In partnership with local organisations, Facebook, a leading social media platform, is working in Pakistan to provide women entrepreneurs with the tools, training and resources that can help them secure funding and grow their businesses, said Beth Ann Lim, head of Community Affairs at Facebook, Asia Pacific. "Under our 'She Means Business' (shemeansbusiness) programme, launched last year in Pakistan, we are offering digital skill training and network community building that will help women in their businesses," she said during an interview with Business Recorder, here on Saturday.
She further said that the flexibility offered by digital technologies is enabling a new generation of women entrepreneurs around the world to make positive contributions to their families and communities. "However, women still face a number of obstacles such as a lack of funding and networks that can help them grow and scale. With this partnership, we want to nurture current and future generations of Pakistani women business leaders by providing access to a series of workshops and online learning tools," she added. According to her, 'She Means Business' programme is active in 21 countries, including Pakistan, and they have trained more than 130,000 women in digital skills across Asia Pacific. It runs in collaboration with business leaders, civil society, NGOs and the public sector. This initiative started on International Women Day on March 8, 2016.
"Small and median businesses are backbone to so many economies and one particular area we wanted to support was women businesses; women entrepreneurs facing challenges need help in starting their businesses. Women are a part of marginalized community around the world who do not have the same access to tools or mentorship or finances. Hence we came up with a programme to help lift up women entrepreneurs. "Hence, we launched the programme in Asia Pacific that has gone global. In short span of time, almost four years, we have gone in to over 21 countries. This is very amazing; we have trained over 120,000 women in person and online," she added.
In Pakistan, they launched this programme last year with Punjab Board of Information Technology (PBIT) and this month they have partnered with Women Chamber of Commerce and Industries at aim of reaching out to its 3000 members.
"We invest in our partnership; our objective is to train 20,000 women by 2021 and for this we will continue to build partnerships. We work with organisation that shares our vision. We have partnered with PBIT and WCCI; we will also offer our programme to student entrepreneurs at business schools," she added.
Talking about the programme, she said that according to their recent research, three in four women believe that social media can help grow their businesses, but they do not know the usage of social media tools. "There are many avenues in social media to enhance their businesses," she added.
According to her, they impart training in person and teach them best case practices, usage of photos videos and Facebook tools for customer services; they also have a free online training resources. In-person training sessions also provides women entrepreneurs an opportunity to interact with fellow entrepreneurs, which allows them build a network to exchange challenges they face and ideas. She saw a powerful element in women entrepreneurs; once they establish their businesses, they hire other women. "Thus, I think it is very important to support female entrepreneurs; when they succeed with their businesses, they give back to their community.
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