The African and Arab Businesswomen’s Manifesto formalizes the commitment of the women’s economic community to an inclusive and equitable development. Through this manifesto, businesswomen from Africa and the Arab world are committed to promote and include the sustainable development goals (SDGs) into their functions, activities and environment.
The Manifesto is also a call to mobilize leaders and institutions for the full integration of women in the economic life and the development projects of their nations. Society must chart the path to a more inclusive future where poverty and inequality are shrinking, where peace and stability are a priority and where women are playing their full power in their respective societies. These challenges for a better future should not be individually considered because they are a whole, an alchemy for the great evolutions of these last decades to continue.
In this context, axes debated, it emerged as follows:
1) Government initiatives and best practices to support women’s entrepreneurship
- Rethink the education of our children, with educational reforms to train a female economic elite and change mentalities. We need to work on the university to revolutionize the educational system, to change the mindset so that girls have the same opportunities as boys. You cannot bring back university, they are people who have to come back to university, which is a place of the oneselfconstruction (knowledge, self-confidence, leadership …)
- Sensitization of elected officials, enforcement of parity or quota in public policies and promotion of women’s participation in all sectors. It is necessary to empower women in all sectors of our society. Women must hold responsibility position to make decisions that will be recognized and their actions should be highlighted.
- Diversify public / private partnerships for the implementation of strategies and initiatives for the development of women’s entrepreneurship. The diversification of partnerships to support women entrepreneurs of the world will helpto expand the implemented actions for the development of women’s inclusion.
- Guide social work towards the creation of social value through the economic empowerment of women. This is a long-standing job, to give a real place to women in the economic sphere. A woman who is not economically independent will stay under the control of her husband.
- Promote social entrepreneurship to offer innovative solutions to societal issues. because their actions are committed to be sustainable and have a social impact. We have to get out of the “miserable” vision of social entrepreneurship, because with this particular, vision the projects have had a hard time being financed. Revalorizing social entrepreneurship is also an objective that must be achieved to develop innovative solutions to the different societal issues.
2) How does innovation strengthen the role of women entrepreneurs in economic development?
- Invest in technological innovations to develop tools in social innovations with a strong impact. Technology is a support, it is an accelerator that helps strengthen the impact of social actions.
- Promote women as entrepreneurs and innovators. Improve the visibility of women in the public space through technological, social and economic innovation. It requires a general awareness, including media with self-regulation to advance mentalities, inform and raise awareness.
- Invest in technology to create innovative solutions that meet the needs of women and girls. There is a shortening of the distance between work and private life, one can work in a more flexible way thanks to the new technologies. It brings the world closer, and makes it faster.
3) The role of women in economic development: what are the constraints and challenges faced by women entrepreneurs?
- Strengthen the integration of women into the economic market by fighting against the informal sector by providing funding, tools and support to women. Transforming the informal sector into formal provides a real status for women in society, which is the starting point for their empowerment.
- Implement an innovative business model to support entrepreneurial actions. Investing in women is not a luxury, but essential to ensure sustainable economic development. We can not ensure the development of a nation if its half: the woman, is not integrated.
- Promote and allocate a portion of public and private purchases for gender-based strategies and initiatives.
4) Trade and women
- Strengthen the professional network of African and Arab women to promote cooperation and mutual aid. A platform would support relationships and connections around the world.
- Create a quality center with labels to highlight African and Arab products and know-how. Opportunity to appreciate products in the global economy, and foster exports with a fair appreciation of women’s know-how.
- Support exports development between continents and neighboring countries to promote the economic development of these regions. Undertake a cooperative approach to contribute to the development of bordering countries and support the continent’s exports.
5) Women’s entrepreneurship and access to finance
- Inform about access to banking systems and innovations to protect and integrate women into economic development. Including women in the current banking system is one of the levers to access empowerment and equal opportunities in access to finance.
- Build an entrepreneurship fund dedicated to Arab and African women to promote access to finance. Creation of an egalitarian environment, where women have their chances and benefit from a deep study of their projects.
- Microfinance should be viewed as a whole financial product and not a default choice. This product is a way to open the way towards autonomy.
- Promote alternatives to the classical financing tools, such as crowdfunding platforms to help women in their entrepreneurial actions. To diversify the financial resources to widen the possibilities of financing projects initiated by women.
