About Us
The project focuses on creating awareness amongst Women-owned Small and Medium Enterprises (WSMEs), building their capacity through trainings and subsequently connecting them to domestic and international corporations for business generation.
This will be accomplished by working with key implementing partners who have a track record of success. Specifically, Innovision Consulting will engage the business community and raise stakeholder awareness around the business benefits of supplier diversity; Innovision Consulting and North South University will jointly work to identify and build the capacity of WSMEs poised for growth and ready to compete for new business; and in partnership with the Bangladesh Small and Medium Enterprise Foundation (SME Foundation), the project will connect WSMEs with domestic and international buyers through an interactive online national supplier database.
Corporate Connect aims to train over 700 women to be supplier-ready, work with at least 40 large companies to enhance their supplier diversity efforts and register at least 900 women entrepreneurs in the national supplier database.
BENEFITS FOR WOMEN SMEs
- Engage corporations for championing a movement of Supplier Diversity and Inclusion (SD&I) and help them to be the Change-makers.
- Train and develop the resources of WSMEs to become reliable and valuable suppliers.
- Associate and connect WSMEs with Corporate buyers.
Project Details
In 2017, the World Bank Group in partnership with the Ministry of Commerce in Bangladesh and implemented by Corporate Connect, administered a survey to understand what the market thinks about women-owned businesses. Respondents included 37 corporate representatives and 60 women entrepreneurs. Findings were further qualified through interviews and focus group discussions with women entrepreneurs, corporate representatives, and government, non-government, and financial sector stakeholders.
The findings were staggering:
- 55% of corporate survey respondents do not believe that WSMEs, which are smaller in size and have limited access to finance, can provide the highest-priority goods and services typically procured by local corporations.
- 48% of women business owners report difficulty in making connections to corporate buyers.
- Access to capital is ranked as a top challenge (in Bangladesh 36% of women have a bank account compared to 65% of men).
- Nearly 20% of corporate respondents do not know whether their corporation procures from WSMEs.
- There is a perception among WSMEs that entrepreneurship is not a respected career path for women in Bangladesh.
In February 2020, a day-long conference on supplier diversity was hosted and attended by corporate representatives, women business owners, government officials and support organizations to discuss ways in which to ensure more WSMEs benefit from business-to-business transactions. As part of this discussion, senior corporate representatives from the Advisory Committee and other sourcing professionals and executives from across Bangladesh convened to further explore strategies for increasing gender-inclusive sourcing and supply chain financing. Over the next three years, the project will be scaled to provide supplier development training to an additional 700 women entrepreneurs as well as engage more corporations in their efforts to initiate gender-inclusive sourcing. To further support these efforts, a supplier and a buyer database will be developed by SME Foundation and Innovision Consulting, to provide a link between women entrepreneurs and procurement professionals. The World Bank Group in partnership with the Ministry of Commerce in Bangladesh, other governmental agencies, Corporate Connect, and North South University will work to connect WSMEs to corporate value chains as part of a sustainable long-term economic growth strategy. The training program and business development events will take into account the ongoing COVID-19 crisis by incorporating best practices in virtual learning and networking.
CORPORATE CONNECT TIMELINE
Jan – Dec 2018
Initial market research and awareness-raising among corporations and women-owned businesses.
January 2019
Online training launched for 100+ women-owned businesses.
February 2019
In-person training on business growth and procurement processes delivered to 50+ women-owned businesses.
March 2019
Forum held to connect women-owned businesses to corporations.
September 2019
Supplier Diversity Advisory Committee launched with 5 local and 2 international corporations to implement corporate-specific Supplier Diversity and Inclusion goals.
Nov – Dec 2019
In-depth business pitch training delivered to growth-oriented women-owned businesses.
February 2020
Corporate Connect 2020 Conference & Business Fair.
Project partners
About The World Bank
The World Bank is a unique global partnership comprising five institutions working for sustainable solutions that reduce poverty and build shared prosperity in developing countries. The World Bank Group works with 189 member countries and is one of the world’s largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries. For more information, visit www.worldbank.org
ABOUT We-Fi
The Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) is a collaborative partnership among 14 governments (Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Republic of Korea, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States), six multilateral development banks and other public and private stakeholders. Housed in the World Bank Group, We-Fi seeks to unlock billions of dollars in financing to tackle the full range of barriers facing women entrepreneurs—increasing access to finance, markets, technology, and mentoring, while strengthening policy and legal and regulatory frameworks. For more information, visit www.we-fi.org
About Innovision Consulting
Innovision is an international development consultancy working to make economies, societies and communities more inclusive and sustainable. Innovision prioritizes providing data, analytics and evidence for inclusive interventions; leading market systems and value chain interventions globally; and, facilitating skills to lead the work for inclusive growth. For more information, visit www.innovision-bd.com
About North South University
North South University, established in 1992, is the first private university and the largest private university in Bangladesh which is rapidly rising in QS ranking and employability reputation. North South University is recognized as one of the top 100 Asian universities in 2020 according to QS Asia ranking 2020. www.northsouth.edu
About SME Foundation
The Small & Medium Enterprise Foundation is widely known as SME Foundation. The major activities of SME Foundation are implementation of SME Policy Strategies adopted by the Bangladesh Government, policy advocacy and intervention for the growth of SMEs, facilitating financial supports for SMEs, providing skill development and capacity building training, facilitating adaptation with appropriate technologies and access to ICT, providing business support services, etc. It is mentionable here that the Foundation is working for the development of enterprises and entrepreneurs who belong to micro, small and medium categories as per Industrial Policy 2016. Besides the general supports to the development of SMEs and entrepreneurs the Foundation is providing diversified supports to the existing and potential women entrepreneurs in order to position them into the mainstream business community. smef.portal.gov.bd
About BreakBite
BreakBite is an impetus for growth and change in the digital age, not just a company providing help to businesses. Their goal is to enable small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) and startups by offering a full range of services that are specifically designed to help them deal with the challenges posed by the digital environment.BreakBite Ventures, which was established with the goal of promoting a flourishing digital ecosystem, has developed into a symbol of success and innovation.They take a comprehensive approach, develop custom tactics, and produce observable outcomes. https://breakbite.com