Press Release: UN Women and Yıldız Holding join forces to support women’s entrepreneurship

UN Women and Yıldız Holding partner to support women’s entrepreneurship and inclusive supply chains across Europe and Central Asia. Within the framework of the new partnership on promoting gender-responsive investment and procurement, Yıldız Holding is committing over $4,000,000 in women entrepreneurs. The strategic collaboration will help create market opportunities for women-led businesses and accelerate women’s entrepreneurship within the region and beyond.

Istanbul – UN Women and Yıldız Holding signed a Memorandum of Understanding to support women’s entrepreneurship and inclusive supply chains across Europe and Central Asia. The strategic collaboration aims to accelerate women’s entrepreneurship and help create market opportunities for women-led businesses in the region and beyond. Within the framework of the new partnership on promoting gender-responsive investment and procurement, Yıldız Holding is committing over $4,000,000 in women entrepreneurs throughout its entire value chain over the next three years.

Addressing gender-responsive investment and procurement in Europe and Central Asia is crucial given women account for less than a third of entrepreneurs in Europe. Moreover, the rate of entrepreneurial activity among European women is at 5.7 per cent – compared to an average of 11 per cent in the rest of the world. Globally, as in Europe and Central Asia, women entrepreneurs have trouble accessing assets, financial services, as well as information and markets. Furthermore, women entrepreneurs receive less than half of the investment capital than their male peers. Despite this, for every $1 investment raised, women-run startups generate double ($0.78) the revenue than men-run startups ($0.31), and providing them with equal opportunities could create $160 trillion in wealth from better use of their skills, experiences and ideas.

Within the scope of the cooperation, Yıldız Holding companies will accelerate best practices to encourage women entrepreneurship with the support of UN Women. In addition, UN Women and Yıldız Holding will cooperate to extend the scope of Gender-Responsive Procurement and Investment (GRPI) Program in targeted countries. In the near future, the Holding will also launch other operational and strategic cooperation initiatives with UN Women on the same basis.

The partnership will be guided by and feed into the activities of the Women’s Entrepreneurship Accelerator (WEA), a multi-stakeholder partnership convened by the United Nations and housed by UN Women, aiming to create an enabling ecosystems for women entrepreneurs around the world. Yıldız Holding has recently become a partner to the Women’s Entrepreneurship Accelerator initiative and aims take initiatives on gender equality and women’s empowerment led under Yıldız Holding Women’s Platform to a global level.

El-Yassir: “Women entrepreneurs bring added value to the market as leaders, innovators, accelerators of change and multipliers of best practices”

UN Women Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia and Representative to Turkey Alia El-Yassir also addressed the guests at the ceremony and said: “As UN Women, we see the added value women entrepreneurs bring to the market as leaders, innovators, accelerators of change and multipliers of best practices. Across Europe and Central Asia, we are committed to supporting women entrepreneurs together with our partners by creating an enabling ecosystem for accessing knowledge and information, financial services and products, as well as networks and markets. Yıldız Holding, with its unique position as a leader in the region and across the globe, is committed to women’s empowerment in communities, as well as in the workplace and marketplace. Through our partnership on gender-responsive investment and procurement, Yildiz Holding is committing to invest over $4,000,000 in women entrepreneurs. We are extremely excited to partner with Yıldız Holding to support women-led and women-owned businesses as part of our joint efforts for women's entrepreneurship acceleration and transformation."

Afridi: “Yıldız Holding will continue to support equal opportunities in all of its subsidiaries”

GODIVA Global CEO and Yıldız Holding Board Member Nurtaç Ziyal Afridi delivered a speech at the signing ceremony. Focusing on the Holding’s equal opportunity practices, she said: “Our goal is to make sure that wherever we have a presence across the world, Yıldız Holding is working to generate opportunities by ‘Investing in People’ – but equally important is investing in women. As a global family of brands and businesses with tens of thousands of employees worldwide, it is a necessity that our Holding is also synonymous with the mission to uplift women in the countries and regions where we operate. You can see this in action in how we take firm steps in supporting women entrepreneurs through all our subsidiaries, whether through empowering women to take leadership roles within our companies or by providing a platform for entrepreneurs through innovative social impact programs like The Lady GODIVA Initiative. With the memorandum of understanding we have signed with UN Women Europe and Central Asia Regional Office, it is even more clear today how we are strengthening our ongoing commitment to supporting women’s entrepreneurship and empowerment. Our continued partnership with the UN is an important milestone in ensuring women leaders, inside and outside our Holding, have the resources and support needed to build a better tomorrow for our global society, with our global family of brand and businesses as a key player in this more equitable future.”

Mutuş: “We are ready to support women’s entrepreneurship and supply chain globally as well”

Also attending the signing ceremony, Yıldız Holding Women’s Platform Ambassador Begüm Mutuş stated the following: “With a focus on women’s empowerment and equal opportunities in the business world, we believe it is our responsibility to lead the way in line with our mission statement of ‘supporting equal opportunities for a better future’. We established Yıldız Holding Women’s Platform in 2021 to work more systemically and centrally on the issues of women’s presence and equal opportunity in the business world. Since then, we have been maintaining our strong perspective on the issue in all our messages. We are building a corporate culture that is based upon equality and inclusion. Adopting the fundamental criteria set by the UN for women entrepreneurship, we pledge to implement these criteria in Yıldız Holding and its subsidiaries.”