Gender Responsive Economic Recovery: Growing the Economy with Women's Businesses! It took place in Hatay

UN Women Türkiye, KAGIDER and Hepsiburada organized the "Gender Responsive Economic Recovery: Growing the Economy with Women's Businesses!" event in Hatay on 21 th of November. Held at the Hatay Metropolitan Municipality Expo Co-Working Space Expo Center, the program aims to support women entrepreneurs and women's cooperatives to overcome the effects of the earthquake and participate in economic life.

UN Women Türkiye is calling for business development, supply chain and marketing practices that empower women in line with the Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs). The event, which brought together women entrepreneurs, companies, public institutions, and organizations that will provide financial support, took place at Hatay Metropolitan Municipality Expo Co-Working Space Fair Center.

Hatay Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Dr. Lütfü Savaş, UN Women Türkiye Country Director Asya Varbanova, KAGİDER President Esra Bezircioğlu and Hepsiburada CEO Nilhan Onal Gökçetekin made opening speeches, and regional development agencies announced their grant programs. In the second session of the program titled "How Do I Prepare My Brand for E-commerce?", Hepsiburada Commercial Social Projects Coordinator Duygu Aktaş gave information to the participants on topics such as marketing, branding, online presence, and online sales. In addition to the supportive organizations active in the region, Şekerbank, Halkbank, Denizbank, Yapı Kredi Bank and Türkiye İş Bankası also participated in the program to facilitate women's access to finance in the earthquake zone.

In her opening speech, UN Women Türkiye Country Director Asya Varbanova said: "Sustainable recovery in the earthquake-affected region can only be realized through full and equal participation of women, including entrepreneurs, in the economy. The aim of today's event is to with practical knowledge equip earthquake-affected women entrepreneurs and cooperatives and skills on support mechanisms they can use immediately to restart their businesses and fuel them with the power of e-commerce. Because "Women's labor is the foundation of the future!""

In her opening speech, KAGIDER President Esra Bezircioğlu stated that women have important responsibilities in the process of recovery and getting the local economy back on its feet. Bezircioğlu continued her words as follows: "Success cannot be achieved without including the dynamism and potential of women in the process. If women entrepreneurship and employment recover in the region, the economy will recover. If women stand up, the economy will also stand up. In this respect, this event that brings us together is very important. I believe it will play a strong role in the recovery of Hatay and the region. Within the framework of the Gender Responsive Economic Recovery event, important steps will be taken to support women entrepreneurs and women's businesses and cooperatives here. I would like to thank our partners UN Women Türkiye and Hepsiburada, and I believe that the connections that will be made and the agreements that will be reached today will make a strong contribution to the revitalization of the regional economy."

Nilhan Onal Gökçetekin, CEO of Hepsiburada, stated that their goal with the program is to create a long-term cooperation and development; "As Hepsiburada, we stand by the disaster area with all our strength. We continue our efforts that support production, trade and entrepreneurship, especially our 'Trade and Technology Power to the Earthquake Region' program and serve recovery in the medium and long term. In this context, we launched a follow-up program to our work focusing on a gender responsive economy, which we launched in cooperation with UN Women Türkiye and KAGIDER, to support women's businesses affected by the disaster in Hatay. This program, which aims to help women entrepreneurs, producers and SMEs overcome the effects of the earthquake, is also the beginning of a long-term collaboration with our participants. As Türkiye's Hepsiburada, we will continue to support women entrepreneurship and increase the number of women entrepreneurs we support to 120,000 by 2030."

Production and trade-oriented support for women's initiatives

"Gender Responsive Economic Recovery: Growing the Economy with Women's Businesses Program" took place as part of UN Women's Women Entrepreneur Fair in the Europe and Central Asia Region. Since 2021, this event, which took place in Hatay as the Turkish chapter of the regional activities, was organized within the scope of the "Enhancing Women's Leadership and Gender Equality in Politics and Business" project financed by Sweden through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).

Following the event, UN Women Türkiye, Hepsiburada and KAGIDER are planning to launch a purchasing program to support women-owned businesses in the region. Thus, special productions will be made on March 8, Women's Day, and commercial collaborations with national businesses and institutions will be realized. Women producers and entrepreneurs in the region will increase their commercial business volume with special day gift packages. Women entrepreneurs and women's cooperatives participating in the event will be able to register free of charge to the 'Women of Trade' platforms where they can benefit from the mentoring network of Hepsiburada and KAGIDER.