On October 29-30, Dagmar Zwebe, GGGI’s Principle Program Manager in Indonesia with support from the Sustainability and Safeguards Unit attended the APEC funded event “Empowering Women as Managers in the Renewable Energy Sector” in Singapore. The event was implemented by SD Strategies and  the Renewables Academy AG (RENAC), and followed a series of events involving selected Women Entrepreneurs in the Energy Sector aimed at building management skills and business planning capacity. Zwebe was brought in as an Expert Coach tasked with providing technical assistance to the successful entrepreneurs.

“The aim of the coaching sessions was not to identify “winners” but to coach the entrepreneurs in their pitching skills, their business plans, their confidence, the content of their projects such as economic, environmental and social sustainability of their ideas,” said Dagmar Zwebe. “It was a very inspiring and motivating event for the entrepreneurs and me personally, and I am now following up and introducing a number of these female entrepreneurs to our country teams for potential collaborations.”

Through its Greenpreneurs program, GGGI is also providing support to entrepreneurs in the area of Green Growth. This program recently announced the winners of Greepreneurs 2018. Most of the contenders were men, and the APEC event exists in order to bridge the gender gap and build a strong pipeline of women led businesses. There will be opportunities for GGGI in the future to engage further with initiatives such as this APEC program to encourage more women entrepreneurs. Next years’ APEC will be hosted by Chile, who have suggested to include Gender Equality as a Core Topic.

Closing the gender gap in the economy has great economic and environmental potential. A study by McKinsey Global Institute from 2015 concluded that women currently contribute only 37% to the global economy, and the equal economic participation of women could add between 12 and 28 trillion to the global GDP. Studies also show that more gender diversity in company management and board rooms can make companies more innovative and effective.