Organized by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and Microsoft.

Women-led micro, small and medium enterprises are a major source of employment and household income across Asia and the Pacific, and are concentrated in sectors and locations where digital tools could most transform market access, productivity and resilience. Yet women entrepreneurs continue to face compounding barriers: narrower access to finance and formal credit, lower rates of digital adoption and connectivity, thinner professional networks, and - cutting across all of these - the time constraints imposed by unpaid care responsibilities. The rapid diffusion of artificial intelligence sharpens both sides of this picture. AI-enabled tools can ease the administrative workload of running a small business - marketing, customer communication, bookkeeping, documentation - in ways that directly address the time constraint. At the same time, the experience of earlier digital transformations is clear: benefits accrue first to those already connected, skilled and financed. Without deliberate design, AI adoption risks widening the gender gap in enterprise performance rather than closing it.

This CSD9 side event will bring together policymakers, development partners and women entrepreneurs to explore how AI tools and digital skills are changing the way women in the region run their businesses, at different scales of enterprise; to discuss the barriers that skills and tools alone do not remove - finance, connectivity and time - and how policy can support more inclusive adoption; and to share practical tools, training approaches and first-hand experiences for the consideration of member States and partners. Using a foresight-framed and interactive format, the session will invite participants to look ahead to 2040 and work back to the choices that shape outcomes for women entrepreneurs today. It draws on ESCAP's work on women's economic empowerment, anchored in two interconnected pathways - catalyzing women's entrepreneurship and investing in the care economy - including the evidence base of the Catalyzing Women's Entrepreneurship programme and the digital-skills training delivered through the Asian and Pacific Training Centre for ICT for Development (APCICT), and on Microsoft's programmes on AI skills for women entrepreneurs. The event immediately precedes the Women Entrepreneurship Showcase in the same room, and participants are encouraged to attend both.

For further information, please contact Ms. Channe Lindstrøm Oguzhan at [email protected]