The UNDP Report on the Recovery Process and Disaster Resilience of Women's Microenterprises in Kahramanmaraş reveals a need for financial programmes and business continuity support mechanisms for women entrepreneurs in the aftermath of the earthquake. 

Ankara, 4 March 2025 - A new report released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) details the challenges faced by women-owned micro-enterprises in Kahramanmaraş following the 6 February, 2023 earthquakes and the hurdles to post-disaster recovery. The report reveals the conditions faced by women entrepreneurs as they strive to maintain their businesses and harmonise their work and family lives, and the necessary post-disaster support mechanisms required to ensure business continuity.

Under a pilot business continuity support programme project implemented by the UNDP in Kahramanmaraş with financing by the Swedish Government in cooperation with Kahramanmaraş Chamber of Industry and Commerce, 257 women business owners were provided with support. 

The report presented the results of one-to-one surveys conducted with 118 women entrepreneurs who had applied to the business continuity support programme, revealing that 97.5 percent of the enterprises had suffered losses of products, 96.6 percent had lost production tools, 94.9 percent had to temporarily close, 73.7 percent had to find new work premises and 71.3 percent had to move again. Furthermore, 92.4 percent of the respondents stated that they had difficulty in maintaining work-family balance due to new care burdens and new domestic roles after the disaster, and  93.3 percent stated that the ongoing psychological effects following the disaster had made it difficult for them to fully return to work. 

Difficulties in Accessing Support by Women's Enterprises

Women-owned micro-scale enterprises faced problems such as access to finance, continuity of production, and losses of production tools, products, suppliers, markets and employees as a result of the disaster. The majority of the women participating in the study stated that their access to much-needed financial support, such as grants (65.3%) and low-interest loans (52.5%) in the post-disaster recovery period had been limited. 

The women entrepreneur respondents said that long-term financial support and comprehensive transformation programmes should be established to make businesses more resilient to crises, and emphasised the importance of developing women entrepreneur networks, the need for training and awareness raising on disaster resilience, and the absence of legal support services to ensure business continuity.

The local stakeholders reported the rapid implementation and simplified application processes of the UNDP’s business continuity support programme to be effective, and claimed that its specific targeting of women-owned businesses gave them the courage to continue their businesses during a period of pessimism and indecision.

Drawing on the experience gained in Kahramanmaraş, the UNDP expanded the business continuity support programme to all 11 earthquake-affected provinces, again prioritising women-owned businesses. As a result, a USD 10 million fund established by the Government of Sweden was used to provide financial support to 4,620 small businesses that had been affected by the earthquakes in 2024, along with consultancy services and vocational training.

Gender Equality Essential for Inclusive Recovery

Mustafa Ali Yurdupak, UNDP Turkey Deputy Representative (Programme), stated the need for women to be better supported in disaster preparedness and post-disaster recovery processes, saying: "Women entrepreneurs have shown great resilience in combating the economic and social impacts of the earthquake, However, the existing support mechanisms are inadequate and raise serious obstacles in terms of accessibility. If micro-enterprises are to continue contributing to sustainable development, it is necessary to increase the resources of financial programmes targeting disaster resilience and post-disaster recovery, to facilitate access to programmes, to support widespread digitalization opportunities, and to implement gender-sensitive urban infrastructure and policy solutions."

The report, prepared by the UNDP in collaboration with the Connecting Business Initiative (CBI) – an international platform aiding businesses in responding to disasters and complex emergencies – and the Business Goals Platform (B4G), addresses the challenges faced by women-owned micro-enterprises in their post-disaster recovery processes. The report recommends the creation of transformation programmes for businesses and ecosystem actors, such as professional associations and business organisations, in areas such as business continuity planning, digitalization and crisis management to increase the resilience of women-owned businesses in the earthquake zone.

More information and the full reportcan be accessed from the UNDP Turkey website.