SheTrades: International workshop agreement on the definition of Women Owned Businesses

Summary

Today, there is no globally agreed definition of the term "Women Owned Business". A global definition would enable women entrepreneurs to take advantage of the growing private and public sector commitments to supplier diversity, hence opening up economic opportunities for women owned businesses. 

The objective of the project on A Global Agreement on Women's Business Ownership is to develop an international Workshop Agreement as a precursor to an internationally recognized standard defining "woman owned business". In doing so, the project will:

1. Enable consistent and internationally comparable data collection on women's role in the economy;

2. Allow governments and corporations around the world to continue developing their women’s procurement and trade programmes in a more inclusive manner to facilitate the success of women-owned businesses;

 3. Ensure that the definition reflects the reality of the developing country context and promotes inclusive development outcomes.