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Project information

FEM – Female Entrepreneurs’ Meeting in the Baltic Sea Region

FEM is a development project for women in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR). The aim is to create a structure for the support of women’s entrepreneurship and women’s active participation. The results of the activities will strengthen the role of women in local and regional development and promote the access of women to the labour market as well as strengthen the role of women as entrepreneurs.

Background for FEM

Women are to a great extent still affected by unemployment  after 1990’s in the transition countries of Eastern Europe. One possible way out of unemployment for women both in the Eastern and Western Baltic Sea Regions is to start a company of their own. Business start-up for women though  is still marked by a number of structural disadvantages; especially in the emerging market economies women particularly face many social and institutional obstacles. There are a lack of advisory services for women, lack of access to financing and credits, lack of meeting places and networks. The disadvantages include qualifications for vocational independence, private funds, securities as well as an acceptance of women starting their own businesses. Experiences from the Western Baltic Sea Region countries have shown that special structures must be built to support women’s entrepreneurship.

Across the region structures the supporting of women’s entrepreneurship vary between the countries involved and there is work to be done in all of them. Through co-operation and by supporting one another women’s possibilities to do things and to enhance entrepreneurship will grow.

Implementation principles

The experiences of networks and bilateral projects in the participating countries will be used. Experiences will be transferred between the W-BSR-countries and E-BSR-countries in order to build a strong transnational network between institutions and organizations and to form a common structure. The Baltic Sea Region will profit from using best practises of the participating countries and thus more women will be encouraged and supported to become entrepreneurs.

Main issues of FEM

There are five (5) work-packages in FEM. They all are presented differently. They however connect and interact with each other very closely and thus also contribute to the mail goal.

The work-packages are

1. Creating transnational networks of Resource Centres and Meeting Places to strengthen the role of women in society and in local and regional development
2. Networks of training and exchange of experience for the advisers
3. Mentorship Program for women entrepreneurs
4. Networking in Network Credit Groups and other financial solutions for women entrepreneurs
5. Internationalisation of women’s entrepreneurship.

Resource centres for women will support local and regional development by promoting the integration of women into the economic, social and political life through the use of the empowerment methodology. The network of centres will be a consultative and activating framework, a counselling and mentoring service, a tool for increasing knowledge and design capacity for women to promote the Equal Opportunities Policies.

Transnational networks of advisers and resource-centre leaders will be created. The support of women’s entrepreneurship will include mentoring programmes and financial solutions especially network credit/micro-credit. The internationalization of businesses of participating entrepreneurs will be promoted by model building and through e-commerce.

FEM web-site will be the key element and core of the dissemination of FEM-project.

FEM will offer opportunities to change the social and institutional structures to promote women’s role in the society, in businesses and maintain viable enterprises.  

Levels of FEM

Concrete actions take place at entrepreneur and advisor's levels, but experiences are passed also to the higher hierarchies of society.
  Different levels at which FM operates: from grass root to the parliament

FEM participant countries

Seven (7) EU Member states participate in FEM: Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland and Sweden. North-West Russia (Kaliningrad) and Belarus will follow the project.

   Ground rules for co-operation during the FEM-project

BSR INTERREG III B PROGRAMME

The Baltic Sea Region (BSR) INTERREG III B Programme belongs to one of the three different strands of the European Community Initiative INTERREG III. The programme is part-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) covering the period 2000-2006. Strand  B of the INTERREG Initiative supports transnational co-operation to enhance balanced and sustainable development of the European territory. The Baltic Sea Region is one of the 13 European INTERREG III B co-operation areas.

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