The We-Fi Ministerial Roundtable was a by-invitation session that convened Ministers and government representatives with responsibility for entrepreneurship, commerce, finance, international cooperation, and women’s economic empowerment, We-Fi implementing partners in the region, and the heads of International Organizations including the president of the World Bank Group, and the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund. The participants highlighted key policy opportunities for supporting women entrepreneurs, shared their experiences implementing recent reforms that support women economic empowerment, and reinforced opportunities for commitments and collective action.

The roundtable focused on reform to laws, policies, and regulation needed to support the economic empowerment of women and accelerating access to finance for women-led businesses. Participants also discussed expanding access to credit and digital financial services, growing inclusive procurement practices, and increasing diversity on boards. The participants stressed the importance developing institutional reforms to achieve broader impact at country level, as well as focusing on scalable interventions and leveraging the private sector to accelerate support for women entrepreneurs. The participants also emphasized the importance of continuing to collaborate, learning from each other, sharing and building on each other’s experience, and amplify each other’s voices.