The three day (3-5 September) ‘International Women Entrepreneurs Summit 2018’ was inaugurated by Vice President of Nepal Nanda Bahadur Pun in Kathmandu on September 3.
- Mr. Pun expressed concern over increasing violence against women and highlighted the need for public efforts to eliminate it.
- Theme: The theme of the 3-day event is “Equality begins with Economic Empowerment”.
- Host: South Asian Women Development Forum is organizing the International Women Entrepreneurs Summit- 2018. South Asian Women Development Forum (SAWDF) with a SAARC Recognized Body status is a member based regional body representing national women entrepreneurs’ associations/organizations; institutions working towards the economic issues of women entrepreneurs in the SAARC Region. SAWDF membership is based on organizations with extensive work around women’s entrepreneurship.
- Objectives: The main objective of the summit is to bring together achievers, women business leaders, professionals, international service providers, resource organizations, experts, government representatives and other stakeholders with a focus on innovative economic transformation through discussions and collaborations. Here are the objectives of the summit:
- Multiple collaborations and partnerships with a consortium of international organizations.
- To address the challenges associated with advancing and promoting gender responsive trade facilitation policies
- To promote business women through policy sharing for actionable reforms which can be developed as regional instruments for advocating the economic issues of women
- To create a more efficient, effective channel to identify, develop, and scale high-potential women entrepreneurs
- Learning and replication of an entrepreneurial model projects
- B2B meetings with suppliers and manufacturers in the textile sector (Pashmina and felt)
South Asian Women Development Forum
- The South Asian Women Development Forum, is incorporated under the Organization Registration Act 1977, is an autonomous, nonprofit organization based in Kathmandu, Nepal.
- SAWDF was granted the status of SAARC Recognized Body by the 36th Session of the SAARC Council Ministers at the 18th SAARC Summit which was held in Kathmandu on 24th of November 2014.
- As the first SAARC Recognized Body organisation, working on women entrepreneurs issues, SAWDF facilitates in taking forward the recommendations, drawn from the deliberations of national programs, as regional instruments for developing women SMEs friendly policies.
