinking, new technology and new public-private partnership (PPP) mechanisms. The project was an answer to Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's call for "mass entrepreneurship, mass innovation" in that it restates UNDP and Chinese stakeholders' commitment to advancing innovation while tackling poverty, according to the UNDP.

"Gender equality and women empowerment are central to human development," said Patrick Haverman, UNDP Country Director of China. He quoted the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon as saying: "The world will never realize 100 percent of its goals if 50 percent of its people cannot realize their full potential."

UNDP has been in partnership with CWDF for years to support female entrepreneurship in ethnic minority areas through capacity-building projects and microloan schemes, in turn improving women's livelihoods and social-economic status and empowering them in decision-making processes.

@Her is an upgrade from the earlier "Revolving Fund for Mothers' New Ventures," which encouraged start-up entrepreneurship among rural women with no consistent income.

Among the beneficiaries is a rural enterprise engaged in paper cutting in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. The small enterprise employs around 10 people, with most women suffering from haemophilia, and has helped these disabled women enhance their financial status, said Zhou Ziju, a company official attending the @Her launch ceremony.

An adroit worker can complete a paper cutting in one day, and each work is sold at 150 yuan (US$24), a considerable income for these rural women with disabilities. However, the "sales channel was always the manager's headache," said Zhou, who expressed her high hopes for an online marketing feature for the @Her program.

@Her expects to train 25,000 female entrepreneurs nationwide by 2020, and have them in turn create 100,000 new jobs for women. Shijiazhuang in Hebei Province and Tongren in Guizhou Province will be the first pair of cities to pioneer @Her.

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