Description

BACKGROUND

Women entrepreneurs and women-led enterprises are steadily growing all over the world, and in Nepal too contributing to household incomes and growth of national economies. However, women face time, human, physical, and social constraints that limit their ability to grow their businesses. Their growth is also limited by the challenges in accessing informed choices to finance and market. 

Realizing the women entrepreneurs’ lack of access to market and constraints in economic empowerment, FWEAN initiated the International Women Trade Expo (IWTE) in 2016. To ignite actionable insights, identify various challenges women face in market access and possible solutions to those challenges, women entrepreneurs from across Nepal and internationally are invited to participate. Every year the Expo is organized based on a different theme and has been receiving positive feedback and encouragement from all stakeholders and visitors. Support of the Government of Nepal, donor organizations, banks and other private sector organizations are instrumental in organizing this expo. 

INTRODUCTION

Over the past 9 years, FWEAN has been successfully organizing the International Women’s Trade Expo organized in Kathmandu. Giving continuity to this trend, FWEAN is organizing the 8^th International Women’s Trade Expo this year from 27^th March to 31^st March 2025 with an anticipated attendance of more than 50,000 visitors. FWEAN’s slogan, ‘Work Together, Win Together’, illustrates and calls for collective efforts from the local and global community. The trade expo serves as a platform to bring together influential Nepalese and International businesswomen providing ample scope for product sales, networking, and knowledge sharing.

The Expo will provide a networking forum for women-owned businesses to have constructive connections with other business cohorts and key stakeholders, including government institutions. Using its wide network, the Expo will be conducted in three phases: pre-event, main event, and post-event. The pre-event will bring together women entrepreneurs who seek to make a positive impact on their businesses. The emphasis will be on growing their business through branding and packaging training that contribute to their business and product enhancement. They will be implementing their learnings during the event. 

Also, the International Women’s Trade Expo itself will serve as a platform to promote the products owned by women entrepreneurs across Nepal and strengthen the coordination and collaboration between different actors within the women entrepreneurs and their buyers. The Trade Expo has been a strategic cross-learning mechanism and information-sharing zone. The event will also include a Symposium to mark the learnings and recommendations from national and international participants. The symposium has been initiated since 2019 as the follow-up event where stakeholders, government, banks, and different personalities working with women entrepreneurs including digital marketing, online business owners, come together to discuss the issues, success stories, mitigating measures and provide recommendations based on different themes to champion women entrepreneurship in Nepal. 

OBJECTIVES

The main objectives of the International Women’s Trade Expo and Symposium 2025 are as follows:

• – To create a platform for women entrepreneurs to exhibit, promote, market, and sell their goods and services.
• – To promote best practices in climate adaptation
• – To encourage networking and establishment of connections through B2B and B2C connections between women entrepreneurs across the globe
• – To promote cost effective platform for new concepts, ideas, products, services, and technologies
• – To avail one stop sourcing, platform for wide range of products
• – To provide opportunities of technology and skill transfer between Nepalese and International women entrepreneurs.
• – To explore investment and joint-venture opportunities.
• – To disseminate information on the various government policies and programs that promote women entrepreneurship.
• – To provide opportunities for women entrepreneurs to gain knowledge, share experiences and network. 

DATE AND VENUE

The 8^th International Women’s Trade Expo will be organized from 27^th March 2025 (Thursday, 14^th Chaitra 2081) to 31^st March 2025 (Monday, 18^th Chaitra 2081) in Heritage Garden, Sanepa.