 women s economic forum kicks off women s economic forum kicks off maryanne mon 2272023 2108 women s economic forum kicks off by emilly owiti the government of kenya has set aside 50 of the kes 50 billion hustlers fund for womenowned businesses cabinet secretary for public service gender affairs and affirmative action hon aisha jumwa announced during the launch of the women economic empowerment forum held at safari park hotel today this annual conference launched by crawn trust in 2021 now in its third year brought together over three 300 hundred women from both private and public sectors to advocate for the economic emancipation of the forgotten middle made up of small holder farmers fisherwomen small scale farmers and traders the twoday event features panel discussions keynote speeches power talks and dialogues on women s economic empowerment in attendance was the canadian high commissioner to kenya christopher thornley ps gender and affirmative action veronica nduva and the uon wee hub team led by the director of research dr mary mbithi representing the hub leader prof wanjiku kabira the ku wee hub leader prof waudo un women care kenya kepsa and representatives from academia civil society organizations government and entrepreneurs were among the delegates in acknowledging the challenges women face cs jumwa urged women entrepreneurs to exploit existing affirmative action funds and lpo financing recently introduced by wef to enable womenled businesses access government procurement opportunities agpo the opportunities include funds such as uwezo micro small and medium enterprises and remodeling of wef for digital and shortterm lending these products are aligned to the five priority areas in the kenya kwanza administration s ninepoint economic transformation agenda on gender equality and women s empowerment the cs said the priority areas include agricultural transformation msmes housing and development healthcare digital superhighway and the creative industry during her presentation dr mbithi reiterated that dealing with poverty climate change and hunger was critical to the economic emancipation of women she emphasized the need to support the participation of women in the labor force through green efficient technologies in order to increase productivity citing the massive gender inequality in kenya the uon wee hub sponsored and led two panels on  women s economic empowerment priority areas and the power of women collectives to drive economic growth informed by the research conducted by the hub and the priority agenda for wee crawn trust executive director daisy amdany lauded the ministry of public service gender affairs and affirmative action for the support pledged towards women s economic empowerment efforts the event concludes on february 28 2023 weehub news standard image  