Can you tell us more about Women’s View and your role as its President?

The Women’s Vision Foundation for Public Diplomacy (WVF) sees its goal in helping to shape women business leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs and thus drive economic expansion and entrepreneurship around the globe. One of the ways that WVF plans to do that is by bringing together like-minded individuals and organizations to advance entrepreneurship ecosystems, women’s business education, and women-friendly policymaking. As a president, I have a leading role in the organization and run activities to extend the organization partners’ network.

Your advocacy is on women’s entrepreneurship. Why do you think it is important for more women to be entrepreneurs?

Increasing women’s economic activity is the logical reaction to the opportunities and challenges of the 4th Industrial Revolution. Moreover, full- scale involvement of women will provide an opportunity to add up to USD 28 trillion to global GDP by 2025. Women’s economic empowerment is up-to-date in all regions of the world. Currently, women represent the majority of the global population and there is a huge potential for growth both in women leadership and in women entrepreneurship.

When a woman becomes an entrepreneur she can realize her own idea and bring to the world something new. In addition to that, being an entrepreneur gives her a chance to earn her own money and have her own choice and voice. And finally, being an entrepreneur provides women entrepreneurs with an opportunity to plan their time and gain greater flexibility. For many women, that gives better opportunities to combine economic activity with family commitments.

What are the challenges/ roadblocks that women face when they try to enter into business? From your experience in your advocacy work, what has been the best ways to overcome these challenges?

Unequal participation of women in economic life has different roots and sometimes leads to unpleasant outcomes. One of the obstacles that women face is difficulty in access to capital. Another important challenge is the deficit of necessary knowledge and skills. Based on my experience, the interactive training programs for women which helps potential entrepreneurs form their ideas and prepare a business plan for potential investors and creditors can help to overcome these obstacles. The cooperation between public SME support infrastructures, NGOs active in women’s economic empowerment agenda and private sector companies and financial institutions in arranging such educational programs for entrepreneurs can increase the efficiency of such projects.

What is your vision for women entrepreneurs in developing countries?

Based on my experience there are very interesting women projects and companies in different parts of the world. I have met very exciting women-driven companies in Peru, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam, Republic of Moldova and others. My top vision for the development of such projects is the building of the ecosystem that will help women entrepreneurs in
developing countries to have access to markets including international ones. If a company has a market, it has potential sales revenue streams. That helps to develop other sides of the project.

This February, I participated in formulating and presenting a Russian initiative to make the complex ecosystem development model at the UNIDO platform. The model rests on the successful experience of project implementation in the national, bilateral and multilateral formats. The core of the model is efficient public, private and social interaction for women’s benefit at the platform of an international organization. The influence should be made at the level of countries, territories, companies, and communities.

What advice can you give to women entrepreneurs, especially those who feel disenfranchised/ disadvantaged?

I would recommend for women not to be afraid to say, “I want”. Do you know, that internationally, a man applies for a tender or better work position in case he meets 60% of requirements mentioned in the description, but a woman applies only in case she meets 100% of the requirements. So, if you really want to achieve something, first, you should apply for that. And there is a chance that you would be selected.

Increasing women’s economic activity is the logical reaction to the opportunities and challenges of the 4th Industrial Revolution. Moreover, the full-scale involvement of women will provide an opportunity to add up to USD 28 trillion to global GDP by 2025.