Who are we?
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Who are we?

The Business Women Forum (BWF) is a national non-profit association established in 2006, to help “strengthen the role of businesswomen as leaders in the Palestinian economy through advocacy, networking, and the provision of business services”. BWF has members, and beneficiaries from all the West Bank cities and Gaza. 

Since its establishment, BWF’s relevance as a voice for women business owners and entrepreneurs within the Palestinian business community has increased substantially through designing and implementing a series of targeted interventions including: 

    • Building the capacity of business women, women entrepreneurs and youth through the Business Development Services Center (BDC), the technical arm of BWF, providing tailored trainings, and workshops.
     
    • Encourage entrepreneurship through targeting young entrepreneurs to join a Business Plan Competition (BPC) for women-owned SME’s, Internship Program to qualify them for the labour market, and Role Model Program that has been organized in cooperation with schools and universities. 
     
    • Advocate and promotion of women issues in the business sector through advocacy and drafting of concept papers and policy notes related to women entrepreneurs through the BWF Advocacy Unit, and organizing hundreds of workshops, seminars, and round table discussions in order to help them reach decision making positions.
     
    • Active participation in national teams for drafting relevant policies including: The National Team for Women Employment, The National Team for the National Export Strategy, and The Advisory Council for The Technical Education Policies.
     
    • Active and founding member of several national and regional forums such as: the General Assembly of The Palestinian Investment Fund (PIF), and the MENA Business Women Network (BWN).
     

A board of directors that include nine well-recognized Palestinian businesswomen governs the Forum. Qualified executive team headed by the Executive Director manages the programs and day-to-day operations. To ensure the highest transparency, and accountability standards, an external independent auditor and a legal advisor report to the BoD. In addition to a professional staff who are building their capacities to achieve all BWF desired objectives. 

  

Mission

BWF’s mission is linked with the stated vision, which is:

The Business Women Forum is a leading private sector institution, that works to strengthen the role of businesswomen and Entrepreneurs in the Palestinian economy and society through: building their capacities and skills, advocating their role, establishing networks and coalitions, and contributing in reducing the barriers faced by women.

Vision

BWF aims, through partnership and integration with partner and supportive institutions that are active in empowering women in the private sector, to achieve its vision of:

The Business Women Forum will play a central role in supporting women to become leaders in the visible and invisible economy of Palestine.

Strategic Goals

BWF identified its strategic goals for the coming years, which emerged from a comprehensive understanding of the nature of challenges facing BWF and available opportunities, as well as the strengths and weaknesses that were identified through the internal and external analysis. These goals are:

 

  • Supporting the establishment and growth of women owned SMEs and entrepreneurs.
  •  Building capacities and skills of women entrepreneurs to manage an enterprise           
  • Advocating the value of women entrepreneurs in Palestinian economy.
  • Strengthening the organizational capacity
    of the BWF.
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“BWF by launching its Mid Term Strategic plan is envisioning the future and developing the necessary procedures and operations to influence and achieve that future, despite the fact that they are working on an unstable and uncertain situation, but this emphasizes the leadership role BWF is playing in the Palestinian community by helping courage women entrepreneurs to lead the visible economy.”

Spark Organization

“We are very proud of the partnership we have with the Business Women’s Forum and the impact that the Business Development Centre has made, with the Foundation’s support, in enabling women entrepreneurs to develop and grow their businesses. We are pleased to be supporting BWF’s four year strategy, and its vision of strengthening women’s business opportunities in Palestine and enhancing the role of the private sector to achieve this. We wish BWF every success with the strategy, as they further their important contribution to women’s economic empowerment in Palestine.”

Cherie Blair Foundation for Women

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