Issue link: http://psai.uberflip.com/i/1346654
ASSOCIATIONINSIGHT Portable Sanitation Association International News BIWEEKLY EDITION MARCH 3, 2021 Page 16 International Agreement Promotes Women's Empowerment…continued from page 14 ITC's SheTrades Initiative will develop a series of capacity building initiatives in collaboration with ISO and institutions targeting women's entrepreneurial development to support stakeholders with adopting and operationalizing IWA definitions and terminology. Background For decades, the landscape of definitions about women's entrepreneurship has remained fragmented, with no clear and universally agreed-upon definition or definitions. Governments, corporations, and international organizations within and across countries have been implementing capacity building, market access and research initiatives on women's economic empowerment with different definitions and criteria for "women-owned businesses." The lack of harmonization of definitions and terminologies has produced challenges across the women entrepreneurial ecosystem, such as the lack of internationally comparable gender-disaggregated data and multiple, sometimes inconsistent, criteria for women in business. Facts about the Process An International Workshop Agreement is an ISO document produced through one or more open workshop meeting(s) that involve the direct participation of market players and stakeholders in its development. The process is open to all, and the discussions are carried out in consensus with a neutral leadership. ITC SheTrades Initiative and SIS conducted 16 informal consultations and two official IWA workshops from July to December 2020. More than 350 experts from 77 countries registered for the process, and 342 stakeholders from 49 countries participated in the informal consultations. The PSAI was at the table for this work. Executive Director Karleen Kos is shown in row three on the far right in the photo below. v