{"id":43112,"date":"2021-03-21T21:35:54","date_gmt":"2021-03-22T01:35:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging21.finca.org\/uncategorized-en-ca\/investing-in-women-yields-dividends"},"modified":"2024-11-04T02:06:37","modified_gmt":"2024-11-04T07:06:37","slug":"investing-in-women-yields-dividends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/finca.org\/en-ca\/investing-in-women-yields-dividends","title":{"rendered":"Panel Discussion: Investing in Women Yields Dividends"},"content":{"rendered":"

To celebrate International Women\u2019s Day, FINCA pulled a panel of experts together to talk about how investing in women yields dividends. During the 50-minute virtual event, more than sixty FINCA supporters from across the United States and Canada had a chance to hear from and ask questions to our panelists.<\/p>\n

At the start of the event, Drew Boshell<\/a>, the moderator of the panel, announced FINCA Canada\u2019s new campaign<\/a> to support 120,000 women entrepreneurs in the DR Congo and Haiti from sliding back into poverty. FINCA Canada\u2019s goal is to raise $1.2 million. And for every dollar that FINCA Canada raises, the Government of Canada will provide $4 in matching support.<\/p>\n

Drew went on to bring up the topic that was on everyone\u2019s mind, the impact of Covid-19 on women\u2019s empowerment. Drew noted that the pandemic is having a disproportionate impact on women. He quoted a new report from UN Women and the UNDP that by the end of this year 47 million additional women will be living in extreme poverty, less than $1.90 per day.<\/p>\n

Mirela Pekmezi, who works for FINCA in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo)<\/a> and previously worked for FINCA in Haiti<\/a>, said that she wasn\u2019t surprised at all by these findings. Women, she noted, have the smallest businesses and the smallest income. \u201cThey live on a day to day basis.\u201d When the economy slumped at the start of the pandemic, most of them had nowhere to turn. Women are more likely to lose employment. They have to look after the kids. Making it all the more important that FINCA was investing in women.<\/p>\n

One of Mirela\u2019s co-panelist, Colleen Zakrewsky, took the argument even further. Colleen, who leads development and communications at FINCA International, reminded everyone that \u201cwomen have faced more prejudice in almost every facet of life\u201d for pretty much all of recorded history. \u201cWe\u2019re making progress,\u201d Colleen noted, \u201cbut we haven\u2019t yet realized full equality.\u201d She went to quote a series of statistics from FINCA\u2019s in-house research on the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on women:<\/p>\n