GES-EVA panel discussion puts spotlight on promoting women entrepreneurship

The experts said, "It is imperative to continue to create the foundation for promoting women entrepreneurship to enable them to excel and develop their businesses by learning from the experiences of the successful Arab women entrepreneurs."

At a panel discussion on 'Thinking Big & Building Big Blocks for Womenpreneurs,' the participants shared their insights on exploring innovative ways to support women entrepreneurs from the perspective of a diverse group of stakeholders including corporates, civil society organisations and established entrepreneurs.

The session, co-ordinated by Emirates Aspen Partnership, also discussed how different stakeholders complement each other in creating the conditions for women entrepreneurs to thrive and the insights to be drawn from successful women business leaders in the region.

Nadereh Chamlou, Senior Advisor to the Chief Economist, MENA, World Bank, was the moderator of the session, with participants from across the GCC region, including: Muna AbuSulayman, Philanthropist & Development Expert, and Partner, Directions Consultancy, Saudi Arabia; Imad Benmoussa, General Manager, Coca-Cola Middle East; Najla Al Midfa, Senior Manager - Entrepreneurship Development, Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development; and Doa'a Essa Abdul Wahab, MD and Partner, Salad Boutique Restaurant, Bahrain.

Nadereh Chamlou, expressed optimism on the future of women entrepreneurship in the MENA region, saying, "One out of six businesses is owned by women. When I look at the next generation I see a great deal of optimism, leadership, energy and dynamism."

Imad Benmoussa said, "The gender gap is narrowing in the region." "Women literacy is higher than ken and we see more and more women in positions of power. Some of the challenges women face is the limited access to financial support, lack of mentorship and peer network. We need the entire ecosystem to collaborate; meaning the government to create the right policies, for the private sector to launch programmes to support women, the universities to gives courses on entrepreneurship and the society to support our women entrepreneur," he added.

On the challenges faced by women entreprenuers, Muna AbuSulayman observed: "Some of the challenges women face today are the importance of motherhood and the difficulty of balancing work and family life, as well as limited access to finance. When they start, they don't have the financial resources or the know-how. We have to reflect on the best age to become an entrepreneur. Also, does our society allows us to fail as a business? People in average fail three to five times before they actually succeed. Do we have an eco-system allowing bankruptcy?"

Najla Al Midfa added, "Some of the challenges women face are limited cash flow, limited access to financial support, administrative restrictions, but more importantly social and cultural restrictions. A women needs to work extra hard to balance her work and family life. Having a business is a 24 hour job. It's very important to have support from the family. Women also lack self-confidence when it comes to networking and mingling at events."

Doa'a Essa Abdul Wahab said, "Women don't take themselves seriously enough. They need to delegate and manage carefully their time. If a woman really wants a business, she can do it. Women should be educated to be employers. Women are raised in safe environment and men are encouraged to take risks. Another challenge they face is that they have not enough access to capital or financial support. Also, our education system teaches us to be employees and not employers. Women entrepreneurs need more guidance, counselling and more access to financial resources."

GES-EVA is hosting more than 90 renowned speakers and successful entrepreneurs from 20 countries sharing best practices in promoting a culture of entrepreneurship that will power the regional small and medium enterprises (SME) ecosystem of the Arab world. In addition to keynote addresses by guest entrepreneurs and government representatives from the UAE, US and Malaysia, GES-EVA hosts more than 20 sessions including panel discussions, success story talk shows, keynote discussions hosted by AllWorld Network and informed debates.

The various panel discussions are addressed by experts in wide-ranging fields, representing governments, world-leading educational institutions, non-governmental organisations, financial organisations and various business sectors from across the world including the US, Singapore, Malaysia, Egypt, Turkey, Chile, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan and Lebanon, in addition to a strong representation from the UAE.

Expo 2020 Dubai, UAE Candidate City is the Strategic Partner of GES-EVA; Dubai SME and Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development are Industry Partners; and Dubai Chamber, du and Emirates NBD are the Lead Partners.