Virtual Roundtable on COVID-19 and Women’s Economic Empowerment
The virtual roundtable explored the impact of COVID-19 on women’s economic empowerment. The discussion focused on employment and entrepreneurship and serving as an opportunity for members to share actionable insights that can inform the work of others in this space.
We heard from you about how you are adapting your projects, approaches, and tools in response to the COVID-19 crisis and what you are seeing as emerging lessons-learned and good practices. To ensure a vibrant and highly interactive discussion, we asked participants interested in sharing insights to register and complete the section outlining resources and insights they planned to share during the roundtable. Based on the information you provided, moderators invited specific participants to share their insights on particular topics during the call.
Listen to the recording, and stay tuned for a write up of the Q&A.
Guest Speakers
Women's Employment
- Meera Sawkar, GeoPoll (Global)
- Melina Wyatt, GAP (Global)
- Amber Parkes, Oxfam/WE-Care (Kenya & Philippines)
- Lauren Shields, BSR (South Asia & East Africa)
- Prakash Subedi, Oxfam (Nepal)
- Nedjma Koval, Integrated International (Jordan & Lebanon)
- Reham Gharbiyeh, Arab Women’s Enterprise Fund (Jordan)
Women's Entrepreneurship
- Farah Chandani, MEDA (Jordan)
- Matt Wallace, ONOW Myanmar (Myanmar)
- Isabel Creixell, Hand in Hand International (Afghanistan)
- Cristina Manfre, Technoserve (Mozambique)
- Melissa Benn, Foundation for a Smoke-Free World (Malawi)
- Carolina de Miranda, Fundación Capital (Colombia)
- Elizabeth Silva, The Asia Foundation (Asia)
- Stella Mdahila, VSO (Tanzania)
- Melissa Graham, Vital Voices (Global)
About this event
Virtual Roundtable
Wade Channell, Senior Economic Growth Adviser
Wade Channell, J.D., is the Senior Economic Growth Advisor for Gender in USAID's Office of Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment. For his first twenty years in development he parlayed his earlier legal career into a concentration on legal reform and economic development. Since 2013, he has focused exclusively on women's economic empowerment, with particular emphasis on women's access to finance. Over the course of his career, Wade has had the privilege of living in five countries on four continents, working in more than 60 countries, and living in 9 U.S. States. He is currently quarantined in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Lis Meyers, Principal Associate for Gender and Social Inclusion
Lis Meyers co-facilitates the SEEP WEE Working Group and chaired the Technical Advisory Committee for the 2017 WEE Global Learning Forum. With over 12 years of experience in international development, she leads efforts on gender and WEE across Nathan’s portfolio of international projects. Most recently, Ms. Meyers worked with other members of the Coalition for Women’s Economic Empowerment and Equality (CWEEE) to develop a policy brief on COVID-19 and Women’s Economic Empowerment. Ms. Meyers has a BA from Brown University and an MSc with Distinction from The London School of Economics.