This report reviews women’s entrepreneurship development in the MENA region by providing a detailed assessment of the barriers that women face when starting a business and the landscape of active labour market policies (ALMPs) available to facilitate women’s entrepreneurship. In addition to highlighting a number of good practices that emerge from the available evidence base, this report also contributes more generally to the literature on gender-related norms by presenting new evidence on the impact of mass media on people’s perceptions related to women in business.

The “Impact Report” series disseminates research reports from Taqeem-supported employment assessments and impact evaluations. Taqeem (meaning "evaluation" in Arabic) is a partnership with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) as part of an IFAD-financed project, titled “Strengthening gender monitoring and evaluation in rural employment in the Near East and North Africa.”