SwitchMed participates at the 2019 edition of the UfM Women Business Forum

The UfM Women Business Forum is an annual regional platform that offers women-led-businesses a unique opportunity to grow their business to the next level by learning from successful and innovative business models.

Published on Wednesday 11 December 2019· NETWORKING FACILITY

On 19-21 November, Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) organised the 2019 edition of the Women Business Forum in conjunction with Smart City World Congress. This edition’stopic is Women in circular economyand in Tech and Innovation.

SwitchMed was represented at the panel “Access to finance, investment and support schemes”by Giorgio Mosangini, who participated as speaker. Mr. Mosangini presented the tools developed by SwitchMed to support circular businesses. He also spoke about the importance of formalizing women’s work.

UfM also sponsored 8 Switchers to attend the forum and the Smart City Expo. They were able to learn about best practices, get advice from other women-led businesses and make new business connections. The selected participants were: Amina Abu Hamdeh (Oro Verda) from Jordan, Asma Zarkouna (Le CarréTraditionnel) from Tunisia, Fatima Zahra Amine (Biodôme du Maroc) from Morocco, Heba Saeed (Wara’a) from Egypt, Lara El Khoury (Me Green) from Lebanon, Nina Skibnevsky (HapticPath) from Israel, Nour Kays (NKby Nour Kays) from Lebanon, Yostina Boules (TaqaSolutions) from Egypt.

Youstina Boules was also invited to speak at the session on “Women in Tech and Innovation”, where she introduced the obstacles women in the MENA region face to access the tech sector. She mentioned that the 3 keys to open doors for women are access to knowledge, access to innovation and mobility, since visa issues are a big obstacle.

Finally, the Switchers participated in site visits to two Barcelona-based circular economy businesses, Eco-Baula and Back to Eco. This allowed them to learn from their experience and to ask advice about business models and financing.

"Most women in the MENA region are active in the informal sector. The role of access to technological innovation is very important in this case."

Giorgio Mosangini

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