Hassan II University of Casablanca
6.3 ARE YOUNGER PEOPLE MORE LIKELY TO START NEW BUSINESSES AND OLDER PEOPLE MORE LIKELY TO OWN
the same: Cyprus and Jordan. However, there are still 12 economies with two or more men owning established businesses for every woman doing the same, including five each from Level C and Level A, and two from Level B. The highest ratios were in Jordan and Morocco, each with more than three men owning an established business for every woman doing the same.
That analysis shows that some economies may create a challenging environment for women entrepreneurs, as the rate of transition from new businesses run by women to established ones is particularly low. The first are low-income economies where women drop out from
entrepreneurial activity at the highest rates. That group includes most Latin American and Asian countries. Many economies from those regions are similar with respect to the transition of women entrepreneurship even when they belong to middle-income (Puerto Rico, Uruguay, Panama) or high-income (Qatar) groups. It may be that low transition rates of women entrepreneurship from new to established phase is related to culture, although this effect can also be identified in countries with different cultural backgrounds, including Slovenia and Sweden, where less than one in three entrepreneurs running an established business is a woman.
6.3 ARE YOUNGER PEOPLE MORE LIKELY TO START NEW
FIGURE 6.4 The level of Total early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity (% adults in each age group) for age groups 18–34 and 35–64 Source: GEM Adult Population Survey 2023
% adults in each age group
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Morocco China South Africa India Iran Jordan Mexico Brazil Thailand Venezuela Colombia Ecuador Guatemala Poland Spain Greece Israel Romania Oman Lithuania Cyprus Hungary Estonia Slovak Republic Croatia Latvia Uruguay Puerto Rico Chile Panama Norway Republic of Korea Switzerland Slovenia Italy Sweden Germany Luxembourg Qatar France United Kingdom Netherlands United States Saudi Arabia Canada
Adults aged 18–34 Adults aged 35–64
Level B
Level C Level A
FIGURE 6.5 The level of Established Business Ownership (% adults in each age group) for age groups 18–34 and 35–64 Source: GEM Adult Population Survey 2023
% adults in each age group
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Colombia Venezuela Mexico China Morocco Iran South Africa Jordan Thailand Brazil Guatemala India Ecuador Israel Croatia Chile Spain Oman Poland Hungary Estonia Cyprus Panama Romania Puerto Rico Slovak Republic Uruguay Latvia Lithuania Greece Switzerland France United Kingdom Germany Norway Qatar Sweden Slovenia United States Italy Luxembourg Netherlands Canada Republic of Korea Saudi Arabia
Adults aged 18–34 Adults aged 35–64
Level B
Level C Level A
Lidia Díaz (Dominican Republic)
Cartier Women’s Initiative 2023 Fellow
Empowering women entrepreneurs in sustainable food: the Plant Powered story
The GEM Global Report shows that women entrepreneurs make up typically between one-third and a half of all new entrepreneurs.Lidia Díaz is one of these women entrepreneurs and is making a difference in her country and Latin America more broadly. Her company, Plant Powered, uses proprietary food technology to provide consumers with culturally familiar meat- and dairy-free alternatives to animal products.
Worldwide carbon emissions attributable to manure increased by 20% between 2010 and 2018, and livestock production overall generated the equivalent of three billion tons of CO2 in 2018 according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Such data suggest that immediate climate benefits can be gained by addressing what is an individual consumer choice.
Díaz turned to a vegan diet in 2010, both in order to minimize her impact on the environment and to improve her health. But she struggled to find plant- based products that appealed to her.
“I wanted a more sustainable diet and there weren’t many solutions in my country at the time. I found a few options in the Dominican Republic but there wasn’t yet a boom in sustainable foods like there is now.”
Díaz’s company was born as a result of addressing her own needs. She began by re-creating plant- based versions of the foods she grew up with and realized that this could be just what other people might be looking for, not only in her country but across the region.
“If I went to a barbecue, I would bring my plant-based burgers and mock meat for myself. My friends would eat everything I had brought to the party. And they liked it!
When friends began asking if she was selling what she had created, the idea for Plant Powered was born. With a focus on Latin American cuisine, the company offers meat and dairy substitutes and ready-to-eat frozen foods, all with a Latin flair.
“We track the impact of substituting a pound of animal protein for a pound of plant-based protein. At the end of the year, we measure how many pounds of protein we sold.
Currently, that translates into significant annual savings of water (19.3 million litres [5.1 million gallons]), CO2 (26,800 kg [59,000 lb]) and usable land (3.4 million m2). Plant Powered aims to be the leading brand of Latin plant-based foods in the world.
The company’s close involvement with its suppliers is making a difference to the farmers’ lives. And the company’s inclusive approach is evidenced by the Braille on its packaging.
HUMAN FACES BEHIND THE DATA . . .
Thank you to the Cartier Women’s Initiative, one of our report sponsors, for providing this material and helping to put our data in a real-world context.