Geneva, 7 December 2009 -- Ten finalists have been chosen for UNCTAD´s second Empretec Women in Business Awards.
The winners will be announced during the 26-30 April 2010 session of UNCTAD´s Investment, Enterprise and Development Commission in Geneva.
Empretec is a training and motivational programme intended to encourage entrepreneurship in developing countries. Empretec centres supported by UNCTAD now operate in 32 developing nations, and to date have trained over 150,000 aspiring entrepreneurs. Many have founded or expanded companies and have created hundreds of thousands of jobs. The Empretec programme began in 1988.
The finalists are:
- Olga Lidia Arean of Argentina, whose firm ConservArte S.A. offers preservation products
- Joy Simakane of Botswana, whose company Extramile Express PTY LTD offers customs-clearance services
- Vanessa de Figueiredo Vilela Araújo of Brazil whose firm Kapeh Cosméticos, makes coffee-based beauty products
- María de la Luz Osses Klein of Chile, whose Biotecnologías Antofagasta S.A. offers biotech products
- Guenet Fresenbet Azmach of Ethiopia, whose company Gigi Ethiopia produces fashion wear
- Lucia Desir of Guyana, who founded the firm D&J Shipping Services
- Lina Hundaileh of Jordan, whose firms Philadelphia, Chocolography, Rafawed Consulting, and Ammoun offer chocolates, other sweets, and consulting services
- Lilian Okoro of Nigeria, whose company Peace for the African Child Initiative produces educational entertainment
- Beatrice Ayuru Bvaruhanga of Uganda, whose Lira Integrated School offers education services
- and Vivivata Chivunga of Zimbabwe, whose company Viva Fashions offers fashion wear
More detailed information on the finalists is provided in the attached annex.
The first Women in Business Awards were presented in April 2008, in Accra, Ghana, at the UNCTAD XII quadrennial conference.
For the second round of awards, technical experts Pierre Kunz of Genilem -- a Swiss association for coaching start-up firms -- and Piero Formica, of the International Entrepreneurship Academy at Jönköping University of Sweden, selected the finalists from a large group of women nominees who have benefited from the business development services of UNCTAD´s Empretec programme.
In making their selection, the experts took into account such criteria as entrepreneurial talent, company performance, the extent to which a business and its outreach is local, national, or international, and the uniqueness and superiority of its products or services. From the 10 finalists, first-, second- and third-place winners will be chosen by a distinguished panel of judges.
Research has shown that small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are vital for balanced and sustainable economic development. In industrialized countries, SMEs make up some 95% of domestic businesses and are famous for coming up with new ideas and new products. But SMEs often are in short supply in developing nations. What distinguishes the developing country women nominated for the UNCTAD awards is their ability to surmount the obstacles traditionally faced by such small enterprises.
Entrepreneurs are driven by different motivations, including a desire to seize unexploited market opportunities, to pursue life-long dreams, to gain independence, to achieve self-fulfillment, to create jobs, to redress social problems, or to acquire more flexibility and work/life balance. The entrepreneurs nominated for the 2nd Empretec Women in Business Awards have established or expanded successful companies in the challenging environment of the current global recession.
Not among the 10 finalists but given special mention by the experts who reviewed the nominations and by the UNCTAD Empretec team were Alma Saca de Landaverde, Margarita de Herrera, Cecilia Vásquez, and Cristina Rivas Martínez of Guatemala and El Salvador. The experts cited these entrepreneurs for serving as role models for their communities and aspiring women entrepreneurs in the region. Also given special mention was Armelle Kouton Talkington of Benin, whose cookie business was termed an exemplar of women´s entrepreneurship in that country.
