A GLOBAL STEP IN WOMEN’S ENTREPRENEURSHIP FROM ISBANK AND TURKONFED

WeLead, launched in 2021 in collaboration with Türkiye Iş Bankası and TÜRKONFED, has provided financial literacy training to approximately 11,000 women entrepreneurs to date, taking the journey of empowering women entrepreneurs to a global scale. Representatives from Türkiye Iş Bankası and TÜRKONFED met with organizations such as the Permanent Mission of Türkiye to the United Nations, UN Women, and NAWBO in New York to discuss new partnerships that will support women entrepreneurs.

In collaboration with UN Women’s Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia, an event titled “Sustainable Development with Gender-Responsive Supply Chains” was held at Türkevi, along with a panel discussion organized by NAWBO (National Association of Women Business Owners) entitled “Transatlantic Opportunities for Entrepreneurial Women.” During the visit, TÜRKONFED, Iş Bankası, and UN Women collaborated to introduce the “Gender-Responsive Procurement Handbook,” which aims to facilitate the participation of women-owned businesses in tendering and procurement processes and will be prepared using global examples.

Özge Küllah Kurtuluş, SME and Business Banking Marketing Manager at Iş Bankası, spoke about the importance of the project: “We are working in many areas to facilitate access to finance for women entrepreneurs and ensure their more effective participation in supply chains. We believe that the ‘Gender-Sensitive Supply Handbook’, which is currently in preparation and will include global examples, will be an important resource that supports the integration of supply processes. Our goal is to contribute to the individual success of women entrepreneurs, aligning with our Bank’s founding mission, while also laying the groundwork for more inclusive and resilient economic growth. We know that supporting women entrepreneurs is also the key to economic development.”