Conferences and summits: InfoPoint conference: How to make the business environment work for women’s economic empowerment (WEE)?
Women’s economic empowerment is more than a moral obligation; it is good business. The ICR Facility has been supporting business environment reforms that increase women's opportunities as entrepreneurs, investees, employees, and leaders in public-private dialogues.
Over the last 5 years, more than 60 interventions have been delivered in African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries with the intention to make legal frameworks more gender-sensitive. As a result, 30 policies were adapted, creating new opportunities for millions of women.
In addition, 700 partners from the public and private sector gained capacity to diagnose, influence design, implement, and evaluate gender-inclusive business environment reforms.
How has the project done this? Through targeted, on-demand technical assistance, training, and active knowledge management. Join the ICR Facility’s infopoint session to find out!
Event Details
Date: Thursday 13 March 2025
Time: 11:00 - 12:30 (CET)
Location: InfoPoint, Brussels, Belgium
Languages: English
Description
The session will share lessons learnt and present knowledge products produced by the ICR Facility, including “How to make the business environment work for women’s economic empowerment? Lessons learnt by the ICR Facility.”
We will present lessons learnt through the implementation of more than 60 interventions in different parts of the ACP regions. Then we will do a deep dive into an interesting case study: “Improving access to finance for women-owned businesses in Nigeria.”
You will hear the perspective from Daberuje Onesi-Lawani, Director of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), one of our partners in Nigeria, where we delivered evidence and tools to design and deliver gender-responsive financial interventions for women-owned enterprises.
We have published the findings in an ICReport on “Enhancing Access to Finance for Women-Owned Enterprises” and a tool that could be useful for other partners: “Gender inclusive access to finance checklist.”
Frank Okafor, Senior Programme Manager EUF Nigeria, will tell us more about the coordination role of the EUD, how it has made links for this intervention, amongst others, with partner organisations and other donor agencies on the ground, as well as links with ongoing programmes supported by the EU. This has led to increased effectiveness and sustainability.
You will also meet Irene Danquah, an ICR Facility technical advisor.
