Knowledge SeriesUpcoming

Women Entrepreneurs Going Digital: Building Skills, Growing Businesses & Creating Jobs

Thursday, 19 November 2026
9:00 – 10:15 am ET 

 

REGISTER

Digital skills are increasingly essential for women entrepreneurs to start and grow businesses, reach new markets, create jobs, and take advantage of emerging opportunities, including those enabled by AI. Yet women entrepreneurs have varying levels of digital proficiency and require tailored support to build the skills needed to succeed in the digital economy. Foundational digital literacy enables women to access and use the internet safely and confidently, while productivity-focused skills help them adopt digital platforms, reach customers, and increase earnings. More advanced technical, entrepreneurial, and AI-related skills can enable women to launch digital businesses and enter tech sectors. Strengthening digital skills at every level is critical to helping women entrepreneurs expand their businesses, access new markets, and create jobs.

We-Fi and the Digital Inclusion team within the World Bank Group Digital & AI VPU are co-hosting this webinar for policymakers, practitioners, researchers, and development partners to discuss emerging evidence and practical approaches to strengthening digital skills among women entrepreneurs. The discussion will examine how skills assessment frameworks can identify proficiency gaps and inform targeted interventions, as well as the support needed to help women build digital businesses and enter tech sectors. It will also explore the ecosystem conditions required for women entrepreneurs to translate digital skills into business growth, including access to finance, networks, and mentorship.

Speakers

World Bank Group

Lesley Denyes

Lesley Denyes is the World Bank Group Manager, Digital Applications. Previously Lesley was the Regional Head of Operations for IFC Africa and the Program Manager for the IFC DFS Program where she led new business development, portfolio management and an extensive knowledge management program. She has worked for the last 20 years across Asia & Africa. As a Program Director for Mercy Corps, in 2014, her program won the GSMA award for the ‘Best Use of Mobile in a Development Context’. Lesley has worked with commercial banks, mobile network operators, payment service providers, research institutes, technology developers and NGOs to reach low income households through technology-led financial services. Based in Washington, DC, Lesley has a BSc in Quantitative Economics from Dalhousie University, Canada, and a MBA from Edinburgh Business School, UK.
CARE Women's Entrepreneurship

Tyler Tappendorf

Tyler Tappendorf is the Financial and Digital Inclusion Lead for Women’s Entrepreneurship at CARE USA, where he works with financial service providers to design and scale solutions that better serve underserved women entrepreneurs. He brings 15+ years of experience across Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean, working with banks, microfinance institutions, fintechs, mobile operators, and development partners. His work focuses on applying human-centered design to create commercially viable products and services that advance financial inclusion and women’s economic opportunity.
Cherie Blair Foundation

TBC

World Bank Group

Sandra V. Sargent

Sandra V. Sargent is a distinguished Digital Development Leader and Educator with 25 years of experience driving high-impact digital transformation in WB client countries. Throughout her career leading World Bank-financed projects across Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Caribbean, she has built deep expertise in digital skills, IT industry development, digital platforms, and cybersecurity. Globally recognized for her contributions to the digital research agenda, Sandra has been named an Oxford Martin Associate and holds an MA in International Commerce. Complementing her international development career, she actively shapes the next generation of tech leaders as an award-winning adjunct faculty member in George Mason University's Department of Information Technology and Engineering, where she teaches the Digital Economy course.
Agora Partnerships

Maria Denise Duarte

Maria Denise Duarte is Chief Initiatives and Partnerships Officer at Agora Partnerships, an international nonprofit organization focused on empowering entrepreneurs to create inclusive prosperity across Latin America. For the last 13 years, Maria has led multiple regional initiatives at Agora that, beyond connecting entrepreneurs with business development services, have emphasized bridging gaps to create financial inclusion and market access for women-led enterprises. She has led projects ranging from early-stage financing through crowdfunding platforms for impact-driven enterprises to co-creating new products and adapting practices in microfinance institutions, foundations, fintech, cooperatives, and commercial banks seeking to better serve women-led enterprises. For the last 3 years, she has also been part of Agora’s journey to create tech products that promote data-driven decision-making in areas such as finance and sustainability for micro and small enterprises. Early in her career, Maria worked as a senior financial auditor at PwC Central America and holds an MBA from Hult International Business School.
Musa

Mónica Ramos

Mónica Ramos Li is a Peruvian tech entrepreneur and the Co-founder and COO of Musa, an AI-powered edtech and certified B Corp that delivers microlearning through WhatsApp. Since 2021, Musa has trained more than 700,000 people across Latin American countries. Its programs include digital and AI skills for frontline workers, farmers and women entrepreneurs, delivered for companies such as Walmart, Belcorp, and Credicorp (BCP & Mibanco) and for organizations like UNICEF, GIZ and CAF. Mónica has spent over a decade building impact-driven ventures and is passionate about making learning accessible to those who need it most.
World Bank Group

Sharada Srinivasan

Sharada Srinivasan is a Senior Digital & AI Specialist based in Thimphu, Bhutan. She supports the Royal Government of Bhutan in implementing a US$42 million program to accelerate trade, anchored by the development of a National Single Window, investments in first, middle, and last-mile connectivity, as well as the implementation of a government cloud for critical data loads. She also leads the Digital & AI Advisory program in country, with a strong focus on growing a dynamic and inclusive tech sector in Bhutan.

Since joining the World Bank as a Young Professional in 2019, she supported over US$100 million portfolio and provided technical assistance on digital infrastructure and services across East Asia and the Pacific, Europe and Central Asia, South Asia, and the Caribbean. Sharada anchors this operational experience in analytics and research that has shaped the Bank's thought leadership on data and digital development. She contributed to the World Development Report 2021: Data for Better Lives and co-authored South Asia's Digital Opportunity: Accelerating Growth, Transforming Lives, alongside numerous other regional and country-level knowledge products. At the Digital Vertical, she co-led knowledge and thought leadership for the Digital Empowerment and Equity program, a US$10 million partnership with the Gates Foundation in 2024-25.

An electrical and electronics engineer by training, Sharada brings technical rigor to her policy and operational work. Prior to the Bank, she was a Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Technology, Innovation and Competition, where she conducted empirical research on supply- and demand-side barriers to broadband adoption. Her doctoral research at the University of Oxford's Blavatnik School of Government examines the distributional effects of digitalization on households, firms, and services delivery.

Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi)

Wendy Teleki

Wendy Teleki is Head of the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) Secretariat at the World Bank, which supports women entrepreneurs across more than 60 developing countries by expanding access to finance, markets, skills, and technology. Since joining We-Fi in 2019, she has led efforts to mobilize investment and advance policy reforms supporting women-led businesses, building on a long career at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), where she developed innovative approaches to SME finance, advisory services, and blended finance across emerging markets. In 2022, she was named to Forbes' "50 Over 50" in finance for her leadership in women's economic empowerment. She is co-author of "Rebalance: How Women Lead, Parent, Partner and Thrive" and holds an MA in International Economics from Johns Hopkins SAIS and an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School.

9:00 – 9:05AM   Opening Remarks

  • Lesley Denyes, Manager, Digital Applications, Digital & AI VPU, World Bank Group

9:05 – 9:15 AM   Insights from CARE Report

  • Tyler Tappendorf, Financial and Digital Inclusion Lead, CARE Women’s Entrepreneurship

9:15 – 9:25 AM   Insights from Cherie Blair Foundation Report

  • TBC, Cherie Blair Foundation

9:25 – 9:55AM   Panel Discussion

  • Sandra Sargent, Senior Digital Specialist, Digital Applications, World Bank Group
  • Maria Denise Duarte, Chief Partnerships and Initiatives Officer, Agora Partnerships
  • Mónica Ramos, COO and Founder, Musa
  • Sharada Srinivasan, Senior Digital Specialist, Digital & AI VPU, World Bank Group

9:55 – 10:10   Q & A

  • Moderated by Wendy Teleki, Head of the We-Fi Secretariat

10:10 – 10:15   Closing Remarks

  • Wendy Teleki, Head of the We-Fi Secretariat

 

Share