A new website for Commonwealth businesswomen was launched in New York last month, providing a collaborative forum for women entrepreneurs across the association’s 53 member countries.
The Commonwealth Businesswomen Network is a joint initiative of the Commonwealth Business Council, the International Federation of Business & Professional Women and the British Association of Women Entrepreneurs.
It was launched during the Commonwealth’s 2014 meeting of the National Women’s Machineries, which brought together gender ministers, senior officials, partner organisations and civil society in the wings of the 58th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women.
The website is the digital face of the Commonwealth Business Women initiative, launched in 2011 prior to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth, Australia. The website aims to support women in business and increase equality within the workplace.
The 2014 National Women’s Machineries Meeting, which focused on ‘Women’s Economic Empowerment and the Post-2015 Development Agenda’, provided the opportunity for stakeholders to discuss some of the key women’s economic empowerment initiatives and challenges that lie ahead.
The keynote speech, given by Margo Thomas, International Finance Corporation and World Bank Group, presented the findings of the World Bank’s latest report Gender at Work. It highlights persistent gaps in male/female work participation and the need for a holistic approach from both governments and the private sector to increase women’s participation in the workforce.
She stressed that: “Women’s economic participation is an important untapped source of economic growth and economic efficiency since women constitute roughly 50% of the world’s population and are economically significant as consumers, producers, and workers.”
Lakshmi Puri, Deputy Executive Director of UN Women, spoke on the importance of maintaining a stand-alone gender goal for the post-2015 development framework. Members reaffirmed their support for this and endorsed the Commonwealth’s ongoing work with UN Women in strengthening the Commonwealth’s accountability mechanisms for monitoring progress on gender goals. They also asserted the need to ensure entrepreneurship is reflected in eradicating poverty indicators.
At the meeting, participants had the opportunity to discuss the importance of increasing women in leadership positions in the public and private sector and the promotion of women’s participation in accessing opportunities presented by global and national value chains. They shared information on women’s economic empowerment initiatives and the challenges of and solutions to implementing these. Partners included: UN Women, Commonwealth Foundation, Commonwealth Business Council, International Federation of Business and Professional Women (BPW), Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS) and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
