Bournemouth University’s Social Entrepreneur Forum is to hold two free online events which will explore the impact of Covid-19 on women and refugee entrepreneurs.
The events taking place in November, as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) 2020, and will feature international panels of speakers discussing the pandemic’s impact on business and entrepreneurship.
The first event will explore Women Entrepreneurs in the times of Covid-19 runs and will feature women entrepreneurs from across Brazil, UK, Oman and Iraq discussing the various challenges and best practices from their experiences and national contexts.
The event is supported by the Women’s Academic Network at BU.
Dr Sukanya Ayatakshi-Endow, a Senior Academic in Entrepreneurship at Bournemouth University who has organised the events, said: “During GEW last year, we held another event highlighting the various challenges that women entrepreneurs face and the current pandemic has exacerbated those challenges including managing the work-family interface; seeking external support and many more.
“Our aim is to enhance awareness, generate peer-based support, create opportunities for engagement and learning and allow for further support to a global cause. Being part of GEW2020 with a global panel of highly impactful women entrepreneurs, this event will showcase BU’s commitment to the global goals and highlight the impactful work that we do around gender equality”
The second event, The Refugee Entrepreneurship and Covid-19, supports refugee organisations from Brazil, Uganda, the UK and Spain and refugee entrepreneurs will discuss the impacts of the pandemic on this group.
“The aim of this event is to highlight the stories of refugees who seek legitimacy in their host country through entrepreneurship and the wonderful work the support organisations do to help them,” said Dr Ayatakshi-Endow.
“The pandemic has deepened the chasm between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ and in all the policy discussions on economic recovery, globally, this group of displaced entrepreneurs have been widely forgotten. This event will allow students, academics and members of the public learn more about refugee entrepreneurship and what is happening globally to support them.”
For more information on these free online events, please see; https://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/2020/11/02/bournemouth-university-social-entrepreneurs-forum-celebrates-global-entrepreneurship-week-2020/