Jill Biden, Second Lady of USA
Marrakech, Morocco: Dr Jill Biden, Second Lady of the USA, and Morocco’s Delegate Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Mbarka Bouaida were among the speakers encouraging women to become entrepreneurs at the launch of the 5th Global Entrepreneurial Summit in Marrakech on Wednesday.
Coinciding with Women’s Entrepreneurship Day on November 19, the first day of the summit organised under the patronage of King Mohammed VI of Morocco and the White House,
was dedicated to women’s entrepreneurship. It included panel discussions on the financial challenges women face, success stories from the Arab World and Africa, and an event for young women to pitch their businesses to a group of high profile judges.
In her address to the summit, Biden reflected on the women she has met while travelling in Africa who have overcome challenges to become entrepreneurs who serve their societies. She noted that entrepreneurship sounds more intimidating to women than it actually is. “In reality it’s what we’ve always done, solving problems that need to be solved,” Biden said.
The speakers and participants addressed the need to support women entrepreneurs because it is vital to strengthening communities everywhere thanks to women’s creativity, innovation, and potential to promote economic opportunity. “We can confirm that women entrepreneurs’ issues are the same all over the world,” said Bouaida, adding that Morocco has made a number of pro-women reforms to give them a more equal voice in both private and public decision-making.
“Women are not only mere actors but we are the real institution at the heart of the dynamics that move our world,” she added.
Speakers included Shazia Saleem of the United Kingdom, who is the founder of ieat foods, the UK’s first brand of ethical halal ready prepared meals and Lateefa Alwaalan of Saudi Arabia, who founded Yatooq, a Saudi company focused on developing Arabic coffee brewing technology.
Among the prize-winners in the Live Pitch event was a young Egyptian woman whose plan for a waste-management company impressed the judges.
The Live Pitch grand-prize winner, Fatima Guadalupe Rocha Arguelles, who represents a company that makes solar-heated fabric for winter clothing, captured the spirit of the day.
“I’m representing the hopes of other women and girls who want to build a better community,” she said. The Global Entrepreneurial Summit has attracted over 4500 people, including a number of participants from the GCC.
Bahraini entrepreneur Zahra Saleh said she was interested in finding like-minded people to collaborate with her publishing business, which also has a social program to promote a love of reading the Gulf countries.
“Most people don’t care about ideas but products. I want to sell books but I want people to love to read first. At this summit we can negotiate and find new ideas and find opportunities for partnerships. I’m sure we’re going to find somebody like us and if we put our hands together we can make changes,” Saleh said.
