Project Description
IFC, with support from the Women Entrepreneurship Finance Initiative (We-Fi), is pursuing a partnership with Endeavor to support Endeavor better serve women entrepreneurs through their funding process.
IFC will be working with Endeavor by providing guidance and best practice on how to work towards greater gender diversity. The Project, expected to run till June 2021, will be implemented in 5 phases:
• Phase 1: A research (using survey and interviews) with the aim to design a new program approach to increase the number of women in the Endeavor network.
• Phase 2: (i) Launch a global media campaign that highlights successful women in the Endeavor network as role models to attract a stronger pipeline of women entrepreneurs. (ii) Support Endeavor’s local affiliates to host targeted recruitment events that will bring together female entrepreneurs and network members with prospective candidates.
• Phase 3: Provide female candidates with access to mentorship during the selection process and recruit female judges for international selection panels with the goal to improve the selection rate for female candidates.
• Phase 4: Support female entrepreneurs with leadership skills to scale up their businesses as well as create a support network for female entrepreneurs.
• Phase 5: Host at least two women’s entrepreneurship summits for peer networking and investor connections and use these summits as a platform to share findings from the joint IFC-Endeavour gender program.