 Good afternoon. I am Heather Joy Thompson, and I am a Foreign Service Officer here at the Department of State. Thank you for joining us for Power and Priorities. This dialogue is sponsored by the State Department's Office of the Public Liaison and the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs. I have the pleasure of moderating today's panel. And before we get into our discussion, I would like to take a moment to introduce our esteemed panel and to ask them to share a bit about themselves. We have Dr. Bita Adai, Ms. Lisa Miller, and Ms. Noelle Spring. Bita, let's start with you and go on down the line. Please tell us a bit about your work and educational background and why you decided to work on women's empowerment issues. Great. Thank you, Heather Joy. It's a great opportunity to be here today. And thank you to the audience who is tuning in. So my background is a little bit unique as a typical diplomat of the US State Department. I come with a background in biomedical engineering and environmental engineering. And I thought I was going to be a scientist in a lab my entire career. But as I was doing my work, it tangentially had connections with women, and particularly local communities, and women as mothers, as caretakers, as entrepreneurs, as business leaders. And as a result of the role women play in the household, particularly around water and access to clean water for their family's health, I was able to see the vital role that women play, whether they are the ones selecting the type of water and sources of treatment for their water source for their families, or whether they were business leaders or community leaders in their villages and towns. So as a result of that, it was really inspiring. And it motivated me while I was here at the State Department to work on issues and programs that touch the lives of the women and empower them in their communities. Thank you. And Lisa. Thanks, Heather Joy. And again, thank you to all of our audience that's joining us today. So Heather Joy, like you, I am a Foreign Service officer. I have been interested in foreign affairs and international relations longer than I can remember and have had the good fortune of joining the State Department longer ago than I'm going to admit publicly with a live audience. But as part of that, I have had the opportunity. I've served here in Washington. I've served overseas in Jerusalem, in Milan, in London. And most recently, I was the head of our economic office at our embassy in Honduras. As part of that, I had the really wonderful experience working with a number of really exciting women entrepreneurs, whether they were small artisans or execs of big companies. And that positive experience had a big impact in when I was choosing to come back to Washington this time around in choosing to come to the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, where I'm in the Office of Commercial and Business Affairs, where we work extensively with the private sector, specifically on my team looking at the importance of inclusive economic growth and so making sure that that economic growth reaches populations that have historically been underserved, including women and minorities. Thank you. And now, what about you? Thanks, Heather Joy. Hi, everyone. Really happy to be here today. I'm originally from Hawaii, and my interest in international relations really started a long time ago as a high school policy debate student. And I got my bachelor's degree in international relations from Stanford University, and later came to Washington, DC, to get my master's degree in Foreign Service with a focus on international development from Georgetown University. But before graduate school, I worked with two NGOs that worked on gender issues. One was CAMFED, the Campaign for Female Education. And another was Let Girls Lead, which really focuses on grassroots women-led advocacy organizations. And those experiences really made me interested in the intersection of gender and foreign policy. So I came to the State Department in 2017 as a Presidential Management Fellow, and I started my career in the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator, where I was a program manager for our global HIV AIDS program, which is called PEPFAR, in Côte d'Ivoire, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. In 2020, I moved to the Economic Bureau, where I am now, and I cover development finance issues for the Africa region and women's economic empowerment, including our Power Initiative, which we'll speak more about today. Great. Thank you all for sharing a bit about your background. I have a few questions that I'd like to ask, but before I do so, I want to remind the audience that they can drop their questions in the chat box on the website. And we will answer as many of your questions as time permits. So let's turn to Bita and Noel for a moment. What is Power? So I'll start there. Power is the Economic Bureau's flagship women's economic empowerment initiative. Power stands for providing opportunities for women's economic rise. It was launched in 2019, and Bita here really led that and was the architect of the program. Thus far, we've reached over 42,000 women in over 30 countries, and we've established over 175 public-private partnerships. We're really proud of the work that we've done thus far. We work really closely with the Secretary's Office of Global Women's Issues, which leads on gender issues for the Department of State. So the main concept behind Power is that we want to connect the US private sector with women entrepreneurs and women in business overseas to help them establish professional networks, increase their opportunities for trade and investment to share best practices. Power programs are primarily run by our embassies and consulates overseas. So the process is that they submit proposals to us for innovative programs that can help the US private sector connect with women entrepreneurs in these countries in a variety of sectors. And recently, we focused on empowering women in traditionally male-dominated sectors, including STEM and tech. And due to the COVID pandemic and the increasing need for women to have digital skills for their businesses, we focused on e-commerce, tech-enabled businesses, and bridging the gender digital divide. And Bita? We also have partnerships that we manage out of Washington, including a partnership with Google and the UN's International Telecommunications Union. In EB, we regularly meet with power stakeholders, private sector partners, who are actively working on women's economic empowerment initiatives to learn from the private sector, their concerns, and how we can best partner to advance women's economic security around the world. We finally leverage power to raise women's economic empowerment in our bilateral diplomatic dialogues to identify ways we can partner together to advance women's economic empowerment and remove barriers to women's full economic participation. In doing so, we have been able to tie what we do in the government through our policy work with what the private sector is doing through their programs and initiatives. So it's a really good compliment to each other. Thank you. So now that you've provided that background, I'd love to hear from you about some power success stories. Yeah, I have one that I can share. It's a partnership that's been really exciting and successful with Google that we have through power. And I think it's a great example of how power functions on multiple levels. So Google has been a power partner for a few years. As Bita mentioned, we regularly consult with private sector partners. And we knew that we wanted to do joint programming with Google. And we were trying to narrow down really what we wanted to work on with Google. On the sidelines of that, we had a bilateral economic dialogue with United Arab Emirates. And during that dialogue, we discussed that both countries would like to work jointly on empowering women in tech and women entrepreneurs in the Middle East and North Africa. And this seemed like a great opportunity to leverage power's partnership with Google, which is very active in the MENA region, obviously has expertise on tech and startups. They have a program called Women Tech Makers, where they help women build communities and connections in the tech sector. So through power, we worked with Google to design a new program. We called it the Women Tech Founders Program. And the program would provide business development and technical training for 50 women entrepreneurs with tech-enabled startups in the Middle East and North Africa region. So in 2021, last year, we worked with US Embassy Abu Dhabi to launch the pilot program. It was in the UAE. And we also had Egypt and Bahrain participate, Sarah Al-Almiri, who is the Minister of State for Advanced Technology in the UAE, participated in our launch event, along with chiefs of mission from the US embassies in UAE, Egypt and Bahrain. The public launch event ended up reaching over 10,000 people. So it was a great event of the private sector coming together, the US government, foreign governments, to really collaborate to promote women's economic empowerment. And the program was such a success that we are now preparing for the second iteration of the program, which will be open to participants across the MENA region. It's running from June through July of this year, so we're really excited that that's continuing to move forward. Can be there? Yeah, and just to add to what Noel was saying, we also have some great success stories from projects led by our embassies and consulates abroad. A few include one in Baku, Azerbaijan, where we partnered with PricewaterhouseCoopers to provide the business training to launch and expand their businesses. Another includes engaging women in the artisan sector in the Marshall Islands and in Kazakhstan, where we convened US companies and buyers in the artisan craft sector to provide mentorship, but also opportunities for these women and their products. In addition to this, we have some great work going on in Latin America and in the Middle East and in Africa, where we have ensured women in e-commerce, agribusiness, and energy are developing professional networks with counterparts in the US. And I just want to say to that point of how they're connecting with the US. For those who are watching and who are in the US, we are constantly engaging the private sector and with that we include the Civil Society and Business Associations. So we encourage you to visit www.statedepartment.gov slash women's economic empowerment. I should take you to the Power main page and if you don't get there, you can go to the State Department Bureau for Economics and Business Affairs main page to get information to connect with us. We want to connect with you, we want to hear you, we want you to be part of our network because we want to be able to support women both in the US and abroad, connect to expand their businesses and their business portfolios. Thanks, Bita. So Noel, can you explain to me and to our audience why is women's economic empowerment important for achieving global peace and security? Thanks for the question, Heather Joy. Economic security is a critical component to global peace and security and when women are empowered economically, they're in a better position to act as leaders and support themselves, their families and their communities. In October, 2021, the White House released the first ever US national strategy on gender equity and equality, which we call the National Gender Strategy and it directs domestic and foreign policy to support the advancement of women and girls in all their diversity. And this is really important because we know that as Vice President Kamala Harris said, the status of women is the status of democracy and that can be extended to our economies and our workplaces. Women are often hurt the most in economic shocks as we've experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. This for a variety of reasons, women are more likely to work in the informal sector, have fewer social safety nets, take on more unpaid care responsibilities and experience gender-based violence, all of which really limit their economic participation. At the same time, studies are showing that if we act to advance gender equality in the COVID-19 recovery, we could add as much as $13 trillion to global GDP by 2030. So we really have a great challenge but also a huge opportunity. The State Department's Office of Global Women's Issues is currently developing a global women's economic security strategy that outlines how the US government will support women globally on these important issues. Really around four pillars of the strategy. First is achieving well-paying quality jobs, next advancing care infrastructure and valuing domestic work, promoting entrepreneurship and financial and digital inclusion and including through trade and investment and lastly dismantling systemic barriers to women's full economic participation. The strategy will be released later this summer so we're really excited that that's moving forward. Great. Now, Lisa, I'd like to turn to you for a moment. How does the Department of State recognize companies who are helping advance women in business? Thanks, Heather Joy, great question. The Department of State has lots of ways that we recognize companies that are helping to advance women in business making sure that they, from making sure that they have a seat at the table to some of the private sector outreach opportunities and working with women entrepreneurs and business leaders around the world. One of my favorite ways that we recognize companies who are helping to advance women is through the Secretary of State's Award for Corporate Excellence or ACE as it is known. ACE is a high profile opportunity to recognize US companies that exemplify American values, the American brand and the impact that US enterprises can have on communities worldwide. ACE categories are chosen each year to align with pressing global challenges and key administration priorities. Over the years, a number of our ACE categories have highlighted support for advancing women in business, including again this year. We just recently announced our ACE 2022 categories, responsible business conduct, climate innovation and inclusive economic growth. So we're in right now, we're in the phase of the open call for nominations and I'm looking forward to reading about all the exciting work that's happening. At part of the description of the inclusive economic growth category, we specify that we are looking for companies that encourage women's economic empowerment, leadership and participation to drive economic growth and professional advancement. But women's economic empowerment plays a role in all of our categories really. Even under responsible business conduct and climate innovation, there's language in the descriptions that talks about inclusion of equality with regard to gender, integrating perspectives of women. So after a careful selection and vetting process, ACE winners are generally announced by the secretary of state in a high profile public event. So it's really a wonderful opportunity to draw a lot of attention and to highlight some of the innovative work that these companies are doing and the impact that it's having really around the globe. Wonderful, so audience, we would love to have some questions from you. I'm going to start by asking Noel, based on your international experiences, what are some of the most effective ways to encourage and promote entrepreneurship for women? Education, microloans, give us some direction here on how we can best support women. So I think we really need to think about women's experiences from the beginning, right? Throughout their whole professional lives. So we need to start an education that women are supported through developing soft skills, hard skills that they have mentors that they're encouraged to promote fields that may be dominated. And beyond that, they need to have mentorships in their profession so that they can grow in advance. For entrepreneurship, women need access to finance. They need digital and financial literacy. They need access to markets. So these are just some of the things that I think would really support women in their entrepreneurship journeys and in their professional development. Great, thank you. So we have a question from Tanya Tome, or Tanya Tome, I'm hoping I pronounced your name correctly. When we want to engage with you, how can we contact you directly or have contact with the local embassy? So I think probably starting at our website is the most direct way at state.gov. We're all in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs and if you can't find it, you can just go and type it in on the state.gov website. There will be a little search bar and you can just look for the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs and that will be where you can route your question. With regard to the ACE Awards, so ACE nominations are submitted by our embassies. So the route there would be to go through one of the embassies, but we do have an email address. If people have questions and wanted to engage with the program directly, it's just ACE Awards at state.gov and we'll be happy to sort of route the question in the right. Great, thank you. So our next audience question is, do you work only with North Africa? I am from South of Africa or maybe South or Southern Africa with tech project and I would love to have your support, so. Yeah, I can take that one on. So we do not work just with North Africa, we work globally. So delighted for that question, thank you so much. And yes, we would love to hear from you. I think the best way to get in touch with us is when starting from the website, but also each of our embassies and consulates does have a webpage and does have contact information there. And so since much of our work is routed through our local embassies and consulates, we ask you to get in touch with them and share with them what you are doing on the ground. Not just for this program here, but just in general, it is a great ally you have in the US embassy and consulates in each country to let them be aware of the great work that's being done. All right, so our next question is from Louise. Once the connections are made between the US firms and the women overseas, does the State Department step back and let the invisible hand do its thing? I can start with that one. I would say yes, right? We don't want to get in the way of these connections. We're not trying to dictate how people run their businesses or how those networks are made. I think what we're trying to do is bring our, the advantage that we have in the government and what it's that we can offer. And so I think we have a convening ability. We also, we have connections with foreign governments so we can try to have conversations on a policy level about what governments can do, not only in terms of laws, but how governments can empower the private sector. And so I think we're not trying to get in the way, we're just trying to facilitate and to bring people together as best as we can. I don't know if Peter or Lisa have anything to add. Actually picking up on that, like you say, I think sometimes our convening power is one of our big strengths. And I think through that, we're not entrepreneurs that wouldn't really be our place, but when things get raised in those conversations, one of the things we do deal with is the business enabling environment. So when in the process of those conversations, if things are highlighted in terms of policy changes that would help to facilitate or building ecosystems, then those are the sorts of places where we might get more involved rather than the sort of micro conversations. Wonderful. So we now have a question from Rasmus. How can we get investors to understand that investing in female founders gives a much better return on investment? You can take that one. That's a really good question. And it's an issue that we have to continue to champion and work on constantly. So there's a number of reports out there, right? And publications that demonstrate this. And as much as that has been great to have that information out there, not everyone reads those reports. But I think one important thing is to ensure that you are connected to the right professional networks. So being a female in STEM, there are numerous groups and networks for support as a woman and seeing the challenges, the common challenges that women face. But also having been a former social entrepreneur myself, I noticed that those are not the networks that drive your business. It is the professional networks that are a mix of men and women and really targeted to the sector that you're trying or the market that you're trying to get into. And so in those networks, one is to get linked up into those networks as best as you can. And that's what we try to aim to do through power. But when you are there, we hope that they see your great work and they recognize it. But more often than not, it is the women who are investors or former entrepreneurs themselves who are quite aware of this issue and do look to female founders when doing investments more often than not. I think they have the firsthand experience. And so it's a matter, there's no easy answer to it at all. It's a matter of getting there and you know you have that battle to fight every day. But just to stick with it and your work will speak for itself. Thank you. So I'd like to now turn to Lisa and Bita to answer this question. Based on your international experiences, what are some of the most effective ways to encourage and promote entrepreneurship? So Noel gave us her take. What do you guys think? So I think one of the most effective ways is to just be out there and to share your story. I can tell you from personal experience that women often can be a little bit more shy and timid to tell their story and their successes or they're waiting in line until they're called upon to share what they've been doing. And to say, you know, don't wait for someone to call on you, speak up. And tell your story because it's probably going to be as impactful, if not more than your peers in the room. So that's one, one. So I guess I would say, and I will preface this with the fact that, you know, I'm a diplomat, not an entrepreneur, but in terms of what I've seen with working with some, you know, phenomenal female business leaders, you know, in my overseas tours. Speaking, it's the dedication, the drive. There are so many challenges that are facing, you know, obstacles that women have to overcome, not accepting no. Just that, like Bita was saying, being there, speaking up the networks. Beyond that, there are so many tools that are available these days in terms of, you know, YouTube tutorials and other, just being able to plug into all of that is really a great resource. Okay, great. Thank you, Lisa. So we have a question from Priya Tandon. My sister and I are in healthcare with a special focus on women working in preventative and affordable healthcare. How can you support our efforts? That's a great question. So I think one of our first questions to you is, since we do work at the State Department, which is a foreign policy institute, is there a international or foreign aspect to the work that you're doing? Meaning, are you working in other countries? Are you looking to connect to work in other countries or regions around the world? In that case, we would love to hear from you and the type of work you do, because what we notice when we go abroad is that U.S. companies, particularly around issues, around inclusive workforces and inclusive work policies, tend to be very forward leaning compared to foreign companies, depending on the region that you are in. So they really serve as really strong examples and also just a champion of innovation and tech globally. So we like to be able to share your stories and see where there could be opportunities to promote the great work that is being done through the U.S. Next we have a question from Anthony Vance. Does any of your work lead eventually to women entrepreneurs receiving investments by the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation? I can take that one. So power projects, the program that I talked about, sometimes people will do, or the programs, like I said, they're led by our embassies and consulates, and sometimes they have, where they'll partner with an accelerator and they'll have women-owned businesses do pitches to investors, and sometimes that will lead to women entrepreneurs receiving funding for their programs. The U.S. Development Finance Corporation is separate, and they actually have an initiative called 2X, where they are trying to drive investment to women-owned and women-led businesses overseas. So that's a little bit separate from our initiative, but that is a really important point, and the DFC, as it's called, is actively expanding its portfolio of investing in women-owned and women-led businesses, along with the other development finance institutions, globally, and the multilateral development banks. It's a partnership called 2X, so it is a big priority in development finance. Which, so 2X, I guess, for the multiplier effect that investing on women is found to have, I guess, following on that, because we worked fairly closely with the DFC when I was in Honduras, and sometimes I think those entrepreneurs that the projects that they're working on are probably smaller than the sorts of investments that the DFC tends to get involved in, but the way that that gets handled sometimes is through funds. So DFC will partner with a microfinance institution on the ground, and that's a larger project, and then they, in turn, can support those projects, the smaller. Add to that as well, just one last note, is that DFC projects, there does need to be a U.S. company link to some of the projects, not all, but to some, and then, so as we are trying to develop that network between U.S. companies and led by women or owned by women, with women entrepreneurs and business owners overseas as well, there's an opportunity there for collaboration. Now, as we said, we like to be the catalyst, and then, hopefully, we step aside and allow the businesses to speak amongst themselves and make partnerships, but sometimes that is an aspect where the DFC can be supportive as well, not always, but sometimes. Thank you. So next we have a question from Louise, related to the professional networks you mentioned. Does this program have an alumni network of women who have graduated from this program or have worked with this program? For power, it's a bit different, right? There's many programs, and if one of our embassies or consulates starts a program, they often will have follow-up activities to help the women continue to connect, to continue to build that network. For the program that I talked about, the Women Tech Founders program that we have with Google, I mentioned we are doing a follow-on program this year, and we're tapping into the alumni from the program last year so that they can help with the new cohort and share their experiences and where they are with their businesses now so they can continue to build an ecosystem of women that are driving tech innovation in the region. So it's a great point. We do try to continue to tap into those alumni networks so women can continue to expand their professional network. Thank you. So next we have a question from Desiree. Can you describe the challenges or obstacles of women in business in the Middle East and North Africa region and strategies to improve outcomes there? Sorry to the mentors and colleagues. So a couple of the obstacles and challenges are not that different from what we face here in the United States. Again, it's access to professional networks, access to financing and investment, ensuring that you have a seat at the table for inclusive work environments. And some of it, in addition to that, there are some legal and policy barriers when it comes to maybe perhaps establishing a bank account or owning land or assets which all contribute to your ability to get financing or being able to fund a business. So we are working through various channels and the US government has a number of programs that look to address this, particularly the national gender strategy, the women's economic strategy that Noel referred to earlier in the program. These fall into those priority areas that that strategy is looking to address. And maybe Noel, I'll turn to you to speak a little bit more. So I actually, just in the last couple of days, have been looking at the applications of women who want to participate in our upcoming Women Tech Founders program and we asked them to talk about this, exactly. What are the challenges you face as a woman entrepreneur in this region? A lot of what they mentioned is what Bita already said. They also talk about just social norms, right? When they want to go in and get an investment, a lot of people in the region aren't used to women being entrepreneurs, aren't as confident in women entrepreneurs. They also talk about their care economy, right? Like the responsibilities that they have in their families and trying to balance that along with access to resources. And that's why a lot of them are applying for our program, right? They want to get some of these programs that Google is putting out. And Google has put out, not just in partnership with us, but has other avenues that they provide technical training to women entrepreneurs. Other, for example, Goldman Sachs has the 10,000 Women Initiative where they provide free training for women entrepreneurs. There's a lots of programs out there and not just through the US government, but the private sector as well to help women advance their businesses and really launch their careers. Wonderful. Next, we have a question from Morgan. What are some specific strategies your program is now using to reach young women and where have you seen some successes with your youth economic empowerment? That's a great, another great question. I can start a little bit on that. So our program through Power has mainly focused on women who are most likely at the middle or early stage of their professional career. So they've finished school or about to finish school is probably the earliest stage of women we work with. However, the US State Department has a number of programs particularly through our Office of Women's Global Issues that looks to empower women and have programs to enable women from the school age through higher education and supporting their empowerment. I will say some of the work that we've done through Power that has touched on more youth economic empowerment includes works we've done through our embassies in Latin America, where we've engaged women in STEM fields, women in STEM majors and enabling them to connect with professionals in the pharmaceutical science kind of sectors to be able to see how they can use the lab, the core lab research that they do on a day-to-day basis to kind of translate that to a job post-graduation, you know, what kind of professions they should be seeking, if they have innovative ideas, how do they turn what's done in the laboratory into a start-up venture, these types of things. So, Bita, Noel, and I, Heather, we are all part of the Bureau of Economic Affairs, but there are a lot of initiatives out of our Public Diplomacy Bureau that work specifically with you. A lot of regionally focused youth leadership initiatives, and I know, I mean, everything from programs that are targeting students coming from perhaps marginalized backgrounds and the English Access Program, for example. So, you know, teaching English skills, but it's English skills, and it's got a lot of other content built into the program to help then some of these students access other programs and other initiatives and partnering with private sector to sort of multiply that impact. And the Bureau that Lisa's referencing is the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. And so if you go to state.gov slash ECA, you'll be able to find more information on the programs that she just talked about. So next, we have a question from Anu. Do you have any programs specifically focused on blockchain, Web3, DeFi, or more broadly around women in tech? I mean, I would say there's a program that we've talked about today, but really our programs are not limited. They can be in any sector. The sky is really the limit. Like I say, we have a call for proposals that's really open to our embassies and consulates. And a lot of them have done programs, women in tech. We've had programs in fintech. Like Bita was just talking about women in STEM. We've had women in ed tech. There are so many sectors where women in the US can partner with their counterparts overseas. And really the sky is the limit. So I mean, the answer is yes, we have had a few and we'd like to have more. Yeah, and I'd also just note that working with organizations like Google and other US private sector companies as we're designing these programs and more specifically as our embassies and consulates abroad are designing these programs, a huge piece of it is also depending on the applicant pool as well. So as we put out a call for proposals, I know this specifically with our Google program is that they like to kind of see who is coming in and do a little survey through the application process of what it is that they think would be helpful in enabling their business, the applicants see that would be helpful in enabling their businesses to expand or to launch. So whether that includes some computing mechanisms or ways to use tech such as Instagram or WhatsApp, et cetera, that they provide training on those specific things or it could be as specific as a computer modeling to understand consumer data that's coming in in your market. So we do try to tailor it region to region, project to project. Okay, so we've talked a bit about women who are just starting out and who want to become entrepreneurs. I'd like to pivot a bit and ask you guys how women who are already in business might start to scale up their business. Say they've been in for a couple of years, they've had some initial success, but now they want to really take it to the next level. What advice could you give them on how to scale up their business? Yeah, again, you know what Lisa mentioned earlier, not an entrepreneur, so. Yeah. You know, can't really speak to the business side of things, but I think one thing we've mentioned that really applies is expanding your network and one thing that we try to focus on in power is helping women access new markets, access international markets. And so that's why one of the things that we focus on so much in power is building those international connections so women can provide their products to new groups of consumers and can make partnerships with international businesses. And I think that will just help them take it to the next level. And Lisa. Well, I think like Sammy, from the policy standpoint, taking advantage of some of the tools and the networks that are out there online, but also really, I think just not giving up and having a vision of where you're going, not accepting no, if you've got a, you're going to run up against a lot of obstacles and just continuing to believe that you can do it and to keep pushing forward. What about you, Peter? What would you say to those women who want to scale up? Yeah, I would have a few different things. One is to be creative in the environment and world that we live in today, right? Because a part of scaling up is ensuring that there's a market out there. And we saw this with COVID where women or entrepreneurs and business owners who are working in the textile industry pivoted to manufacturing face masks, right? It's a huge opportunity there, or PPE, other PPE. So it is important to have that creativity to be able to pivot, not just to scale up, but just to be able to survive. I remember when I was working in a startup where we were launching water treatment technologies for developing world, the question that I got from my business mentor was why the developing world? Why couldn't this product be sold at REI? And I didn't know the answer to that. So I went to REI and I looked at what they had in terms of water treatment technologies for campers and hikers and those who need that point of use technology for water purification. So one is to be able to pivot and then to be able to be creative in thinking of where your product, your service, your idea would be most applicable, could be applicable, and not be afraid to go down that road to investigate that. Another aspect, and I think it goes to more so, goes to everyone, but really more so to those entrepreneurs who are coming from traditionally underserved populations and such is to not be afraid of what you don't know because frankly no one knows what they're doing as an entrepreneur and I wish earlier in my career, especially when I was doing entrepreneurship, someone had told me, if you don't know what you're doing, neither does any, the person sitting next to you or behind you or in front of you, and not being afraid of that. And I think women tend to be risk adverse and want to know all the answers and before moving forward, but that's not part of the game. Part of the game is not knowing and the key, and I think the key to a successful entrepreneur is thinking when you have a problem understanding how you can get to the solution, not knowing the solution though. No one knows all the answers, but really understanding how you can get the answer. And so with that, not being afraid and not being worried about what I don't know and just focus on what you do know and not giving up, so that would be my biggest. So we have about 10 minutes left and I'm just gonna throw you guys a question that I'd like to hear from you about. I'm gonna answer it first though. So the question is what place in the world have you lived in or visited where you were most inspired by the work the women there were doing, women entrepreneurs were doing? So I'll start, I lived in Mexico City for two years, I worked at our embassy there and I saw women sort of just penetrating the market at every single level. There is no thing that you could want or think about in Mexico City where that service was not being offered by some enterprising woman. Whether you wanted to get breakfast in the morning, there's a lady right outside your apartment building waiting there with, you know, ready to sell her her goods. And, you know, all the way to the very top of the market to high-end spas and shops and everything where you see there's a more sophisticated business model but still a lot of hustle and drive and women there to really want to get out there and build their businesses. So I'll go to Noel first. Sure, this is a great question, a fun question. I worked with in Lima, Peru with our US Embassy there and one of the things I worked on in my portfolio was human rights and one of the big populations that we worked with were Afro Peruvians and also indigenous populations. And I saw a lot of entrepreneurship in those communities that are typically, you know, not well served. But, yeah, we saw a lot of, a lot of the handicraft sector, especially among indigenous women and even see from, I think I mostly interacted with them kind of in the informal sector, which I think is, you know, it's very common in lower income countries that you see a lot of women in the informal sector, but a lot of, you know, industrious activity there and making really neat, unique items. I'm gonna actually follow suit from Mexico to Peru to Honduras, obviously a lot of phenomenal entrepreneurial women in Latin America. Whether, I mean, I remember specifically there was a woman, it was a small, I mean, sometimes entrepreneurs are born out of need, whether it is need to support their families or a need of a service that someone needs to figure out how to solve and fix. And in this particular case, the woman had lost her husband, her husband had previously supported the family. And so she did what she could and she started making phenomenal breakfasts, you know, the tortillas, the baleadas. And she got a microloan and that allowed her to buy a second stove. And, you know, she kept working with, she kept at it and she was good at it and the passion and she kept getting these microloans to buy an extra fridge to expand. And she was doing this right out of her house to expand her kitchen. She brought in as her kids and her kids were learning that, you know, the sense of pride when she was telling her story and talking about how she not only was supporting her family, but she was teaching her daughters and her sons about, you know, the work ethic and the entrepreneurial spirit. And she was expanding. One of her kids had sort of built a shop, you know, they had expanded and they'd put up a little shop next door where they were selling dumb and sodas and things like that. So to be able to sort of celebrate those stories was phenomenal at the other end. In a traditionally fairly male dominated sort of business climate, we had some particularly, which was fun to see for me with our American companies that were operating down there, some phenomenal female business leaders that were really the heads of the companies and that was a lot of fun too. I'll draw on an experience that I had when I was working in South Africa, which is where I did most of my graduate field research. And we were, it was around the spotter purification technology and we were working with a co-op of women who actually had been doing traditional vendep pottery for decades and had been going from down from generation to generation. But as of in the past few years, the market for their pottery had been saturated and they were economically struggling to keep the co-op going. And this was right off a village right off of the city of Toyando in the Lopopo province in South Africa. I remember clearly and as we were talking to women in this co-op, we were trying to use the materials that they used for pottery to develop a water purification technology that was used clay, clay materials. And we were talking to them and interviewing them about how the products could be sold in their local village, right? And these villages are run through chiefs who are traditionally, usually men. And we just, they were the first person there so we asked them, you know. And I was blown away because these women actually had the perfect business model. I said, do I go to the local grocery store? Do I put it there? Do we do outreach to the men in the community who we assumed were holding the power of the purse at the household? Where do we go? Where do we start? They said, no. First, you go to the teachers in the community. You go to the school because the teachers have the most respect in the community. And they will, if they buy into this idea, they will then reiterate the importance of this product and the impact it could have on the health of the children in the community, to the parents in the community. And then once you have the teachers buy in, then you have the buy in of the community. And I was just blown away at how sophisticated this was, this idea. And then in addition to that, as we were going around kind of doing our market surveys of how many of this would you buy? Where would you buy it? How much would you pay for? I was numerous women who came to me and said, I would actually buy a six month stock of this product. I said, why? It's more expensive. She said, because of inflation. And I thought to myself, oh my goodness, like this is, again, another such a sophisticated way of thinking and it really was a turning point for me in my research, my kind of life experience, where the solutions that you look for in a community are often within the community itself. So you need to derive those solutions from there. And women are major leaders and influencers in the community. So you need to get their perspective, their vision and buy in into these things as well. So that was really inspiring to, and those women are still working on the pottery and the water treatment technology. So we're very excited for them. We have one more question from the audience. And it's from Kat. Has the power initiative been able to engage transgender women in their assistance programs? So we don't distinguish at all. So we accept all women of all kinds of backgrounds. And so we do not distinguish. And in fact, we are as inclusive as possible and advocate for that when I'll do. Yeah, I would say the same. I'd also note that in the national gender strategy that I mentioned earlier, the terminology that's being used now is women in all their diversity. And I think that really encompasses this point. The State Department also has a new special representative that works on LGBTQ issues. And we've talked about the intersection of that with our women's economic empowerment programming. So this is something that is in our minds. And as Bita said, we don't distinguish women who identify as women are part of our program. Wonderful. So I can't believe this hour has gone by so quickly. I have one final question from Jasmine. How does this program work in tandem with President Biden's other policy priorities, such as climate change? So maybe I'll jump in with ACE, for example, because we have climate innovation is one of our ACE categories. But I think it's the cross-cutting nature of a lot of this work. So whether it is you have like power that's working with the women's office or whether we have through ACE and working with climate change, it's incorporating working through our partnerships, working with our colleagues that are the lead on a lot of these issues, making sure that that language, when we're looking at the way I was saying with our climate innovation ACE award category, we are weaving language about women's issues into that. It's really about making sure that some of these questions and perspectives that every time we're looking at policy, that we have different sets of eyes that are looking at across all of these policies and making sure that when we are doing something that is perhaps more focused on an economic aspect or on a women's aspect that somebody from our climate team is kind of making sure that those equities are being represented, that when we're looking at ours, that it is really cross-cutting. Wonderful, thank you so much. Thank you, Bita and Lisa and Noel for joining the panel today. And thank you to the audience for joining us for Power and Priorities. Have a wonderful afternoon, take care.