Women entrepreneurs from Georgia and Armenia share their experiences

Women entrepreneurs participating in UN Women’s projects often say that getting to know each other, exchanging information, and sharing their experiences of business development or overcoming challenges is particularly valuable for them. Accordingly, UN Women, together with its partners, regularly organizes events that serve to establish new connections between women entrepreneurs.

On 14 and 15 September 2023, with the support of UN Women, CARE Caucasus held a regional conference and study visit for 30 women entrepreneurs living in Armenia and Georgia. The aim of the initiative was to promote cooperation, business relations and experience sharing.

The first session of the conference was devoted to marketing and branding issues. Participants learned about the importance of a marketing strategy in business development, brand building, budgeting and action plan development, market access using digital technologies and channels, and marketing communications management. The women entrepreneurs also presented their products at an exhibition held within the session.

“I have extremely positive emotions [about this event],” said Shorena Metreveli, a wine producer from the village of Asureti in the Kvemo Kartli region. “Exchange meetings like this make us think more and motivate us women to become stronger. At the conference, I received a lot of interesting information and advice about marketing and branding, which helped me to think about how to properly package and deliver my product to customers.”

The final part of the conference was dedicated to sharing information about gender budgeting. During the session, the women involved in social mobilization talked about how they participate in the process of local planning and budgeting and what initiatives they have implemented to improve the lives of those in their villages and communities.

Within the framework of the conference, an educational visit to Marneuli Municipality also took place, during which the guests from Armenia got to know the business activities of Georgian women entrepreneurs, including those running greenhouse farms, sewing studios and coffee enterprises.

Gayane Harutunyan, a resident of Shirak in Armenia, assessed her participation in the conference: “During the visit to the greenhouse, I discovered my own shortcomings and received advice that I will definitely take into account. The regional meeting gave me more confidence [and] opened many doors for me, and I am leaving here so bold and full of purpose that it will be difficult to close any of them.”

The conference was held within the framework of the UN Women regional project “Women’s Economic Empowerment in the South Caucasus”. The project is implemented by UN Women in cooperation with the Kakheti Regional Development Foundation, the TASO Foundation and CARE Caucasus, with the financial support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and the Austrian Development Cooperation.