A supportive legal and regulatory environment can enable women’s engagement in entrepreneurship, empowering them to participate equally in the economy. Yet, all over the world discriminatory laws and regulations restrict women’s economic inclusion. In Asia and the Pacific, when it comes to economic inclusion, women have less than three-quarters of the legal rights of men. Through a series of interactive sessions, this dialogue will discuss continuing legal and regulatory challenges to women’s entrepreneurship in the region and strategies for the way forward.

The regional dialogue, organized jointly by United Nations ESCAP and the World Bank, will facilitate dissemination of region-specific data on the above-mentioned issues and take a deep dive into specific country examples. This event is part of ESCAP’s Catalyzing Women’s Entrepreneurship Programme supported by Government of Canada. It will also look at the social, cultural, and political factors holding back legal and policy reforms, including on how COVID-19 has reversed gains made by women.  Finally, it will identify the elements required to establish well-functioning mechanisms to implement and enforce legal and policy measures.

Sessions will include an overview of relevant legal and economic research, discussion of case studies of positive policy reforms, and a panel discussion of experts on gender equality and women’s entrepreneurship. Participants from relevant government ministries, parliamentary offices, development partners and local legal organizations can expect to learn how legal and policy barriers hinder women’s labour force participation and entrepreneurship, identify lessons learned and priority areas of reform and seek partnership with others to continue advocating for women’s economic empowerment.

This event is part of the World Bank Group’s yearlong Gender Equality and Development +10: Accelerate Equality initiative, which explores the important progress made and lessons learned over the last 10 years in closing gender gaps and promoting girl's and women's empowerment and drives for transformative change in the future.  

It provides an opportunity to showcase successes, learn, and develop ideas and further momentum for the future of gender equality and women’s leadership, while taking stock of remaining challenges and strengthening partnerships in the quest to #AccelerateEquality.