Female Entrepreneurs´Meetings in the Baltic Sea Region

Programme 2000 - 2006 Baltic Sea Region

Date of latest update: 2021-04-06

Description

Description (EN):

FEM has promoted womens access to labour markets and entrepreneurship and strengthened the role of women in local and regional development by e.g. training, mentoring, networking and creating meeting-places. Gender sensitivity and gender mainstreaming have been key issues in the project. The aim has been to produce sustainable positive changes in the attitudes, processes and methods of economic and regional policies at individual, local, regional, national and international levels. The experiences of supporting women have been transferred between the W-BSR-countries and E-BSR-countries. The whole BSR profits from using "best practices" of the participating countries and thus more women are encouraged and supported to become entrepreneurs. Noticing gender and womens innovations, businesses and labour force as a comprehensive factor in regional economic competitiveness and affluence will bring added value to the development policies at local, regional and international levels in the BSR area. At individual level the women involved in the FEM project, especially in the E-BSR, have gone through big changes: they have noticed the possibilities in their own countries, in their own regions and municipalities. This means e.g. new micro businesses and entering to the labour force or political career. There is also a remarkable positive change in the women entrepreneurs’ attitudes and capacities in international cooperation (e.g. language and ICT skills). The transnational network of FEM included relevant actors in regional and entrepreneurial development: national, regional and local public authorities, associations, public corporations, foundation, public university etc. Within the sub-themes also smaller multi- and bilateral networks were created. Organisations and authorities involved have gained knowledge of gender in development processes, learnt more about women in business/labour market and methods of business development. There have been business contacts and new projects between the organisations, businesses and individuals involved. The Womens Resource Centres (WRC) formed the backbone of FEM and a nest for other activities, work-packages. The aim of the Resource Centre for women is to support local and regional development by promoting the integration of women into the economic, social and political life. The WRCs build upon the methodology of empowerment. After FEM there are 21 new WRCs (in Estonia, Latvia and Poland 5 and in Lithuania 6). Some of the countries have ensured the financial support of the centres’ continuations. All the centres belong to the network of WinnetEurope (www.winneteurope.eu) through which they will continue the cooperation. The WRCs will be a consultative and activating framework, a counselling and mentoring service, a tool for increasing knowledge, innovations and capacities to promote the Equal Opportunities policies in the regions involved and as an international network. The network and internationalisation of business advisors got a good start. The access to ICT was realised, in many cases, by providing a pc and internet connection. FEM also promoted e-commerce training, portal-advising and published a guide for internationalisation. This encouraged women to create their own home-pages. The readiness for e-trade was overestimated in the planning of the project and so as well possibilities to build a portal for women entrepreneurs. However, the need to strengthen the capacities in internationalisation was recognised everywhere and this message was also forwarded to national authorities in the partner countries. There were initiatives for starting an exchange programme for micro entrepreneurs.

Achievements (EN):

As a method to support of womens entrepreneurship mentoring models were used and developed. Mentoring became an appreciated and widely used method in most FEM countries. Especially group mentoring was a success. There have been 23 mentoring groups and 34 pairs active. The model has been further developed in order to better fit in the respective countries circumstances. For the future projects there were mentoring manuals prepared in the countries. There is a big demand for mentoring and it continues with new groups and pairs and new projects have already been started. Different forms of micro credit, both individual and group credit, have been used in the project. There have been 21 networking credit groups (in Estonia 6, in Latvia 15 and in Sweden 10). Especially the micro credit in groups has been developed further in the form of network credit based on the Norwegian experiences and expertise. There are plans of a bank specialised on micro credits and some organisations have promised to support the financing. The practical internationalisation of women entrepreneurs have taken place along the whole project and inside all the work-packages. The entrepreneur presentations in the www.feminfo.net have been popular and useful in order to learn the basics to e-marketing. A model and a guide how to internationalise “The Seven Steps of Internationalisation” has been published in the web-sites. The www.feminfo.net and the national partner websites were the key element and core of the dissemination of the FEM-project. The outside evaluation of the project can be downloaded on the feminfo.net. It gives a thorough basis for analysing the successes and future challenges of the FEM network and more generally of the enhancement of gender aspects in regional and business development.

Thematic information

Education and training Social inclusion and equal opportunities SME and entrepreneurship

Partners (41)

Lead Partner: Min.of Interior, Dep.for Dev. of Reg. and Pub. Adm.,Struc.Pol.Unit

Address: 23 Helsinki, Finland

Legal status: n/a

ETNA in Estonia

Name: ETNA in Estonia

Address: 65605 Võru, Estonia

Legal status: n/a

Estonian Regional and Local Development Agency(ERKAS)

Name: Estonian Regional and Local Development Agency(ERKAS)

Address: 10151 Tallinn, Estonia

Legal status: n/a

Latvia University of Agriculture, Faculty of Economics

Name: Latvia University of Agriculture, Faculty of Economics

Address: 3001 Jelgava, Latvia

Legal status: n/a

Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Latvia

Name: Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Latvia

Address: 1981 Riga, Latvia

Legal status: n/a

Debno municipality

Name: Debno municipality

Address: 74400 Debno, Poland

Legal status: n/a

Lebork City Municipality

Name: Lebork City Municipality

Address: 84 300 Lebork, Poland

Legal status: n/a

Labour office in lebork

Name: Labour office in lebork

Address: 84300 Lebork, Poland

Legal status: n/a

Municipality of Leba

Name: Municipality of Leba

Address: 84360 Leba, Poland

Legal status: n/a

Päijät-Hämeen liitto

Name: Päijät-Hämeen liitto

Address: 15110 LAHTI, Finland

Legal status: n/a

Region Skåne, Department of Economic Development and Innovation

Name: Region Skåne, Department of Economic Development and Innovation

Address: 21122 Malmö, Sweden

Legal status: n/a

Co-operative Development Agency Jönköping County

Name: Co-operative Development Agency Jönköping County

Address: 57535 Eksjö, Sweden

Legal status: n/a

Bagrationovsk Municipality, Economic and entrepreneur development department

Name: Bagrationovsk Municipality, Economic and entrepreneur development department

Address: 238420 Bagrationovsk, Russia

Legal status: n/a

Grodno Regional Public Association of young intellectuals 'VIT'

Name: Grodno Regional Public Association of young intellectuals 'VIT'

Address: 230004 Grodno, Belarus

Legal status: n/a

NGO Homeplace -Vöru County

Name: NGO Homeplace -Vöru County

Address: 65605 Voru, Estonia

Legal status: n/a

Movement of Estonian Villages and small Towns Kodukant

Name: Movement of Estonian Villages and small Towns Kodukant

Address: 10129 Tallinn, Estonia

Legal status: n/a

Association of Rural Women in Latvia

Name: Association of Rural Women in Latvia

Address: 1010 Rīga, Latvia

Legal status: n/a

Lithuanian Women Farmers Association

Name: Lithuanian Women Farmers Association

Address: 3000 Kaunas, Lithuania

Legal status: n/a

Institute of Economic Analyses Diagnoses and Forecasts

Name: Institute of Economic Analyses Diagnoses and Forecasts

Address: 70415 Szczecin, Poland

Legal status: n/a

International Association of Personnel in Employment Security in Poland

Name: International Association of Personnel in Employment Security in Poland

Address: 80852 Gdansk, Poland

Legal status: n/a

Regional Council of Kainuu

Name: Regional Council of Kainuu

Address: 87100 Kajaani, Finland

Legal status: n/a

The Association for Rural Women Entrepreneurs

Name: The Association for Rural Women Entrepreneurs

Address: 45410 Utti, Finland

Legal status: n/a

Provincial Government of Östergötland/ÖstGöta Resource Centre/Qvinnovation

Name: Provincial Government of Östergötland/ÖstGöta Resource Centre/Qvinnovation

Address: 58186 Linköping, Sweden

Legal status: n/a

Development of Cooperation in the region Skaraborg

Name: Development of Cooperation in the region Skaraborg

Address: 53272 Axvall, Sweden

Legal status: n/a

Innovation Norway

Name: Innovation Norway

Address: 104 Oslo, Norway

Legal status: n/a

NGO Modem

Name: NGO Modem

Address: 230015 Grodno, Belarus

Legal status: n/a

Women´s Employment and InformationCentre Kaunas

Name: Women´s Employment and InformationCentre Kaunas

Address: 3000 Kaunas, Lithuania

Legal status: n/a

Women and Business in Lithuania

Name: Women and Business in Lithuania

Address: 5800 Klaipėda, Lithuania

Legal status: n/a

Regional Council of South-Ostrobothnia

Name: Regional Council of South-Ostrobothnia

Address: 60101 Seinäjoki, Finland

Legal status: n/a

The Swedish Business Development Agency

Name: The Swedish Business Development Agency

Address: 11786 Stockholm, Sweden

Legal status: n/a

Swedish National Federation of Resource Centres for Women

Name: Swedish National Federation of Resource Centres for Women

Address: 36040 Rottne, Sweden

Legal status: n/a

Together Multethnic Women´s Association in Malmö

Name: Together Multethnic Women´s Association in Malmö

Address: 21579 Malmö, Sweden

Legal status: n/a

Rural Women´s Advisory Organization

Name: Rural Women´s Advisory Organization

Address: FIN-01301 Vantaa, Finland

Legal status: n/a

Women in the Nordic Region, Regional Resource Centre

Name: Women in the Nordic Region, Regional Resource Centre

Address: 39239 Kalmar, Sweden

Legal status: n/a

Centre for Informational Support of Public Initiatives 'The Third Sector'

Name: Centre for Informational Support of Public Initiatives 'The Third Sector'

Address: 230004 Hrodna, Belarus

Legal status: n/a

Administration of Kaliningrad

Name: Administration of Kaliningrad

Address: 236000 Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia

Legal status: n/a

Baltic-Russian-Swedish Resource Centre

Name: Baltic-Russian-Swedish Resource Centre

Address: 60104 Norrköping, Sweden

Legal status: n/a

Kaliningrad Regional Fund 'Women´s Centre of Information and Employment'Kalinka

Name: Kaliningrad Regional Fund 'Women´s Centre of Information and Employment'Kalinka

Address: 236016 Kaliningrad, Russia

Legal status: n/a

Estonian Union of Women in Business

Name: Estonian Union of Women in Business

Address: 11911 Tallinn, Estonia

Legal status: n/a

Commune Department Marianowo

Name: Commune Department Marianowo

Address: 73121 Marianowo, Poland

Legal status: n/a

Regional Council of North Carelia

Name: Regional Council of North Carelia

Address: FIN-80100 Joensuu, Finland

Legal status: n/a

Partners map

Lead partner

Project partner

Summary

Project name (EN): Female Entrepreneurs´Meetings in the Baltic Sea Region

Project acronym: FEM

Project start date: 2004-08-15

Project end date: 2008-08-14

Project status: closed

Total budget/expenditure: EUR 2 177 722.00

Total EU funding (amount): EUR 1 238 894.50

Co-financing sources:

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

Financing programme

2000 - 2006 Baltic Sea Region

Last month that data in keep.eu was retrieved from the Programme's website or received from the Programme

2019-07-08

No. of projects in keep.eu / Total no. of projects (% of projects in keep.eu)

136 / 136 (100%)

No. of project partnerships in keep.eu / Total no. of project partnerships (% of project partnerships in keep.eu)

3 143 / 3 143 (100%)

Notes on the data

Languages

Contact Form

Female Entrepreneurs´Meetings in the Baltic Sea Region

Description

Thematic information

Partners (41)

Partners map

Summary

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

Disclaimer