The Governing Committee of the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) welcomes the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Regina Honu, an entrepreneur from Ghana and eminent women’s advocate, as new Observers.
The We-Fi Governing Committee (GC) consists of decision-making members (contributing donors) and non-decision-making members (Observers). These Observers add value to the We-Fi partnership by fostering coordination, adding diversity of views that may not be represented in the GC, and contributing to transparency in decision-making and operations.
Regina Honu, founder and CEO of Soronko Solutions
We-Fi is pleased that upon nomination by donor representatives, the OECD and Regina Honu have accepted this role for 2021 -2022.
“The two new Observers will add great value to the Governing Committee. The OECD is an authoritative research institution and brings a wealth of information related to gender equality and overall progress towards the SDGs. We are also pleased to welcome Regina Honu, who can speak to the experience of a female entrepreneur in emerging markets, and the transformative IT and digital sector specifically”, says Dorothee Stark, Head of the Gender and Human Rights Division at Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and Chair of the Governing Committee.
The OECD is a leading organization for research and data related to gender topics and the gender-related SDGs, and among others, authored a 2021 guideline for entrepreneurship policies through a gender lens. In addition, it has a mandate as coordinator and reporting mechanism of development aid-related data from the 30 member states of the OECD Development Assistance Committee and the convenor of GenderNet, a network of donor countries, multilateral organizations, and civil society sharing policies and practices promoting gender equality. Their role as an Observer will be fulfilled by Lisa Williams, Team Lead of the Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Division.
Regina Honu is the founder and CEO of Soronko Solutions, the first coding and human-centered design school in West Africa for children and adults. Regina has been ranked one of the top young 50 CEOs in Ghana and was a winner of the Challenging Norms, Powering Economies initiative by Ashoka, UN Women, and Open Society Foundations for work to challenge gender norms in women’s economic empowerment.
The new Observers will join the existing Observers at the GC, including UN Women and the (rotating) Chair of the W20 (a coalition of gender-focused CSOs engaging with the G20).
