The three-day Global Summit of Women (GSW) held in Seoul last month manifested a great need for women to employ strategies on how they can increase their influence in the economies of their respective communities.
Namibian personalities and businesswomen Veronica de Klerk, Maria Shivute and Anna Thandeka Gebhardt, who attended this year's event, commented that the summit was an eye-opener and very inspirational.
The three women however felt that more Namibian women leaders would benefit a lot by participating in such summits.
At a media briefing last week, Thandeka-Gebhardt said that the 36-hours summit goal was to provide a global forum at which exchanges of effective strategies would be forged by women in government, business and non governmental organisations.
The summit reached across borders, across disciplines and across cultures to allow women to learn from one another in their on-going work towards economic equity.
This year's summit attracted 900 women leaders from 84 countries, offered great opportunities for information exchange and created business networks amid individual women entrepreneurs.
Thandeka-Gebhardt, who owns the National Property Academy and who has attended four similar summits since 2000, has a strong wish that more Namibian women leaders including prominent women leaders in government should be part of future annual summits.
Thandeka-Gebhardt also wished that the GSW be convened in the Land of the Brave in future so that all marginalised women in Namibia can be part of it.
She said Namibians could participate in such summits, but there was a lack of funding or willingness by the state or private sector to sponsor women to take part in the summit. Thandeka-Gebhardt's trip was funded by Junior Achievement Namibia while De Klerk's trip was made possible by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung
According to Thandeka-Gebhardt, the highlight of the summit was for them to see what other women are doing and it also afforded them the opportunity to meet people from different countries. She added that the moment of inspiration was when Africa was honoured with a Global Women's Leadership award that was bestowed on Tanzanian woman Gertrude Mongella. Mongella is the newly elected president of the Pan-African Parliament and is well known as Mama Beijing.
Thandeka-Gebhardt said the summit was not only a learning process, but also many women were able to showcase their hand-made products and garments. She described the summit as a door opener and mind-transforming meeting.
Women Action for Development (WAD) Executive Director Veronica De Klerk came back with brilliant ideas to produce modern pots from charcoal. She said Namibia has a lot of bush where charcoal can be made, maintaining that such a possible project idea would benefit many Namibian women at different levels. De Klerk noted that she would present her business idea to the relevant ministries to ensure that the pot-manufacturing business is realised in Namibia.
"I would like to see many Namibian women participating in the next summit which will take place in Mexico next year. We were only three delegates while other countries sent big numbers of delegates," said De Klerk.
She urged the government and the Ministry of Women Affairs to organise businesswomen and entrepreneurs to take part in next year's summit so that Namibia can get out of its corner and take part in international business events.
De Klerk presented a paper on what WAD does in Namibia, which would be forwarded to all delegates with a message that "if the women cannot be afforded to be part of the global summit there will be a dragging in their economy".
The summit discussed issues and topics such as women's leadership in economic development, best practices, Asian and Korean market opportunities and challenges; effective negotia-tion skills; innovative finan-cing for women entrepreneurs; preparing women for a technology world; health care and busy professional women; marketing through the web; using technology to grow your business professional orga-nisation; growing the next generation of women entrepreneurs; finding an e-market for micro enterprise products and informal networking meeting.
News & Events