WITH Women's Entrepreneurship & Trade
WITH Women’s Entrepreneurship & Trade
by Dr. Catherine Bosshart, BPW International President 2021-2024
A key factor for women's economic independence and prosperity is access to finance. We are aware that women face difficulties in accessing finance for growing their businesses.
I am pleased to announce that BPW International has just signed a GLOBAL partnership agreement, the Memorandum of Understanding MoU with UN Women for the coming years. Global means that wherever we have clubs, we will be a partner and key player in working with UN Women on the ground. The content of the partnership agreement relates to WITH Women’s Entrepreneurship & Trade.
This partnership agreement focuses on the promotion of women's economic empowerment and is in line with Sustainable Development Goal SDG #5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.
Specifically, we want to establish the first network of business incubators and start-up centers with a gender-specific dimension. We will thus be the first international women's organisation with a global network of start-up centers for female entrepreneurs, each managed by our clubs.
Business Incubators and Start-up Centers
In the first six months, a train-the-trainer program based on the GIZ (German Society for International Cooperation) program will be implemented to train women entrepreneurs, members of BPW, to become professional coaches (with certification). They will then work with the women on site and support them with the topics they need, be it accounting, marketing, language, or dealing with banks and other investors.
Donors
To achieve this, the partnership agreement proposes to leverage partnerships with multiple donors to set up specific support solutions, including coaching and mentoring programs, with a focus on improving the trading capacity of women-owned SMEs.
In concrete terms, this means that in a first phase with investors, we are targeting an initial fundraising of USD 3.3 to 4.9 million to support the establishment and development of women's business centers in strategic locations around the world where UN Women and BPW Federations or Clubs are present.
In order to strengthen this fundraising campaign, BPW International will now also negotiate directly with the UN Women headquarters in New York for GLOBAL funds with large institutions such as the World Bank. We are thinking of framework agreements worth several million US$ to strengthen this strategy and to be able to make a financial contribution to projects via BPW International for BPW Federations or Clubs that do not have sufficient funds for their programs.
If a BPW Federation or a Club is interested in a program to establish a business incubator for women entrepreneurs, it can contact UN Women's regional and national offices through this Memorandum of Understanding. The partnership with UN Women facilitates collaboration with other UN agencies or international donors to set up a program. BPW Clubs will also not have to wait for calls for proposals or go through a selection process.
How to proceed
For now, we have agreed to launch a pilot program across West and Central Africa.
At the moment, three pilot programs for the establishment of business incubators in the region have been launched: one was proposed by UN Women in Sierra Leone in cooperation with our club in Freetown, other projects in Niamey in Niger and in Kinshasa, RD Congo. More projects are on the agenda (currently over 16) for other countries in the region where there is a UN Women office.
Women Entrepreneurship Expo 2024
Another important goal is to contribute to the organization of the Women Entrepreneurship Expo. This is a program launched and financed by UN Women, for which the women's business centers form the basis.
The Memorandum of Understanding also provides for the Expo 2024 to be held in Africa, and for women entrepreneurs in trade to be the focus of the Expo. BPW International will thus become one of UN Women's most important partners in the organization of the Expo, alongside ITC, ILO, and UNDP.
Expo 2024 will therefore seek to leverage the results, achievements and impact of the new start-up centers and women-specific programs to accelerate women entrepreneurs' access to trade, with a particular focus on the African Free Trade Area (AfCFTA): a great opportunity to promote women's trade.
The organisation of the Women Entrepreneurship Expo 2024 will build on the experience of the three previous editions, which each time brought together over 50 countries on multilingual platforms and mobilized hundreds of women entrepreneurs. Each year, there are more than 100 stands of women entrepreneurs, attracting several thousand visits over three days, more than 300 face-to-face meetings and networking events and hundreds of networking requests.
With this partnership agreement, all BPW Clubs and Federations become key players in the Women Entrepreneurship Expo.
Conclusion
Finally, I would like to remind you that this partnership agreement with UN Women relating to WITH Women’s Entrepreneurship & Trade applies to all BPW Federations and Clubs worldwide as of today.
You can download the Memorandum of Understanding MoU with UN Women here, and we will set up a team to coordinate this new dynamic.
If you have a question about this project and require further information, please contact me.
