On Jan. 20th the Coalition of Women Business Associations in Romania (CAFA) organized their first event in 2012, a half-day workshop on governance principles for business associations. Camelia Bulat, CIPE, was invited to give a presentation on the topic and to facilitate discussions among participants.

The workshop was hosted by Business Opportunities for Women, a CAFA association member that has just taken over the Secretariat function for the year 2012. The event targeted mainly executives and Board members of women business associations. Fifteen participants representing seven women business associations from all over Romania were in attendance.

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Volume 6 of the GROW newsletter features an overview of women’s entrepreneurship in Asian developing countries by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, which profiles women’s business organizations in the region and makes recommendations for the promotion of women’s entrepreneurship. The issue also includes a description of women entrepreneurs in Pakistan by Arjumand A. Qazi, highlights from the CACCI Women Entrepreneurs Council session at the 2011 CACCI Conference in Istanbul, and more.

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In a blog featured on the www.businessfightspoverty.org website, Dr. Susan Mboya, Group Director for Eurasia Africa Women’s Economic Empowerment at the Coca-Cola Company, describes a recent event on the economic empowerment of women, as well as her company’s work in supporting women through their value chains. The Coca-Cola Company’s own micro distribution center (MDC) model allows women to establish small, independently-owned, and low-cost distribution businesses within their value chain to serve urban and peri-urban retail markets. Programs like the new 5BY20 initiative seek to empower 5 million women entrepreneurs throughout Coca-Cola’s global system by the year 2020.

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Each year Uks, a research, resource and publication center on women and media, publishes its Annual Desk Diary. This signature product is a handy organizational tool that also provides a well-rounded view of a particular theme chosen for that year. Past editions have covered a variety of topics including women’s empowerment through education, the struggle for legal rights, and striving for power and visibility in the media. Inspired by its work with CIPE and the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industries to create a series of radio programs about women entrepreneurs, Uks chose entrepreneurship as the main theme of this year’s Desk Diary.

Women of Pakistan: Climbing up the Entrepreneurship Ladder features a collection of success stories, news articles and essays about women entrepreneurs in Pakistan maneuvering through a complex and challenging business environment. The success stories below are just a taste of what can be found in the complete 2011 Desk Diary available for purchase by contacting the Uks office directly.
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Last week seventeen business women and women managers representing seven association members of the Coalition of Women Business Associations (CAFA) in Romania got together in Bucharest for a work meeting.

The Association of Women Entrepreneurs in Romania (AFIR) Galati, which has been in charge with the CAFA secretariat in 2011, presented an activity report and highlighted some of the major activities they carried out this year. Notable CAFA events held in 2011 include the annual conference held on June 3-4, the workshop on how to communicate with public officials held on October 15 and the conference organized by the Association for Women Entrepreneurship Development (CAFA member) on October 27 which featured a CAFA presentation.

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The Second International Balkan Countries Women and Business Conference will be held December 22, 2011 in Edirne, Turkey. Though the main theme of the conference is “Determining Strategies for Better Women Cooperation in Business Between Balkan Countries”, the conference will also focus on topics including law and regulation on business and women in Balkan countries, practical issues for business and women in Balkan countries, good and bad cases of women and business in Balkan countries, and developing women’s power in various sectors. For additional information about the conference or to see a list keynote speakers and panelists visit the conference page here.

Assoc. Prof. Kiymet Caliyurt,
Conference President
womenbusinesscongress@gmail.com

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The Bangladesh Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BWCCI) is continuously working for women’s empowerment, the basic human rights of women against eve teasing and domestic violence, as well as equal participation for women in all spheres of life. BWCCI places a special focus on entrepreneurship development by persistently calling on policy makers to take action with regard to women entrepreneurs.

For the past ten years BWCCI has requested that the Government create a common retail outlet for women entrepreneurs to display and sell their products, as many micro and small entrepreneurs do not have the resources to do so on their own. BWCCI’s commitment to this goal has proven successful. Yesterday, Honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina announced the launched of a new showroom located in Rapa Plaza, and spoke of aims to place similar showrooms in other districts. The Prime Minister also warned against all types of violence against women. BWCCI hailed this initiative and thanks all of its partners for their continued support.

A newspaper article detailing the announcement and the Prime Minister’s remarks can be read here.

Selima Ahmad
President, BWCCI

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The Women’s Alliance of Business Associations in Zimbabwe (WABAZ), a newly formed women’s coalition hosted a public launch of the organization. As part of the launch, Dr. Charity Manyeruke author of a CIPE-commissioned study on women entrepreneurs in Zimbabwe presented the report, which examines the enabling environment and potential for women’s empowerment in the country. The Minister of Industry and Commerce, the Minister and Permanent Secretary of Regional Integration and Economic Cooperation, as well as members of Parliament, and the Permanent Secretaries from the Ministry of Women Affairs, Gender and Economic Development and the Ministry of SMEs were in attendance. The President of the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce – organizers and supporters of WABAZ – gave remarks, as did the Chairwoman of WABAZ. The Ministers gave brief presentations and pledge their maximum support for the coalition. The event, which was also attended by top women business executives in the country, was covered by both the print and electronic media. CIPE is supporting the growth of WABAZ through ZNCC to strengthen the voice of business associations in the country to represent the interests of the private sector in dialogue with the government.

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This year the Association for Women Entrepreneurship Development (ADAF) in Romania celebrated ten years of activity. ADAF is a non-governmental organization which aims at promoting and supporting women entrepreneurship. To celebrate its tenth anniversary, ADAF organized a conference titled “Accomplishments and Prospects for Women Entrepreneurship in Romania”. The event took place on October 27 at the House of the Parliament in Bucharest, Romania and brought together over one hundred participants including public officials from the government of Romania, women business association members, individual entrepreneurs, members of the academia, and media representatives.
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Women represent 49.6% of the population worldwide, but only 40.8% of the formal economy. A recent World Bank study, Women, Business and the Law 2012: Removing Barriers to Economic Inclusion, contends that this disparity may be explained in part by the legal differences between men and women present in many countries. Building off of and expanding beyond other business indicator datasets, like Doing Business and the Enterprise Surveys, the Women, Business and the Law project (WBL) sought to identify and shed light on the additional legal barriers women face when seeking employment or starting their own business. The project studied 141 economies across the globe, measuring the legal differences based on gender in six areas: accessing institutions, using property, getting a job, providing incentives to work, building credit, and going to court.
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