Publication Details
Abstract
Women's entrepreneurship has moved to the centre of development policy in much of the world, and Turkey 's two-decade experience offers a useful case for study. Between 2002 and 2023, the share of women among Turkish entrepreneurs rose from 13.1 to 17.4 percent, accompanied by an eight-percentage-point gain in female labour force participation. The gains are modest but real, and the institutional machinery that produced them is more interesting than the headline numbers alone. This paper examines that machinery, tracing the architecture built around KOSGEB, Women Entrepreneurs Association of Turkey KAGIDER and ISKUR, and asks which elements could be adapted to Uzbek conditions. Drawing on TUIK (Turkish Statistical Institute) figures, the Turkish government's women's entrepreneurship portal, UNDP and EBRD assessments, and policy documents from both countries, the analysis identifies four mechanisms with strong adaptation potential: positive discrimination in financial support, an integrated information portal, cooperative-based rural programmes, and university-anchored mentoring. The argument is not that Turkey has solved the problem — its progress has been slow — but that its trial-and-error provides usable lessons for Uzbekistan, where 2.1 million women now run businesses, women still constitute only 17 percent of formal corporate-sector entrepreneurs, and a March 2025 presidential decree has just unlocked an additional 200 million USD in women-targeted financing.