leila ben gacem
DESCRIPTION
Founder, Blue Fish with branches in Tunis and Abu Dhabi Leila Ben-Gacem is the founder of Blue Fish, with branches in Tunis and Abu Dhabi. Blue Fish designs sustainable social impact initiatives in the field of women empowerment, artisan business development, socio-economic inclusion and youth self-employment opportunity creation Some of the designed social solutions include: Dar Ben Gacem a boutique hotel and a social business which generates business opportunities for micro-businesses in the old town of Tunis through tourism sector innovation; Sougha, a social enterprise owned by Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development. Sougha creates market opportunities for artisan-entrepreneurs all over the UAE, and considerably improved the socio-economic inclusion of women artisans and local heritage revival. In addition, Blue Fish designs and manages projects which improve artisan business sustainability through, artisan clustering, better heritage branding, communication and international trade opportunity creation in Tunisia. Leila also designed, fundraised and implemented an initiative aimed at creating self-employment opportunities for youth in opportunity deprived locations in the UAE.TRANSCRIPT
WOMEN EMPOWERMENT & ECONOMIC GROWTH
LEILA BEN GACEM
www.bluefish.me
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GENDER GAP IN MENA REGION
Literacy rate Life expectancy
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WORLD BANK GENDER DATABASE
Workforce Participation
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24%WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION IN
WORKFORCE IN MENA REGIONLOWEST IN THE WORLD
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WOMEN FINANCIAL INCLUSION
IMPROVES HER DECISION MAKING
IMPROVES HER ACTIVE PARTICIPATION IN CIVIL SOCIETY
CONTRIBUTES TO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF HER COMMUNITY
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• Women financial inclusion; dormant human potentials were converted into decision makers, they are now bankable, and invest their income to develop new products, create jobs and grow their economic contribution to their community
• Community perception of entrepreneurship transformed through role model artisans that inspire community into taking their destiny into their hands rather than wait for the government job.
• Irréversible self-awakening with a snow ball effect…
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WHY DO GENDER ECONOMIC GAPS PERSIST?
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WOMEN ARE NOT PART OF SOLUTION DESIGN
GENDER;DEVELOPMENTAL & SOCIAL
WE ARE NOT LISTENING; WE KNOW BETTER!
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BOTTOM UP APROACH FOR
MORE SUSTAINABLE
SOLUTIONS
DESIGN INITIATIVES &
POLICIES WITH TARGET GROUP
NOT FORSolutions
Family obligatio
ns
Social factors
Cultural factors
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ECOSYSTEM
Create an enabling
environment
Create opportunities for people
to seize
Create conditions for people to florish
Respect
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WOMEN
most under utilized economic growth
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