Maya Kuvakova started her business in a small kitchen in the Kyrgyz Republic, where she prepared dumplings and sold them to her neighbours. At the time, Maya was on maternity leave and needed the additional income to support her growing family. She had two small children and knew how insecure women can feel, especially when on maternity leave. Now her company, Maminy retsepty, is one of the… Source ..read more

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Iraq’s power grid supplies less than 70% of the power needed by the growing country in the Middle East. As a result, businesses and homes use diesel generators to make up the difference, paying as much as 10 times more for the power, says Basima Abdulrahman, founder of KESK, a renewable energy company based in Baghdad. She launched KESK in Erbil five years ago. With 50 clients across the country… Source ..read more

Wednesday, April 3 at 9-10:30am EST REGISTER HERE Background: Performance-based incentives (PBIs) are powerful instruments for development banks to incentivize behavioral changes within financial intermediaries (incl. banks, funds etc.) and encourage them to increase financing to WSMEs. It is crucial to deepen our understanding of how performance-based… Source ..read more

Making The Cake Bigger, a podcast hosted by angel investor and Balanced Boards founder Jeffrey Green, engages thought leaders on increasing diversity within organizations for greater innovation and ingenuity. We-Fi Secretariat Head, Wendy Teleki, joined the series to discuss how We-Fi is leading both economic and social change through sustainable initiatives like the WE Finance Code. Source ..read more

By Wendy Teleki, Head of the We-Fi Secretariat Embark with We-Fi this year on our renewed mandate to instigate systemic change, empower women entrepreneurs and accelerate gender equality. Leaning in to 2024, I’m eager to spotlight the strides we’ve already made and share milestones and updates of what lies ahead for We-Fi and our partners. This month, we are thrilled to introduce We-Fi’s latest… Source ..read more

RSVP Now Event Summary The Government of Japan, in collaboration with We-Fi and ADB, is organizing an event focused on the care economy, emphasizing the pivotal role of women entrepreneurs as providers and users of care services, including elder care. This event aims to bring together various stakeholders to discuss and find solutions to promote investment and policy… Source ..read more

REGISTER HERE Background: Access to financial capital is one of the most important and challenging problems women entrepreneurs face in growing their ventures. The gender financing gap is especially apparent in the equity financing space. In 2021, less than 15% of venture capital dollars went to companies with a woman on the founding team. Source ..read more

RSVP Now Background: The Women Entrepreneurs Finance Code (the WE Finance Code or, simply, the Code) is a commitment by financial service providers, regulators, development banks, and other financial ecosystem players to work together to increase funding provided to women-led micro, small and medium enterprises (WMSMEs) around the world, so that they can grow and add… Source ..read more

In a transformative journey, Alina Makenova, the founder of Kyrgyz recruitment company Make Nova, defies industry norms with a success rate of 92% in talent acquisition. The EBRD and Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) joined forces to empower Make Nova, fostering international visibility and growth. This advisory project, executed from May to December 2020, with a total project cost of... Source ..read more