United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) and Commonwealth commenced a training program for women entrepreneurs in the Maldives.
The training kicked off Monday morning with a special ceremony hosted at Bandos Island Resort. The ceremony was inaugurated by the Chief guest Deputy State Minister for National Planning Housing and Infrastructure, Fathimath Niuma.
A total of 70 participants from 19 different countries joined in the training session organised by UNESCAP.
The training programme is held from June 6 till June 9. The programme aims to train Women entrepreneurs on Leveraging Digital Infrastructure for promoting business through e-commerce and digital marketing.
UNESCAP is conducting the training program in collaboration with EIF and Commonwealth Secretariat.
The chief guest was also accompanied by the former Minister for Health and Family and the Minister of Environment and Energy and Chair for Addu Women Association – Dr Mariyam Shakeela, Deputy Permanent Secretary, Minister of Trade Industry of the Gambia – Mr Abdollie Jammeh, Head ESCAP South and South-West office – Ms Mikiko Tanaka.
Speaking at the ceremony, Dr Mariyam Shakeela thank the government for its efforts in improving the current business climate and its efforts to encourage more women in SMEs to foster their own employment efforts. However, Dr Shakeela stated that a lot of work needs to be done.
It should be recognised training alone will not allow us to reach our targets. Policies alone cannot bring about changes and for policies to be implimented to truly embrace the benefit planning effectively the structure implements mediate conflicts various authorities need to be addressed and everyone within the government and within the system needs to work towards the same goal.
Dr Mariyam Shakeela.
In addition, Dr Shakeela highlighted the various challenges faced by women socially and culturally.
The training program comes after a recent assessment released by the UN and Economic Ministry. The assessment revealed that many women have requested training to take their business online.
Previously, UNESCAP has hosted a similar training program in Nepal last year.
