in spite of much political rhetoric about the importance of encouraging women to engage in incomegenerating activity most of the efforts have been led by the nongovernment sector and particularly by businesswomen s associations donors often fund these business support projects and offer tools that can be used to train women in entrepreneurial skills such as the international finance corporation ifc programme women get the business edge in yemen and the ilo s start your own business syob expand your business iyb and know about business kab training materials in a number of mena economies however business development services are not systematically available in the mena region especially in rural areas