The objective of this initiative is to immerse women in the local supply chain and successfully increase local, regional, and global business opportunities for women-owned businesses (WOB) by connecting them with buyers, including heads of supply chains of large corporations and government agencies.
As part of the wider initiative, two surveys targeting WOBs and buyers were conducted to help understand the current sourcing situation in Pakistan and the challenges and opportunities on both the supply side and the demand side of WOB. CBS played an important role during the survey phase of this initiative by translating both the buyer survey and WOB survey and cover notes from English to Urdu to increase their accessibility in Pakistan. CBS collaborated with the LUMS Literary Society for this translation work.
Over a period of a few weeks, 45 buyer responses and 75 WOB responses were collected. CBS then led the analysis of these responses by engaging two faculty members from Suleman Dawood School of Business (SDSB), LUMS as consultants. The consultants on this project were Dr. Shakeel Sadiq Jajja, Associate Professor, SDSB and Dr. Hassan Rauf, Assistant Professor, SDSB. They analyzed the responses and organized the survey findings in a report. WEConnect is now amalgamating the findings of the report produced by CBS into a wider report that they will publish. These results will play a pivotal role in the content development of modules for virtual workshops on “Women Empowerment in Supply Chains in Pakistan” and creating pledges for buyers to source from WOBs and will contribute positively to gender-inclusive sourcing and women empowerment in the country.
Global Entrepreneurship Week Event:
On November 20, 2020, CBS attended a Global Entrepreneurship Week virtual event on 'Advancing Women’s Entrepreneurship and Supplier Diversity' hosted by the U.S. Embassy Pakistan and the US-Pakistan Women's Council (USPWC). The event followed the launch of the Women's Business Opportunity Initiative, a movement to increase inclusive and competitive supply chains in Pakistan.
The event brought together WEConnect International workshop participants, members of the USPWC, and other relevant buyer representatives, women business owners, representatives of chambers of commerce and industry groups, and Embassy and State Department officials.
The event featured a section titled 'Women’s Entrepreneurship and Supplier Diversity: Research Findings' in which Henna Babar Ali highlighted the findings of a recent report produced by CBS as part of its on-going collaboration with WEConnect International and the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS) on a gender inclusive sourcing initiative. Ms. Henna specifically acknowledged and appreciated the effort that CBS and the LUMS faculty put into preparing this report. Dr. Farhat Haq, Provost Lahore University of Management Sciences, was also a part of this section and she highlighted the various initiatives that LUMS has taken as part of its institutional commitment to gender equity.
