Integrating women entrepreneurs into SMES Programmes and national development plan to achieve gender equality

Abstract

Gender Equality is a pillar of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by 193 United Nations Member States, specifically in Sustainable Development Goals (SDG5). It is an influential driver of economic growth and social change that can facilitate entrepreneurship. As a member, Malaysia has incorporated gender as part of the development focus since the mid-1970s. The aim was initially to encourage active participation of women in development, and their contribution to the economy as Malaysia envisioned to achieve a high- income nation by 2020. Following the establishment of the National SME Development Council in 2004, Small and Medium Enterprises outgrowth overall national economic growth. Nevertheless, only approximately 20% of the estimated registered entrepreneurs in Malaysia are women, despite a correlation between female entrepreneurship and economic growth and the government efforts to foster women entrepreneurship. Hence, this paper aims to investigate Malaysia’s Policies and SMEs Programmes developed to support women entrepreneurs towards achieving SDG5 of Gender Equality and highlight prominent issues that hinder women’s involvement in entrepreneurship. Identifying literature review works through multiple sources, including a range of databases obtained from open access journals, Google Scholar, published books and reports, and tracking citations from the research literature. The result indicates that despite policies and SMEs programmes developed to capture women’s interest in entrepreneurship, prominent issues still hinder their participation. Hence, improvement in existing policies and programmes expects to uplift women’s interest in venture into entrepreneurship and eventually assist the country in meeting the SDG goals and targets.