WHAT CAN BUSINESS DO FOR WOMEN AND WHAT CAN WOMEN DO FOR BUSINESS:

A Perspective from and for the Base of the Pyramid to Enhance Economic Opportunities for Women and Accelerate the Realization of the SDGs.

Tuesday 6th February 2018, 4:00-5:00 pm Istanbul time (GMT+3)

Women's Economic Empowerment: Navigating Enablers and Constraints

• Georgia Taylor, Technical Director at WISE Development

• Mashook Mujib Chowdhury, Deputy Manager, Sustainability, at DBL Group

• Nicole Voillat, Group Sustainability Director at Bata Brands
• Arianna Rossi, Research and Policy Officer, Better Work, International Labour Organization

Moderated by Carmen Lopez-Clavero, Programme Manager Specialist, Private Sector and Economic Development at Sida

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

For a woman to be economically empowered, she needs both the capacity to succeed economically and the power to take economic decisions. While a lot of corporations are investing in women’s economic empowerment, the focus has been on access to education, financial support, training and employment opportunities rather than a more integrated approach based on a human rights framework that delivers the broader conditions necessary for women to thrive.

This webinar will discuss the underlying structural barriers to women’s economic empowerment. It will attempt to respond to the following question: How can a company utilize all of its potential to create impact – people, investments, brand, customers, purchasing power and partnerships? What are some of the adverse social norms preventing women from entering the labor force? What are the discriminatory laws and gaps in legal protection and how can we drive policy change in this area? What are some of the limitations for women in accessing financial and property assets, and what can we do about it?

This webinar is the first in BCtA’s new webinar series featuring presentations and discussions with key experts who have helped to empower women at the Base of the Pyramid (BOP) market through their research, products or services development, policy or advocacy work. This is a unique chance to engage on both conceptual and practical issues around women’s economic empowerment for the BOP market.

The initiative is built on the recognition that there is a documented business case for the private sector to actively engage women as consumers, producers, suppliers, distributors of goods and services or employees. Women’s empowerment is a prerequisite, as much as it is an outcome, for achieving all the SDGs. Our webinars will demonstrate that businesses can be profitable and contribute to a company’s overall objectives while also helping to serve the interests of women at the BOP.

Webinar discussions will feed into an insight report that will provide a comprehensive knowledge base to better understand the needs of BOP women at the BOP, thus informing and improving future programme and product design.

About the Presenters

Georgia Taylor, Technical Director at WISE Development
Georgia Taylor has worked for 20 years on several areas of gender in development - specialising in women’s economic empowerment, tackling violence against women and girls, improving women’s access to maternal, newborn and child health, and sexual and reproductive health, with an emphasis on equity in health. She has excellent leadership skills and extensive management experience within DFID as a senior manager in Policy Division (the Reproductive and Child Health Team) and as a consultant. Georgia has engaged in government and UN policy processes, around CEDAW and ICPD, as well as the HIPC process. Georgia work on women’s economic empowerment includes programme implementation and research on women working in the health sector as midwives, doctors and nurses; how sexual and reproductive health impacts WEE and on women’s work in the informal sector. Georgia has experience of integrating gender equality approaches into three DFID Markets for the Poor programmes. She has used gender audit and provides organisational and programme gender training and transformational change processes. Georgia has an M.B.A. from the IESE Business School - University of Navarra and a Degree in Philosophy and Mathematics (BA Hons) from the University of Bristol.
Follow her on Twitter: @WISE_Develop
LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgia-taylor-26327028/

Arianna Rossi, Research and Policy Officer, Better Work, International Labour Organization
Arianna Rossi is the Research and Policy Officer with Better Work Global where she leads the Research and Impact team. With a view to support Better Work’s policy influencing agenda, her work covers research, impact assessment, data analysis, and monitoring and evaluation. Arianna is also Better Work’s gender focal point and coordinates its sexual harassment prevention activities. Prior to joining Better Work in 2009, she was Research Officer at the University of Manchester. She holds a PhD from the Institute of Development Studies at Sussex University focused on social and economic upgrading in garment global value chains, a MSc in Development Studies from the London School of Economics and a degree in Economics from the University of Ferrara, Italy. She has published several academic articles on labour in global value chains as well as economic and social upgrading.
Follow her on Twitter: @AriannaRossiBW
LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ariannarossi/

Mashook Mujib Chowdhury, Deputy Manager, Sustainability at DBL group
Mashook started in DBL Group in 2013. He has been involved with Sustainability since the beginning, officially joining the department in 2015. Currently, he is working with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Since 2014-15, he has been preparing the Sustainability Reports of DBL Group following the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines. He has been one of the focal points for interacting with various stakeholders including BCtA, IFC (World Bank), and GIZ, in terms of women empowerment, inclusive business, community development, etc. Mashook has interest in creating infographics, presentations, and programming with VBA.
Follow him on Twitter: @Mashook_MMC
LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mashook-chowdhury-95803b67/

Nicole Voillat, Group Sustainability Director at Bata Brands
Nicole is a sustainability expert with more than 17 years of experience, advising, supporting and catalyzing change within major corporations and non-profit organizations by integrating sustainable development, human rights and environmental protection to accelerate the growth of sustainable enterprises. Specialty areas include sustainability strategies for corporations, multi-stakeholder partnerships, sustainability-driven innovative social enterprises at the Base of the Pyramid Business, sustainability monitoring, impact evaluation and reporting. Nicole worked as sustainability consultant for private and non-profit sector, as manager for the Business Leader for Nature program at the World Conservation Union, as senior consultant for the Business Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), one of Bill Gates Foundation. Before that Nicole worked for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in 7 countries as a delegate and head of regional operation at the HQ in Geneva. She holds a Master degree in Management & Sustainability from the University of Bath and a Master in Linguistics and Interpretation from the University of Zurich. She is a frequent speaker at conferences and guest lecturer in sustainability at the University of Geneva.
Follow her on Twitter: @NicoleVoillat
LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolethonnardvoillat/

Moderated by Carmen Lopez-Clavero, Program Manager Specialist, Private Sector and Economic Development at Sida
Carmen works at the International Organizations and Policy Support Department of the Swedish Development Cooperation Agency, Sida. She is a senior program manager specialist in private sector and economic development at the Global Economy Unit, responsible for developing new methods, instruments for cooperation and dialogue with the private sector. Her work focuses also on driving responsible business practices, innovation and entrepreneurship. Carmen has over 18 years’ experience of working in international management and development in several countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, together with Corporate Responsibility consulting in both private and public sectors in Sweden. She has a vast experience in heading post-conflict recovery programs, development of public-private partnerships, exploitation and anti-corruption strategies, capacity development and risk and operational assessments amongst others.
Follow her on Twitter: @carmelilladelri
LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmenlcc/

OUTREACH SUPPORT PARTNER: BUSINESS FIGHTS POVERTY
Follow us and BFP on Twitter for the latest news and information about the webinars:
BCtA: @BCtAInitiative
Business Fights Poverty: @FightPoverty