We're about to hear from the action group on "Women and Finance - The High Cost of Exclusion" - great selection of panellists: Michaela Bergman from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Beth Brooke from Ernst & Young, Lamiya Morshed from the Yunus Centre and Chetna Sinha, of Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank.
How to put the trafficking business out of business? asks Tim Large #twconf12 Looking forward to some concrete answers to a problem that's worth $32 bln/yr
More than 4 million female victims of sex trafficking today, but there are many others form of trafficking, labour, forced marriage, says video at start of human trafficking action group #twconf12
Are women financially excluded? asks Chrystia Freeland to kick of session on women and fnancial exclusion
Michaela Bergman of EBRD says principal reason women are financially excluded is because the don't have access to capital. She points out that gender-specific inheritance rights also play a part. Even where laws are in place, they often aren't implemented
David Batstone of Not For Sale @NFS says we need more money to fight human trafficking. Business must be involved. He says 75 percent of women in Amsterdam come from Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria, mostly from deprived communities #twconf12 Not For Sale is about creating opportunities for futures. He says NFS gets to know the young women then comes up with an economic strategy. They started a soup company in Amsterdam to help the women. They now have a soup company in the Red Light District, that's serving women, police and local technology companies. They asked women to get involved in the recipes. We're catering and customising our product for our demographic, he says.
EBRD looking at how we can address lack of collateral among women - says Bergman
Bergman says: Question for all of us here is what we can do to change laws that restrict women's access to property. My call to action is to look at what we can do to improve women's access to collateral
NFS now has a training programme where women are learning to be chefs and caterers, it creates a new way of thinking about their futures, more possibilities, says Batstone #twconf12 Soup, or whatever product you make, comes from somewhere. I want to be part of a generation where I'm not consuming someone's suffering, says Batstone. How about sourcing the soup from farms that are helping to provide opportunities to the most desperate areas that are supplying women for trafficking. That's what we did, he says. Create the demand, create the consumer product and link it back to the communities that really need support, he says.
Beth Brooke from Ernst & Young says private sector can huge force for change. But the one thing she thinks is really important business is motivated by it's own self-interest...it has to deliver results. If you can meet business where it is, you can be really successful. Financial inclusion of women - business is increasingly realising that it is in its own interest. Why? She mentions jobs as an example. Private sector struggles to find good staff.
Brooke says women are an emerging market - women all over the world are coming into the workforce...and also as consumer
Economic empowerment of women helps communities...education increases, sanitation improves...there is a country business case, says Brooke