FWEAN launches BDC, a digital platform, to help women entrepreneurs

KATHMANDU: Federation of Women Entrepreneurs’ Associations of Nepal (FWEAN) organised a launch event of their Business Development Center (BDC) in Kathmandu. [gallery columns="1" link="file" size="full" ids="34077,34082,34086,34084,34085,34083"] The event was organised as a part of their 113th International Women’s Day celebrations. The United Nation’s (UN) theme 'DigitALL: Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality' to promote equality between both genders in digital spheres which was a perfect alignment with FWEAN’s objective to launch their Business Development Center (BDC) this year with an objective to help women entrepreneurs get to a digital platform and help them grow. The BDC is a one-stop solution for all the services needed for potential and existing women entrepreneurs. The primary offering is the Help Desk through which women entrepreneurs can access many services such as business registration, annual compliance, legal advice, branding and marketing. For that purpose, FWEAN has also developed BDC App with all the services integrated into it. The BDC App is in the pilot phase, focusing on digitising bookkeeping for improved access to finance. This App will continue to grow to include Business Directory, Entrepreneurship Guide and other features soon. FWEAN is looking to grow partnerships for increasing the number and types of services to support and help local women entrepreneurs to develop and expand their businesses. The event was organised in the presence of Ram Kumar Phuyal, member of National Planning Commission as the Chief Guest; Ravindra Peiris, Senior Specialist, Bureau for Employers’ Activities (ACT/EMP); Decent Work Team for South Asia, International Labour Organisation (ILO); and Nona Deprez, Ambassador, Delegation of European Union to Nepal as Special Guests. Along with the chief and special guests were attendees from different INGOs; SAWTEE, CECI, PIN, USAID, HELVETAS, LWF, NEFSCUN, VROCK, GIZ, ITC, ILO, SCWEC, NGOs, government, banking and other sectors. [gallery size="full" link="file" columns="1" ids="34097,34096,34095,34094,34093,34090,34089,34088"] The Special Guest of the event Peiris from ILO in his special remarks mentioned that it’s the first time that a digital tool of such nature has been developed by any employer of business developed in South Asia. He added that FWEAN has shown other employment and business development organisation in South Asia how we need to respond to changing needs of the members in a digitalised business environment. Similarly, the Chief guest of the event, Phuyal, mentioned that the government was working responsibly towards the industry and industrialists, and by circulating the funds of the Nepali government, they would continue to cooperate with FWEAN to support the social and economic development of women by providing the latest form in the traditional business of women entrepreneurs. The major highlights of the launch event were the felicitation session for which a Jury Committee was formed by FWEAN to list out the women entrepreneurs who had made a significant contribution to the Entrepreneurial development in digital spheres. Out of the listed potential candidates three were selected by the Jury Committee for the felicitation among whom were some familiar faces — Prarthana Sakha, Founder, Tigg; Bidushi Thapa, Creative Director & CEO, Armis Tech; and Sewa Pathak, CEO, Vianet Communications. The overall event was wrapped up by Barsha Bhandary who was the emcee for the event after the closing remarks were added by the first Vice-President of FWEAN, Shova Gyawali. As part of the International Women’s Day celebrations, FWEAN also organised a fundraising event, Rhythm and Soul 2023; a musical performance storytelling about the powerful emotion of women through dance and music. As mentioned by Gyawali, the purpose of the fundraising event was to help in the digitalisation training of rural woman entrepreneurs and technical support of hearing-impaired women for the Creative Hands of Deaf Organisation. As part of the fundraising event, FWEAN sold tickets to the show where the performance was given by the artists from Sushila Arts Academy. Federation of Woman Entrepreneurs’ Associations of Nepal (FWEAN) established in 2003 is a not-for-profit organization representing the collective efforts of women entrepreneurs in the economic progress of the nation and decision-making at national and international levels. With the vision to build the nation through socio-economic empowerment of Nepali women, FWEAN promotes women entrepreneurship through advocacy, capacity enhancement, business support and networking nationally and internationally. As an apex body of Women Entrepreneurs’ Association of Nepal (WEAN), FWEAN currently has 61 subsidiaries WEAN Chapters and aims to gradually expand to all 77 districts in 7 provinces of Nepal. READ ALSO:

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