Women entrepreneurs have also been deeply impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite support and training programmes, a gap remains in the provision of supportive entrepreneurship conditions and opportunities to accelerate their ideas and ventures to the next level of business growth and beyond local markets.

In direct response to this gap, UN Women organized its first virtual regional Women’s Entrepreneurship Expo. The Expo platform provided a unique opportunity for women entrepreneurs (new, start-ups and established) to connect with national, multinational and global companies, business investors, mentors and other partners, and vice versa.

With interactive and co-creation hubs, experimentation, idea-generation sessions, business-pitching labs, a showcase marketplace of women-owned business ventures, networking, peer-learning opportunities, mentoring support and much more, women entrepreneurs designed, refined and tested prototype business plans.