OSCE supports Women Entrepreneurs Forum in Kazakhstan

The Women Entrepreneurs Forum, an OSCE-supported platform for promoting female entrepreneurship and economic empowerment of women living in rural areas, concluded on 16 March 2018 in Atyrau, Kazakhstan.

The two-day event was organized by the OSCE Programme Office in Astana in partnership with the Union of Women Entrepreneurs for some 50 parliamentarians and women entrepreneurs as well as representatives of the Atyrau regional administration, National Commission for Women, Family and Demographic Policy under the President of Kazakhstan and civil society.

It addressed the institutional aspects of doing business in the region, ways to improve the legal framework and ongoing government-supported business programmes benefiting women entrepreneurs. On the second day of the Forum, the participants visited companies run by women entrepreneurs of the Atyrau region and discussed the key challenges of doing business in the region.

A follow-up Women Entrepreneurs Forum will take place in Aktau, in April, for women living in the rural areas of Mangystau region.

The event is part of the Programme Office’s longstanding efforts to promote gender mainstreaming and economic empowerment initiatives in the host country.