KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, 16 April, 2024 – Local women entrepreneurs have been told that they need to better position themselves to benefit from the digital economy as the world changes.
The advice comes from Miss Lizra Fabien, OAS Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) Caribbean Project Manager, who addressed the opening of a one-day Digital Economy Seminar organized by the Centre for Enterprise Development Inc. (CED) on Tuesday.
Fifteen (15) persons attended the seminar, which marked the first in a series developed by the OAS WEE project to help small-scale entrepreneurs to use and benefit from the digital economy to build sustainable livelihoods. The seminar gave the participants insights into the tools to run or use digital and online businesses in an environment full of opportunities and challenges for developing economies.
According to Miss Fabien, the project has been focusing heavily on ensuring that women entrepreneurs across the Eastern Caribbean are equipped to take advantage of the opportunities that are available in the digital economy, with other initiatives coming on stream soon.
“We will be looking at access to finance. We will also be looking at the policies for women being a greater part of the economy, looking at best practices for women entrepreneurs, and also MSMEs, across St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the Eastern Caribbean.
She said the OAS WEE Project continues to support women through various initiatives to connect them with the diaspora and is helping them to get on to Amazon and the different ecommerce platforms. She also noted that in other parts of the world people are taking advantage of the opportunities that are available in the digital economy, and thus by taking part in the training on the Digital Economy the participants have began to position themselves and their businesses to do so as well.
“The world is advancing and we saw that during COVID time lots of businesses were affected, especially in the Eastern Caribbean, because to some extent, we lack some of the skills, the knowledge to be able to take advantage of it.”
CHANGE-MAKERS CAUSING DISRUPTIONS
Meanwhile, General Manager of the CED, Mrs. Ronette Lewis, urged the participants of the seminar to continue to be innovators, change-makers and ‘good disruptors’.
“Good disruption is because you are making a change…You are now a part of a group of people who are causing disruptions around the world,” she cautioned. “You are now saying you’re not doing things the same way; you’re doing things differently. You are willing to make a change and sometimes change could be uncomfortable to become comfortable, so this is good disprution”
Mrs. Lewis advised, however, that in doing so they must ensure that they manage the disruption so that it does not become chaotic for them and pledged that the CED is there to help them along the way.
“We at CED welcome you, not only for this session, but if you are among the change-makers of the world you would realize that entrepreneurship is a journey and in order for you to navigate this journey you need somebody with you.”
Twenty-three (23) trainers from the region were trained under the OAS WEE project to deliver the series of digital transformation-related trainings. These include two from the CED and one from the National Development Foundation. The second seminar on ‘Accessing Financial Services’ will take place in May.
Tuesday’s trainers were CED Business Development Field Officers, Miss Nisha Glasgow and Mrs. Madanna Johnson.
The OAS WEE project is a three-year initiative (2022-2025) being implemented in six OECS states and in and El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. It aims to build the capacity of women-led small enterprises to digitize, build an online presence, and access financial services and international markets through e-commerce.
