Gender equality — a focus for development
IDB Lab, the innovation arm of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), is seeing tremendous results in small business development Caribbean-wide. Its latest partnership with RevUP Caribbean, a virtual business incubator, is a testament to its commitment and focus.
According to Sudaney Blair, operations associate at the IDB Lab, the opportunities within the Caribbean for small business development are boundless. “We see the most amazing ideas being presented and we feel it is equally important to foster these ideas by training innovators to become business-focused — taking their ideas from concept through business development to sustainable business that impact communities and countries.”
Gender gap
The IDB, through partnerships with the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ), Kingston Creative, and other private and public sector entities, see no shortage of innovation. However, there are tremendous gaps with people who are able to take their ideas right through to scaling. “This is where the significance and necessity of incubators come into play. When we dissect even further, we see where there are equal levels of ideas and innovation from men and women, but this gap widens significantly where we see more male-led businesses having solid ongoing business compared to women,” says Blair.
“With RevUp Caribbean’s focus on ensuring that at least 50 per cent of each cohort across the Caribbean within the incubator are women, we saw this as a tremendous opportunity to close some of the gaps we see in access to capital and training,” she continued.
Sandra Glasgow, managing director of RevUp Caribbean, has observed through more than 30 years of working with small business owners that there is a significant gap between men and women accessing capital and training opportunities.
“We made the decision to focus on women-owned and led businesses because we recognise that when women get the support they need to develop their businesses, particularly getting access to investment capital, they display tremendous leadership and growth of their businesses, so we must do what we can to facilitate more women-led businesses.”
The IDB Lab and RevUP Caribbean partnership allows founders to access over 100 hours of training, with regional and international trainers taking participants through the business development process, including investment readiness, accounting and finance, marketing, tax laws, corporate governance, strategic planning, corporate governance, and scaling for growth. Founders also received one-on-one coaching in elevating their communication and participated in workshops on the environment, society, and governance.
The IDB Lab’s investment also supports the core focus of RevUP, which provides incubator participants access to angel investors across the region to pitch for investment capital. The IDB has seen the success of this framework from its investment and partnerships with the DBJ, Kingston Creative, and others.
The results are in for its investment in MD Link, which allowed the innovation of telemedicine in Jamaica and now the Caribbean. Another great success for the IDB has been PreeLabs which focuses on clean and cost-effective energy solutions for businesses in Jamaica.
Blair continued, “Globally, investment in small and medium enterprises has contributed to growing communities and country economies. As well, the livelihoods of families are significantly impacted when we invest in women-led businesses. These investments are allowing the most amazing minds, with superb ideas, to take their startup businesses to ones that can contribute to the growth and development of local and regional economies. The IDB, through IDB Invest and IDB Lab, are focused on creating this same outcome for Jamaica and the Caribbean that we see happening on the global scale.”
The partnership comes by way of a non-reimbursable grant of US$950,000, with a three-year commitment. RevUP Caribbean is focused on having 400 participants trained within its incubator over the next three years.
