WCombinator

Historically, women have benefited from social investment, as the lack of capital for female entrepreneurs is more difficult for them to acquire than for male entrepreneurs. While there is definitely still room for improvement in terms of diversity, a growing number of female founders and investors are challenging the status quo and making a positive impact, as shown on social media and the news, particularly in the United States. The advancement of women cannot be limited to female financial empowerment; women themselves are both actors and victims of a long-term investment climate that prioritises female financial power.

Currently, female business owners and investors face a fragmented investment environment. It lacks a systemic and strategic gender focus. WCombinator is designed to encourage investment in female-led businesses and leverage the power of women as investors by using an integrated approach that incorporates a gender lens.

Three pillars should be used:

1. investing to close the gender investment gap,
2. nurturing to establish a pipeline of quality initiatives to close the gap, and
3. driving change to raise awareness of the gender investment gap.

To build a thriving economy, we must invest in education, skills, and capacity-building for all socioeconomic levels.

The significant contribution that micro-and small-business entrepreneurs, as well as own-account workers, make to long-term economic growth is a result of being an essential element of entrepreneurship. The percentage of female entrepreneurs in these industries is significant. Funding, developing, and growing their businesses may be made difficult, however, because huge financial constraints frequently restrict them from increasing their networks and knowledge.

To start a business, entrepreneurs need to have a thorough understanding of their market and product, as well as financial, management, and leadership expertise. A good education provides you with this knowledge.

Women may face unique obstacles in the development of essential skills and capabilities, just as they do in schooling. Gender-specific training is particularly beneficial for addressing the challenges female entrepreneurs face, as well as the numerous limitations they are forced to contend with. It is critical that we employ both hard and soft skills to enable women to develop businesses that are sustainable and flourish.

Small businesses may benefit from connections within the community. To get a head start in the entrepreneurial world, look for connections with people who have their own set of skills, knowledge, and connections. Strong ties and broad social networks can facilitate the entry of entrepreneurs into the finance sector, making it easier to gain access to capital, discover new market opportunities, and incorporate new business competencies. In addition to an increased likelihood of profits, women in networks exhibit greater risk-sharing behaviors.

Global Value Chains presents a significant challenge in increasing gender equality and advancing women’s economic empowerment due to the absence of systematic information or reliable data. Much of the information is fragmented and is available in multiple locations.

Greater transparency is required to follow women’s progress and identify effective strategies.

Women’s economic empowerment is used as a strategy in some GVCs. Additionally, these activities include increasing the number of women in leadership roles, offering more training and career advancement opportunities, as well as supporting unpaid care, which reduces the gender pay gap, and addressing sex and gender discrimination and sexual harassment. Expanding women’s economic empowerment in global value chains would benefit a greater number of organisations and stakeholders.

It can be accomplished by:

Recognition: Identifying how women employees and entrepreneurs affect the overall profitability of a company and the issues they face.

Making a concerted effort to obtain better gender-disaggregated data and information from suppliers, and communicating about company and supply chain initiatives to advance gender equality

Women’s voices: Providing suppliers with opportunities to collaborate, while consulting women workers and entrepreneurs on their concerns; getting input from providers through consultation and collaboration

Economically empowered women, their families, and their communities are all good for business, profitability, and economic sustainability.

Collaboration: Working closely with civil society organisations who have demonstrated success in supporting working women and entrepreneurs, as well as with other corporations, is more likely to be successful as a collective effort rather than as an individual project

Global alliances: Including organisations like the UN Women’s Empowerment Principles, which aim to help empower women all over the world.

In the current era, actors in the GVC industry have a greater opportunity to join forces to advocate for women’s greater economic empowerment. One of the biggest advantages of scaling up is the impact it will have on women, their households, communities, and businesses, but also on the systems and structures that provide long-term, sustainable value.

Digital Transformation is integrating digital technology into areas of businesses to change the way they operate and deliver value to customers. Every business is unique, and therefore each business will need to develop a digital transformation roadmap tailored to its business and specific needs.

Digital Transformation

• Empowered employees
• Engaged customers
• Transformed products
• Optimised operations

Highlighted below are some of the core benefits that digital transformation brings for small and medium organisations:

• Increased savings and efficiencies
• Improved customer experience
• Increase competitiveness, agility & innovation
• Data-driven insights

Developing your talent in an evolving global business environment. Integrative trade is a framework in which the import and export of goods, information, services and services related to goods are traded across country borders through value chains; this framework for trade is powered by investments, business relationships, and partnerships to develop mutually shared value for stakeholders.

• International Business Development
• International Business Operations and Planning
• Intercultural Aspects of Integrative Trade
• Political and Policy Environment
• International Risk Management
• International Investment
• International Trade and Supply Chain Finance
• Global Value and Supply Chain Management
• International Trade Law
• International Trade Compliance