Businesswomen say Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Authorities must work tougher to create the situations for entrepreneurs.
Practically 5 years in the past, Huda Sarhang, 27, was sitting at one of the crucial iconic tea outlets in Erbil, the Macho tea store, sipping the shop’s well-known cardamom-infused tea.
Staring on the traditional istikaan glass which held her tea, she questioned whether or not it may face up to the warmth of one thing else: melted wax.
After researching the science behind candle-making by way of on-line lessons, and experimenting with completely different merchandise, Sarhang began making candles for her household and associates, and shortly, Lala Candles was born – handmade candles rooted in Kurdish heritage and tradition.
“I needed to create a product that makes the right memento for foreigners and the locals to present to their family members,” Sarhang advised Al Jazeera.
She is one in all a rising wave of feminine entrepreneurs in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish area, however her enthusiasm is barely curbed by the shortage of infrastructure in place to help younger entrepreneurs.
“The Kurdistan area is a good platform to begin any enterprise as a result of there are a lot of gaps out there, and it may be stuffed with inventive concepts comparable to Lala Candles,” mentioned Sarhang.
“Nonetheless, on the identical time, it lacks the required instruments for start-ups to function easily.”
The Kurdish area of northern Iraq has a inhabitants of six million individuals, 1.3 million of them employed by the federal government.
However that reliance on authorities jobs is slowly going away, opening the doorways for entrepreneurship.
“There are indicators of a change within the financial system of the Kurdistan area, regardless of the obstacles, from a centralised planning mannequin to an financial system the place the personal sector has areas,” Niaz Najmadin, an assistant professor on the College of Sulaimani’s School of Administration and Economics, advised Al Jazeera.
“For instance, 15 years in the past … many items and providers have been imported from overseas. Now they're produced domestically.”
This alteration is especially essential because it opens up new paths for girls, and an opportunity to extend ladies’s labour power participation fee within the Kurdish area, which is at present one of many lowest on the planet.
The COVID-19 pandemic has additional exasperated younger individuals’s frustration, and elevated unemployment, which contributed to hundreds of younger Iraqi Kurds heading in the direction of Europe in 2021.
Monetary independence
Authorities backing, together with internationally-funded programmes to help entrepreneurs and start-ups, is a step in the fitting route.
And for girls like Sarhang, entrepreneurship has opened up different potential monetary avenues, and a path to financial development with out going overseas, and with out counting on males.
“I wish to ship the message that we are able to, as ladies on this area, work and set up companies,” Sarhang mentioned. “We are able to stand on our personal ft and be financially unbiased.”
That monetary independence may additionally curb violence towards ladies by permitting them to flee abusive relationships; in solely the primary two months of 2022, no less than 11 ladies have been killed in Iraq’s Kurdish area, with 45 killed in 2021.
However now, ladies entrepreneurs need assistance from the federal government – to not present jobs, however to create the fitting setting for entrepreneurship.
“The Kurdistan Regional Authorities [KRG] can achieve this far more for entrepreneurs and make issues simple and simple,” mentioned Sarhang. “They'll arrange particular guidelines and laws for small companies and start-ups. [This can be] by way of tax, enterprise registration, offering small loans for inventive tasks that contributes socially and economically to the area.”
Analysts additionally argue that the federal government must do extra to fight corruption and continued makes an attempt by elites in Iraq to complement themselves, which is proving a hindrance to entrepreneurship.
“The house that has been given to entrepreneurs by authorities is problematic,” mentioned Najmadin. “The political elite, Kurdish or in any other case, are both asking for his or her share in these companies, or placing restrictions that restrict their enlargement.”
‘Remaining optimistic’
Taffan Hamakhan, 30, is one other younger girl who has ventured out to create her personal cosmetics and perfume line – ByTaff.
It's domestically produced, and employs ladies to cut back feminine unemployment within the area.
Hamakhan mentioned her line was created in response to the hole as a result of “we didn't have any domestically produced cosmetics merchandise in Iraq”.
She has formidable plans together with her cosmetics and perfume line.
“Inside the subsequent 5 years, we have now set ourselves the aim of getting all our merchandise bought throughout each a part of Iraq,” Hamakhan mentioned.
Each Hamakhan and Sarhang are amongst an rising group of girls taking entrepreneurial pursuits to construct jobs for his or her local people, and assist cut back the excessive unemployment fee amongst younger individuals within the area.
The way forward for entrepreneurship within the Kurdish area depends upon whether or not the native authorities is ready to take heed to the considerations of latest and small start-ups.
It might take a long time earlier than an entrepreneurial tradition can take off, and entrepreneurs like Sarhang and Hamakhan say they want the infrastructure in place to help their goals.
However nonetheless, they continue to be upbeat, and assured that they are going to succeed.
“I'm optimistic,” mentioned Sarhang. “I see optimistic adjustments occurring.”
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