Even though there are more women than men in Europe, female entrepreneurs represent only a third of the self-employed and start-up entrepreneurs. Globally, there are still disproportional challenges that women face, such as access to finance, to information, training, access to business networks, as well as reconciling work and family concerns. "Investing in women has a considerable multiplier effect for their family members, communities and societies as a whole,",stressed Ambassador Stevens, Head of the EU Delegation to the UN in Geneva. "This is why the EU is supporting developing countries attaining their full potential through their relevant national policy."

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As Dorothy Tembo, ITC Executive Director, reminded, there has been a lot of discussion in the last 45 years on how to involve and enable women. These efforts have indeed translated into a reduced education and health gaps but other equality indicators are still lacking. Based on this perspective, the ITC seeks to increase the number of women entrepreneurs to ensure that they enjoy greater social and economic benefits from participating in international trade.

To address these factors the EU promotes and supports female entrepreneurship through the Small Business Act and Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan. One of the European Commission’s main initiatives is to support networking among female entrepreneurs, potential female entrepreneurs and support organisation. "We have witnessed considerable progress in the EU over the recent decades. Still, much remains to be done especially when it comes to women entrepreneurs," EU Ambassador Stevens underlined, "we cannot afford leaving more than half the human intellect and power behind."

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On this aspect, the Ambassador of El Salvador to the WTO, Ana Patricia Benedetti Zelaya, reminded that there was a 14% loss of global wealth from gender inequality and stressed the need to engage both men and women on this matter. An approach endorsed by the Director General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Tatiana Valovaya, who highlighted that "female leaders have the opportunity to build a network" in addition to all the initiatives in place.

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The Zambian Ambassador in Geneva, Martha Lungu Mwitumwa, showcased the strategy put in place in Zambia to create an enabling environment for women through the implementation of gender policy and positive action. Zambia notably created a Ministry of gender which works closely with the rest of the government to ensure that equality policies are carried out in all fields of action.

Finally, the founders of Alver World and L’Effet Papillon, two women entrepreneurs that have benefited from ITC projects supported by the EU, shared their experiences and expressed the need to enhance the credibility of women.

In conclusion, all the discussants agreed that moving forward, we needed to bring women into the conversation to find more concrete ways to move from an institutional perspective to a regional and country level.