AVPN Webinar: Advancing Women Entrepreneurs in Cross-Border e-Commerce

Exclusive Invitation to an AVPN Webinar:
Advancing Women Entrepreneurs
in Cross-Border e-Commerce

Friday 19 June | 10.00am (GMT +8)

Register Now

We have an opportunity for you to directly influence how senior decision-makers in the public and private sectors make a difference to women’s economic empowerment in the region.

AVPN is hosting a webinar in partnership with US Support for Economic Growth in Asia (US-SEGA), a joint project of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the US Department of State. We are inviting participants to provide feedback on a self-diagnostic toolkit being developed to help policymakers analyse their support for women-owned MSMEs to engage in cross-border e-commerce.

Women-owned MSMEs in APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) economies struggle to fulfil their potential in cross-border e-commerce compared to male counterparts. Women disproportionately face not only traditional entrepreneurship challenges related to the enabling environment, but also e-commerce specific challenges. More focused efforts by APEC economies are required to support women entrepreneurs to help them take advantage of e-commerce opportunities. For background, please see the attached summary of the toolkit and the questions that participants are invited to discuss.

The AVPN team are inviting specially selected members and stakeholders from across a range of organisations and markets to give their feedback on the toolkit’s findings. This will cover the challenges for women, best practices in providing support and the self-diagnostic tool developed for policymakers.

Shamarukh Mohiuddin  Principal Associate, Nathan Associates Shamarukh is an expert in catalyzing cross-sector partnerships for development and equipping businesses to be drivers and advocates for inclusive and sustainable growth. She is a Principal Associate at Nathan Associates where she supports trade and development activities of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and initiatives related to the Indo-Pacific Strategy (IPS). In this role, she also leads efforts on women’s economic empowerment and leverages development resources from the private sector. Shamarukh is the Co-Chair of the Society for International Development (SID)’s working group on Corporate Role in Development and an Advisory Board Member for Women Forward International at the Aspen Institute. Previously, she served as the Director of Economic Empowerment at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, as Senior Advisor at WEConnect International and a co-chair at Women in International Trade. She served previously as Executive Director of the U.S. Bangladesh Advisory Council, on an Asia Society Task Force, Director at Fontheim International and at GlobalWorks Foundation. She founded a nonprofit, Lift Up Asia, to support garment workers. Shamarukh holds an M.A. in International Relations and South Asia Studies from Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). She speaks Bengali, English and intermediate French and Hindi.

Caroline Rubin Managing Associate, Nathan Associates Caroline is an international development professional with more than 7 years’ experience. In her current role as Managing Associate at Nathan Associates, Caroline directs a multi-million dollar USAID economic growth project in the ASEAN region. Throughout her 6.5 years at Nathan Associates, she has honed a technical expertise in gender and women’s economic empowerment. Ms. Rubin has authored nine reports and studies on women’s economic participation in the Asia-Pacific region. Most recently, she co-authored the APEC Women@Work brief, addressing structural barriers to women’s employment. Caroline currently serves as a Steering Committee member for the SEEP Network’s Women’s Economic Empowerment Working Group. She has worked in 11 countries in the Asia-Pacific region and holds Master in Public Policy degree from Georgetown University.