KUALA LUMPUR, April 1 (Bernama) -- The Women’s Entrepreneurship Accelerator (WEA) recently, brought together senior representatives of its founding partners to discuss the key role of women entrepreneurship in leading the way on climate change adaptation, mitigation, and response, and how women entrepreneurs contribute as change-makers in creating a more sustainable and inclusive society for all.
The CSW event highlighted the critical importance of women entrepreneurship as a key driver in tackling climate change, the need to address structural and cultural barriers to women’s economic opportunity, and how to support women entrepreneurs as solutionaries to scale up and invest in innovative ideas.
It also featured ways to accelerate women’s economic opportunity through gender-responsive procurement and called for more commitment makers to jumpstart change for women worldwide by joining the Accelerator, according to a statement.
Women entrepreneurs have historically faced many obstacles including a lack of access to capital, fewer entrepreneurship networks compared with men, and policies that discourage female labour market participation.
Specific to the topic of the event, data reveals that women entrepreneurs are able to look at business investment beyond just financial returns and recognise that achieving financial returns and social returns are not mutually exclusive.
Opening the event, Chief Operating Officer of Mary Kay Inc, Deborah Gibbins, called for the dismantling of barriers women face and described how “climate change is not gender neutral. Women and girls are paying the heaviest price. Their heightened vulnerability is a direct consequence of gender inequalities in the political, social, cultural, and economic fabric of the societies in which they live.”
Moderating the event, Elizabeth Vazquez, President, CEO, and Co-Founder of WEConnect International, called out that “women represent 51 per cent of the world’s population, own 33 per cent of all private businesses, but earn only one per cent of global spend on products and services by large corporations.”
The Women’s Entrepreneurship Accelerator (WEA) is a multi-stakeholder partnership on women’s entrepreneurship established during UNGA 74.
It convenes six UN agencies, International Labour Organization (ILO), International Trade Centre (ITC), International Telecommunication Union (ITU), UN Development Programme (UNDP), UN Global Compact (UNGC), UN Women and Mary Kay Inc to empower five million women entrepreneurs by 2030.
-- BERNAMA
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