UN Women Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia and Turkey Representative Alia El-Yassir said: “Women entrepreneurs create value beyond just financial profit. When women entrepreneurs succeed, the ripple effect can be felt in their countries, communities and families. That’s why we can’t afford to leave women entrepreneurs behind. Together with our partners, UN Women is highlighting, supporting and accelerating women’s entrepreneurship. We are helping women entrepreneurs to take the next step – whether it is making a business idea happen or scaling up their businesses to reach a bigger market. Our new regional partnership with PwC is providing women entrepreneurs across Europe and Central Asia with the necessary tools to make this happen.”
UN Women and PwC join forces to boost women’s entrepreneurship in Europe and Central Asia
Date:
Istanbul, 13.10.2022 – UN Women and international firm PricewaterhouseCoopers embark on a regional partnership to support women’s entrepreneurship in Europe and Central Asia within the framework of the Women’s Entrepreneurship EXPO 2022. Aiming to develop the skills of women entrepreneurs, PwC offices in Albania, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Serbia, Türkiye and Ukraine will conduct a series of workshops targeting entrepreneurs on effective pricing, branding and packaging and digital marketing.
UN Women and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) signed a partnership to boost women’s entrepreneurship in Europe and Central Asia. The agreement aims to build the capacities of selected women entrepreneurs from across the region who applied to join the regional Women’s Entrepreneurship EXPO 2022. PwC offices in Albania, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Serbia, Türkiye and Ukraine will lead a series of workshops on effective pricing, branding and packaging and digital marketing. The announcement was made during a signing ceremony that took place in Istanbul, Türkiye.
The workshops, available in 6 languages, will be conducted at a ‘bootcamp’ to be held throughout October to prepare women entrepreneurs for the Women’s Entrepreneurship EXPO 2022 organized by UN Women Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia.
During the signing ceremony, PwC Regional Senior Partner Cenk Ulu said: “Today, it is extremely challenging for women entrepreneurs to strike a balance between work and life. Additionally, it is a well-known fact in business that women have significantly less access to loans and grants than men when seeking investment. That is exactly why PwC specifically aims to enable women entrepreneurs’ access to finances. It is seminal for us to support women entrepreneurs through a holistic approach on financial services, legal and tax counseling, and access to international markets. One of the most significant outcomes of this process is the network pool consisting of new customers, markets and investors. We are extremely happy to join UN Women’s EXPO 2022 and serve as an enabler for women entrepreneurs’ access to this network pool.”
“It is seminal for us to support women entrepreneurs through a holistic approach on financial services, legal and tax counseling, and access to international markets.”
“We are helping women entrepreneurs to take the next step – whether it is making a business idea happen or scaling up their businesses to reach a bigger market.”
Joining the signing ceremony online, PwC Albania Managing Director Mirjeta Emini stressed: “While current numbers indicate significant improvement for women’s progress in our country, economic empowerment remains key in attaining gender equality. Education, training and technical assistance are enabling factors in human capital inclusion everywhere. We truly believe this regional initiative can become a pillar of support in strengthening women’s position as entrepreneurs in the local market and beyond. Women thriving in business, promise a better social and working environment for everyone. Hence, it is with great pleasure that we join as signatories an initiative of high relevance, particularly for the times we are living in."
“Education, training and technical assistance are enabling factors in human capital inclusion everywhere. We truly believe this regional initiative can become a pillar of support in strengthening women’s position as entrepreneurs in the local market and beyond."
PwC Georgia Country Managing Partner Lasha Janelidze said: “PwC Georgia proudly stands with UN Women's EXPO 2022 and Women's Economic Empowerment initiative. Always being at forefront by our business consulting services in facilitating women entrepreneurs to achieve financial independence, gain equal access to all resources, including finance and capacity building, we are happy to share our experience and knowledge within the EXPO 2022.”
“Always being at forefront by our business consulting services in facilitating women entrepreneurs to achieve financial independence, we are happy to share our experience and knowledge within the EXPO 2022.”
Also joining the event online, PwC Kazakhstan Eurasia Advisory Leader Natalya Lim highlighted: “Women should be able to do everything nowadays. It is like in an anecdote, the ideal woman should work as if she has no kids, look after the kids as if she has no job, and look perfect as if she has no job and kids. Unfortunately, it is a reality and in the Eurasian region not every woman has a chance to speak up and share her ideas. The training PwC committed to provide as part of EXPO 2022 aims to give more confidence to women in our region to become entrepreneurs and more successful businesswomen. We wish that this program supported by UN Women will help women in business become more equipped as well as those who have such desire. The ability to work with the data, understand the funding availability, and fundamental business principles should positively result in sales growth, product proposition and profitability. Eventually, it will boost not only the economy, but also the diversity in business and the independence of many brave and talented women across Eurasia.”
“The training PwC committed to provide as part of EXPO 2022 aims to give more confidence to women in our region to become entrepreneurs and more successful businesswomen.”
Similarly, PwC Moldova Director Advisory Services Alexandru Gozun stressed: “This initiative is very much in line with what we are doing at the global level in terms of ensuring the proper diversity and inclusion both at corporate level and in the society. One of the key goals of PwC globally and in Moldova is to contribute to solving problems the society faces, and women entrepreneurship is one of the important topics.”
“One of the key goals of PwC globally and in Moldova is to contribute to solving problems the society faces, and women entrepreneurship is one of the important topics.”
PwC Ukraine Advisory Leader Dmytro Nechytailo stressed: “Since the war outbreak in Ukraine, all our efforts are directed toward enhancing the country's resilience and economic recovery. Boosting women's entrepreneurship potential can increase productivity, stimulate innovation and fuel economic growth. UN Women’s EXPO 2022 is an excellent opportunity for women to advance their entrepreneurship skills, build relationships and share experiences. We are very pleased to support this initiative in such a challenging time for Ukraine when economic empowerment of women is such an important element of sustainable economic empowerment of our country.”
“Boosting women's entrepreneurship potential can increase productivity, stimulate innovation and fuel economic growth. UN Women’s EXPO 2022 is an excellent opportunity for women to advance their entrepreneurship skills, build relationships and share experiences.”
The Women’s Entrepreneurship EXPO is a unique platform first launched in 2021 to promote women’s entrepreneurship in the region, providing an interactive space for women entrepreneurs for networking and collaboration, peer learning, ideas generation, capacity building and showcasing their businesses.
In 2021, the EXPO brought together more than 500 participants from 50 countries to connect, create and accelerate business growth plans together, and connected 200 women entrepreneurs with key stakeholders from the entrepreneurship ecosystem. The EXPO staged six co-creation hubs, thirteen coworking spaces, eight “ask the experts” sessions and over 100 EXPO booths, creating an enabling and robust environment for women entrepreneurs to hone their skills, further develop their business ideas and grow their networks.
In 2022, the main EXPO event will be held virtually on 16 – 17 November. In addition, a series of satellite events have been organized in Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Serbia and Türkiye.
About UN Women:
UN Women is the United Nations entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. A global champion for women and girls, UN Women was established to accelerate progress on meeting their needs worldwide.
About PricewaterhouseCooper:
At PwC, our purpose is to build trust in society and solve important problems. We’re a network of firms in 152 countries with more than 328,000 people who are committed to delivering quality in assurance, advisory and tax services. PwC has been providing services to the Turkish business world since 1981, with a professional staff of 2.400 in İstanbul, Ankara, Bursa, İzmir and Eskişehir we provide services to create the value that our clients look for. For more information, you can visit www.pwc.com.tr.
Media Contacts:
Erman Fermancı
Communications Analyst
UN Women Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia