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Close to 80 women entrepreneurs from across Türkiye joined the Gender Responsive Procurement (GRP) Summit in Istanbul on October 21. Organized by UN Women Türkiye, in partnership with KAGİDER and the Global Compact Türkiye, and financed by Sweden through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, the summit created a platform for women entrepreneurs, business leaders, civil society, public institutions and international organizations to partner, connect and network.
Defined as the selection of services, goods and civil works that considers their impact on gender equality and women's empowerment, GRP is a key area of work for UN Women to achieve great socioeconomic change for women and girls on a global scale, by implementing more inclusive processes that endorse supplier diversity.
“Female entrepreneurs have a critical impact on our lives. However, their contributions remain largely invisible. Today’s Summit and the Regional Women’s Entrepreneurship EXPO convened by UN Women provides us a platform to build strong partnerships that put women entrepreneurs at the heart of our efforts,” said Alia El-Yassir, UN Women Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia.
The event included different panel discussions on the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in supply chains as well as potential solutions to address them. The panels also provided a space for private sector companies to present good practices on GRP, including how they support women entrepreneurs and what steps they have taken to increasing women’s representation in supply chains.
The GRP summit provided a fruitful environment for the participants to network, to gain a stronger awareness of challenges in the procurement ecosystem and to identify solutions for those challenges. The event was hosted in the lead up to the Regional Women’s Entrepreneurship EXPO 2022 to be held virtually on 16-17 November.
