INF/MSME/R/16  
 
20 July 2020  
(20-4983) Page: 1/2 
  Original: English  
 
INFORMAL WORKING GRO UP ON MSMES  
1 JULY 2020 WEBINAR ON SUPPORTING SMALL BUSINESS RESILIENCE  
THROUGH DIGITAL TOOL S 
Summary of discussions  
The following communication, dated 20  July 2020, is being circulated at the request of the 
Coordinator of the Informal Working Group on MSMEs.  
 
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The webinar was co -organized by the Global Innovation Forum and the MSME Group. The event 
looked into ways the Covid -19 pandemic has impacted MSMEs in different regions of the world. Th e 
four speakers described how their businesses have pivoted to more online operations, both in terms 
of product sales and for offering remote workshops or trainings. Various difficulties were noted by 
the speakers, ranging from access to markets given pape r document processing holdups to basic 
challenges accessing clients or training recipients caused by infrastructure deficiencies. All speakers 
underscored the importance of the digital economy to provide them with a market during this period 
and supported the development of public private partnerships given that the new digital economy 
requires access to infrastructure from basic electricity to high speed internet. Further, there is a 
need to increase populations' digital literacy in order to increase devel oping economies' populations' 
awareness of e -commerce and online opportunities.  
 
1  SUMMARY OF DISCUSSIO NS 
1.1.  Josefina Urzaiz, co -founder of Cielo Hammocks, noted the two channels by which her firm has 
been impacted by the Coronavirus crisis. First, wholesale or ders were cancelled because the 
distributors that sold the product were closed, and second the artisans that manufacture the 
hammocks were constrained by national stay -at-home orders. To respond to the first issue Cielo 
Hammocks switched their sales strate gy from wholesale to individual retail sales online by using 
digital technology like Instagram and Amazon Mexico. For the second, the company changed their 
production structure when it came to the exchange of finished products and material, moving the 
sites closer to the producing villages which made communication technology, including Email and 
smartphone messaging services, critical to allow employees to work from home where possible. 
Ms. Urzaiz noted that the pandemic has highlighted the need to digitali ze trade -related 
documentation given Cielo Hammocks' difficulties with paper documentation related to 
rules of origin. Further, there is a need for finance and a national savings account to plan 
for future crises to sustain small business . 
1.2.  Eno Umoh , co -founder of Global Air Media & the Global Air Drone Academy, described the 
ever-expanding uses of drones during the Covid -19 pandemic, which themselves are a digital 
technology, as well as the company's expanding use of e -learning tools. Drones have become mo re 
important in the pandemic as a means of providing "socially distanced" services like body 
temperature checks, delivering food or medical items, and everyday work like construction site 
mapping. Regarding the academy, in -person training was a large part of their efforts before the 
pandemic, however these trainings had to move online. Now the Global Air Drone Academy has a 
"Virtual Drone Club" for students to participate from around the world and they have created "drone 
camp in a box" that allows students  to receive a box that includes a weeklong e -learning course. 
Video communication tools like Zoom and Google Classrooms have been important to reach students INF/MSME/R/16  
 
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  and the platform Thinkific has been used to share materials. Finally, visual educational tools lik e 
Adobe Captivate have also been important to create online classes and Canva has been used to 
create flyers and media material. Mr. Umoh called on policymakers to review and standardize 
measures related to the imports of new technologies like drones . 
1.3.  Celia Boyd, co -founder of SHE Investments briefly described the Cambodian business 
environment as an economy comprised mostly of informal MSMEs, 60 per cent of which are 
women -owned. SHE focuses on supporting these women business -owners to scale -up and increas e 
their access to the global economy. Covid -19 has had a significant impact on Cambodia, wiping out 
essentially a quarter of the Cambodian economy over night given the country's reliance on travel 
and tourism. SHE has tried to give support to their members  during this time by transitioning their 
business training workshops online, a particular challenge given their members' intermittent internet 
connections. To counter this, SHE sent internet credits and hotspots to participants to allow them to 
join worksh ops. Ms. Boyd also noted the steep learning curve with video conferencing tools like 
Zoom, both for employees of SHE and for their workshop participants and remarked that SHE has 
now built -in more digital literacy to their learning courses. Thinkific is an other platform SHE has 
been using as they focus their efforts on providing online support and blended learning. One last 
challenge SHE has faced is the language barrier given that a lot of Covid -related resources for 
entrepreneurs have been released only i n English. Ms. Boyd underscored the need to move 
enterprises from the informal economy to the formal economy by facilitating company 
registration and access to export licences, among other necessary documentation . 
1.4.  Rana El Chemaitelly, founder of the Little  Engineer first described the double challenge Lebanon 
is facing with the Corona virus and the country's economic difficulties. To retain the brand of Little 
Engineers, Ms. El Chemaitelly chose to leave Lebanon and move to the UAE where she could  have 
more reliable access to electricity and the internet. Although she continues to face many business 
constraints, Ms. El Chemaitelly took the opportunity of her move to develop a number of online 
activities, including an online store to sell the company's roboti cs kits and a website to list future 
learning offerings. She recommended that policymakers should focus on sustaining MSMEs 
through this crisis noting that even digital tools have costs that MSMEs may struggle to 
pay, such as for maintaining webhosting or Instagram accounts . 
 
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