The Technical Assistance Facility of the SANAD Fund for MSME (SANAD TAF) has launched a new virtual meeting series together with its longstanding collaborator, the German-Arab Women Business Leaders (GAWBL) organization. In the “GAWBL Connect” online forum, the partners aim to bring together women in business across Germany, the Arab world, and the international community to explore the effects of the COVID-19 crisis on women entrepreneurs and derive potential measures to support their success.

Promoting entrepreneurship as a means to boost socioeconomic development – including by reducing unequal access to opportunities for groups such as women and youth – is at the core of the SANAD TAF’s impact mission.

The first GAWBL Connect meeting kicked off on 27 January 2021, with experience exchange on how women business leaders have adapted in response to the crisis. The discussion also involved ways to promote their continued operations during and after the pandemic, including expanding access to business finance, enhancing the use of digital tools for financial inclusion and to facilitate efficient operations, and increasing networking opportunities.

The SANAD Fund was established in 2011 to foster economic development and create jobs, particularly for youth, in the Middle East and North Africa by providing debt and equity funding to local financial institutions that lend money to support MSMEs and housing development. The SANAD Technical Assistance Facility multiplies the fund’s development impact and outreach through capacity-building at partner institutions, developing financial infrastructures according to the principles of responsible finance and conducting much required R&D.

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Press release

Full first session – video

SANAD Fund – website