Last week members of the Coalition of Women Business Associations (CAFA) in Romania participated in a workshop titled “How to Communicate with Public Officials” which took place in Bucharest. The event brought together fifteen business women and managers representing six women business associations from all over the country and was organized by the Association of Women Entrepreneurs in Romania – Timisoara, a CAFA member, and the Advocacy Academy. Another CAFA member, the Association Business Opportunities for Women hosted the event at its headquarters.

The workshop agenda included a presentation on how to communicate with public officials, followed by exercises in which participants used the newly-gained information and knowledge to identify opportunities and tools they can use when advocating on specific issues that affect the business community. More specifically, the participants discussed the issue of professional training for adults, with respect to the way in which the coalition members can communicate with public officials and advocate for changes in the legislation concerning this topic. Corina Dragomirescu, Senior Consultant at the Advocacy Academy in Timisoara facilitated the workshop.

CAFA is an informal coalition of nineteen women business associations in Romania. Launched in January 2004, CAFA received support from CIPE in its first two years of activity. Since 2006, it has been a stand-alone coalition, run through a management center (the CAFA Secretariat). Each year the CAFA secretariat is managed on rotation by a different coalition member. CAFA’s goal is to promote women entrepreneurship and the interests of business women, as well as to represent them in the economic policy decision-making process.

Carmen Stanila
CIPE Romania

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