Virtual Café for Women Entrepreneurs in the Indian Ocean

IORA partnered with UN Women on a Virtual Café for women entrepreneurs to network, shared lessons on managing through the pandemic, and recommended ways to further empower women looking to do business in the Indian Ocean.

This innovative virtual meeting was hosted by UN Women on 20 April for a closed (invitation only) group of participants. Women entrepreneurs and women leading businesses were the primary audience. The meet was also be attended by delegates of the Indian Ocean Rim Business Forum (IORBF) and Working Group for Women’s Economic Empowerment (WGWEE).

The objective of the virtual café was to better understand the issues women entrepreneurs and women-owned SMEs are currently facing in the Indian Ocean Rim region, particularly in the face of the global COVID-19 pandemic, and discuss ways to support them. The virtual café also served as a networking opportunity for the participants to build support amongst women entrepreneurs as well as public-private national and sub-regional partnerships and networks.

The results of the virtual café was shared in a subsequent public webinar to disseminate the recommendations and lessons learned to a wider IORA audience. A one-pager of the main recommendations from the event was also produced for the IORA website and for further dissemination.

The full list of activities under the IORA-UN Women partnership, supported by the Government of Australia, is available here..

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