Mediterranean Women Digital Summit

The event was the launch of the Women Digital Summit, which will become a yearly platform for exchange.

Opening Remarks by Dr. Canan Atilgan, Director of the KAS Regional Program South Mediterranean

Opening Speech by Rear Admiral Kamel Akrout, Senior National Advisor to the President of the Republic of Tunisia. The Women Digital Summit was held under the High Patronage of the Presidency of the Republic.

Group picture of the participants of the Mediterranean Women Digital Summit.

Presentation by Wafa Makhlouf, Member of Parliament and Director of CEED Tunisia.

Opening Remarks by Bassant Helmi, CEO of Global Project Partners (GPP) and Co-Chair of Digital Arabia Network #DAN.

Testimonial by Dr. Heba Aguib about “Digital Transformation in the Health Sector”.

“The Future of Women Entrepreneurship”, presented by Elissa Freiha, Founder of the startup accelerator Womena

“The Role of Women in Economic Renewal”, presentation by Prof. Dr. Séverine Le Loarne-Lemaire, Head of Research Chair “Women and Economic Renewal” at Grenoble Ecole de Management, France.

Workshop about “What Needs to Be Done to Facilitate Women's Access to Entrepreneurship Opportunities in the Digital Age”. This workshop was headed by Prof. Ipek Altınbasak Farina, Dean of Bahcesehir University (BAU) in Turkey.

Workshop about “Digital Business Models for More Women in Entrepreneurship”. The workshop was moderated by Néjiba Bouzaiane Khalfallah (CNFCE), Founder, EPI Solutions Tunisia & Business Development Director MENA, Telepin Software Systems Inc. in Tunisia.

Dr. Samia Ghozlane, Director of Grande Ecole du Numérique & President of Cyberelles Network during her presentation.

The first Mediterranean Women Digital Summit, which took place from 7 to 8 September in Tunis, presented the launch of an annual platform for selected women activists, influencers and entrepreneurs leading the digital transformation of their countries' economies and societies.

The event was designed to highlight the wide-ranging opportunities available for women in the 21st century through digitalization. To this end, the summit included relevant stakeholders to discuss how to best capitalize on digitalization for women in order to develop the region's governance, business, funding and talent. The event successfully brought together over 50 participants from diverse backgrounds such as academia, business and the start-up scene, and included experts of the health, mobility, finance and assets sectors. The Regional Program welcomed participants and speakers from the broader Mediterranean region and Europe including Algeria, the Arab Emirates, Egypt, France, Germany, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, the Netherlands, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Tunisia.

During two days, a selection of keynote speeches, testimonials, presentations and workshops revolved around the theme of the impact of digitalization on women entrepreneurship. The participants could deepen their knowledge of digitalization and its possibilities and could bring concrete expectations, fears and possible challenges regarding the participation of women in the digitalization process in the Mediterranean region into a superregional discussion. International business experts, entrepreneurs and academics from the region as well as from Europe raised awareness of opportunities for women through digitalization and discussed a possible prioritization of actions in this area. The summit thus offered a unique platform for collaboration and innovation while sharing strategies and identifying and mapping out the opportunities for women offered in the digital age.

As an outcome of the summit, a Joint Declaration of the Mediterranean Women Digital Summit was published, which indicates action recommendations and innovative approaches.