Improving the Evidence Base on Women’s Entrepreneurship and Access to Finance

The Southern Mediterranean region is facing a rapidly evolving economic, political and geopolitical context, shaped by economic reforms, regional instability, digital transformation and shifting development priorities. In this context, strengthening women entrepreneurs’ access to finance and improving the evidence base for policymaking are becoming increasingly important for inclusive and resilient growth.

This interactive discussion will bring together the four national coordinators of the EU-OECD Regional Project to reflect on how current developments are shaping national priorities related to women’s entrepreneurship and financial inclusion. Through short interventions and moderated exchanges, speakers will discuss the relevance of definitions, sex-disaggregated data and evidence-based policymaking in the current context, as well as how the project can provide concrete support to policymakers and ecosystem actors across the region.

Moderator: Ms. Charlotte Goemans, Programme Co-ordinator and Policy Analyst, Middle East and Africa Division, Global Relations and Co-operation Directorate, OECD

Speakers:

• Ms. Sabrina Salama, Head of MENA Partnerships, Seedstars, and Project Coordinator for Egypt
• Ms. Reem Badran, Project Coordinator for Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestinian Authority
• Ms. Nora Regina Alawneh, CEO, Palestine Business Women Forum, Palestinian Authority 
• Ms. Lamia Osseiran, Executive Board Member and Treasurer, National Commission for Lebanese Women, Lebanon
• Mr. Hedi Bchir, Project coordinator, CAWTAR, and Project Coordinator for Tunisia
• Ms. Hana Lakdar-Ghazal, Associate Partner, Instiglio, and Project Coordinator for Morocco

This session will address the importance of developing a definition of women entrepreneurs. It will provide an academic perspective on how these definitions function, how they are established, and will examine the core issues related to defining women-owned and women-led businesses, covering both conceptual issues and technical implementation issues. This includes for example, explaining differences between women‑owned, women‑led, and women‑managed businesses and how they can be measured. Technical issues include aligning the units of analysis, the advantages and disadvantages of different data sources, and overcoming ethical and privacy concerns.

Moderator: Mr. David Halabisky, Project Co-ordinator, OECD

Presentation: Lois Stevenson, Expert

Speakers:

• Ms. Wendy Teleki, Head of the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi), World Bank
• Ms. Camila Jiménez Suárez, Centre for Entrepreneurship, Cities and Regions, OECD – online
• Ms Francesca Dalla Pozza, Principal Economist, EBRD

This session will illustrate current practices in the Southern Mediterranean for defining and measuring women’s entrepreneurship.

Moderator: Ms Francesca Dalla Pozza, Principal Economist, EBRD

Speakers:

• Ms. Saadia Bousekri, Head of the Financial Inclusion Unit, Bank Al-Maghrib, Morocco
• Ms. Sally Abdel Kader, General Manager, Financial Literacy Department, Financial Inclusion Sector, Central Bank of Egypt, Egypt
• Ms. Najwan Shiber, Financial Systems and Insurance Advisor – Gender focus, GIZ Jordan

Q&A

This session will present good practices in OECD and Southern Mediterranean countries for collecting data on women’s entrepreneurship, including activity rates, barriers, motivations and the characteristics of women-owned and -led businesses.

Presentation and moderator: Mr. David Halabisky, Project Co-ordinator, OECD

Speakers:

·       Mr. Tutku Siva Kizildag, Bpifrance, France

·       Dr Amal Idrissi, General Director of the Moroccan SMEs Observatory (OMTPME), Morocco

Q&A

This session will present good practices in OECD and Southern Mediterranean countries for collecting data on access to finance for women entrepreneurs, including access to bank accounts, microfinance and angel investment.

Moderator: Ms. Khadiga Fahmy, Senior Operations Officer, IFC FIG Advisory Africa

Speakers:

• Ms. Amal Abu Jaber, Head of the Credit Systems Division, Palestinian Monetary Authority (PMA), Palestinian Authority
• Mr. Mahmoud Montassar Mansour, General Director, Microfinance Control Authority (ACM), Tunisia

Q&A

Ms. Charlotte Goemans, Programme Co-ordinator and Policy Analyst, Middle East and Africa Division, Global Relations and Co-operation Directorate, OECD

• Ms. Hana Lakdar-Ghazal, Associate Partner, Instiglio, and Project Coordinator for Morocco
• Ambassador Nadia Hai, Interministerial Delegate of France to the Mediterranean, and co-chair of the MENA-OECD Women’s Economic Empowerment Forum 

Ms Khadija Abouohssou, Entrepreneur and member of the Association of Women Business Leaders in Morocco (AFEM) will share insights from her journey as an entrepreneur and reflect on the opportunities and challenges she has encountered along the way.

This session will build on the first day by illustrating how data and evidence can be used to in policymaking and how policymaking can reinforce efforts to collect data and build evidence. Drawing on a concrete example from Lebanon, the session will then highlight the role of women’s business support networks in strengthening the evidence base and demonstrate how they leverage data and evidence to design more targeted programmes and support effective policy advocacy.

Presentations:

• Mr. David Halabisky, Project Co-ordinator, OECD
• Ms. Zakie Karam, Treasurer, Lebanese League for Women in Business (LLWB), Lebanon

Participants will work in small groups using case studies introduced on Day 1. Each group will analyse one case, identifying key success factors, transferable lessons for their context, and the specific roles they and their organisations can play in implementation. The outputs will directly inform and strengthen National Action Plans being developed within the context of this project.

Moderator: Ms. Sabrina Salama, EU-OECD Project Coordinator for Egypt

Each Champion will present the results of the discussions and preliminary priority actions and process for monitoring progress.

Moderator: Ms. Sabrina Salama, EU-OECD Project Coordinator for Egypt

Presentation: Ms. Sara Mouhoud, Policy Analyst, Middle East and Africa Division, Global Relations and Co-operation Directorate, OECD

Ms. Soukeina Bouraoui, Executive Director, Centre of Arab Women for Training and Research (CAWTAR) and Project Coordinator for Tunisia