Empowering Ladies in Enterprise: The 2025 Ladies’s Entrepreneurship Expo for Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo

Greater than 200 ladies entrepreneurs, along with representatives from the non-public sector, public establishments, monetary organizations, worldwide companions, and enterprise leaders from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo¹, took half within the Ladies’s Entrepreneurship EXPO 2025 satellite tv for pc occasions held in Sarajevo and Pristina.

On 10 November, Sarajevo hosted the satellite tv for pc occasion “Seen. Discovered. Funded,” providing yet one more alternative for ladies entrepreneurs from Bosnia and Herzegovina to fulfill with buyers, enterprise companions, and discover new market alternatives.

“We at UN Ladies are so delighted to localize the Ladies’s Entrepreneurship EXPO right here in Sarajevo. We hope that the discussions held right here won’t solely advance enterprise progress but in addition strengthen the entrepreneurial ecosystem right here and throughout the area,” mentioned Jo-Anne Bishop, UN Ladies Consultant to Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

In the course of the occasion, contributors had the chance to spice up their enterprise visibility, refine their model tales, and studying to speak their worth to patrons and buyers, broaden their networks, and interact within the rising EXPO initiative that’s reshaping the panorama for ladies in enterprise.

For Irma Jakić, 32, from Sarajevo, the founding father of MojObrt.ba, a web-based bookkeeping platform for small enterprise house owners and artisans, the occasion was an opportunity to fulfill friends and achieve new insights. “There are such a lot of women and girls right here who got here for a similar purpose — to study extra, meet new individuals, and achieve data about operating an organization or a enterprise. It’s all the time good to construct connections and listen to one thing new,” she mentioned.

Her subscription-based service helps entrepreneurs handle funds with out a conventional accountant. In simply three months, it has already grown to 180 customers. As a micro-business, Irma Jakić goals to broaden her buyer base, improve income, and ultimately scale the platform throughout the area.

One other girl entrepreneur, Ivana Ćulibrk, 24, from Banja Luka, is the founding father of „DroidMate“, a digital options firm specializing in internet and cell purposes that streamline each day processes for small and medium-sized companies. “I used to be given the chance to take part on this programme to broaden my data and join with different entrepreneurs, particularly ladies, who’re nonetheless a minority in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It’s an ideal honor to be a part of this,” mentioned Ivana Ćulibrk. 

At present in a progress part, DroidMate gives instruments for work group, inside communication, and digital advertising, serving entrepreneurs, startups, and organizations seeking to modernize their operations. Ivana Ćulibrk’s purpose is to scale current merchandise, place DroidMate as a dependable tech accomplice, and broaden into regional markets.

Over the previous 4 years, the Ladies’s Entrepreneurship EXPO has related 1000’s of ladies entrepreneurs and supported women-led companies in Bosnia and Herzegovina via a community of native companions. With expert-led classes, hands-on workshops, and peer mentoring, entrepreneurs can construct stronger enterprise profiles, enhance their pitch and monetary readiness, and study immediately from ladies who’ve navigated related progress journeys.

In Kosovo, the EXPO satellite tv for pc occasion gathered round 150 contributors, together with 20 ladies entrepreneurs who introduced their companies digitally, representing sectors from digital innovation and meals worth chains to trend, handicrafts, and coaching.

“The Ladies’s Entrepreneurship EXPO 2025 Satellite tv for pc Occasion has one clear function: to construct an financial system the place ladies not solely take part, however lead, affect, and create new alternatives for generations to come back,” said Vlora Tuzi Nushi, Head of UN Ladies Workplace in Kosovo.

Within the ultimate section of the occasion, entrepreneurs joined devoted Enterprise Connection Hubs, organized in accordance by enterprise class – Innovation and digitalization; meals and agrivalue chains; trend and handicrafts; and schooling and coaching. These hubs supplied direct with main firms and business representatives in Kosovo to discover collaboration, partnership, and market growth.

“Throughout Kosovo, almost one in three new companies is now led by a lady, proof that when ladies are given alternative and assist, they lead, innovate, and drive financial transformation,” famous Stephen O’Malley, UN Growth Coordinator in Kosovo.

A kind of leaders is Bardha Ajvazi, Co-Founder and CEO of Andrra, a digital platform supporting ladies all through being pregnant. “They instructed me that ladies don’t belong within the tech business. I didn’t hear, and I constructed a platform, an app that now helps 1000’s of ladies around the globe,” she said. Andrra is powered by a dynamic, primarily women-led crew of builders, content material creators, and collaborating well being professionals, all working collectively to offer dependable data to ladies after they want it most. 

Each satellite tv for pc occasions had been organized by UN Ladies, within the framework of the “EU4 Gender Equality: Ladies’s Financial Empowerment and Ending Violence in opposition to Ladies,” funded by the European Union.

Launched in 2021, the Ladies’s Entrepreneurship EXPO is a novel partnership platform to advertise ladies’s entrepreneurship ecosystem constructing within the Europe and Central Asia area. EXPO supplies an interactive house for ladies entrepreneurs, buyers and personal sector representatives for networking and collaboration, peer studying, concepts technology, capability constructing and enterprise improvement. EXPO 2025 is organized by UN Ladies Regional Workplace for Europe and Central Asia in partnership with the European Financial institution for Reconstruction and Growth (EBRD), European Enterprise Angels Community (EBAN) and Ladies in Tech World.

^{1 References to Kosovo needs to be understood to be within the context of UN Safety Council Decision 1244 (1999).}