‘We recognise that women continue to face barriers to full and equal participation in the economy and international trade. We are committed to promoting women’s economic empowerment and increasing opportunities for women-owned businesses to trade, including by facilitating capacity building Programmes, providing targeted support for businesses and fostering an enabling business environment.’ - 2023 Commonwealth Trade Ministers Meeting Outcome Statement, London, 06 June 2023

The Commonwealth Women’s Entrepreneurship Accelerator is a key outcome of the 1st Commonwealth Women’s Entrepreneurship Summit (CWES) in May 2021 held by the Commonwealth Secretariat and the UK Government (Innovate UK) as Chair-in-Office with the Commonwealth Businesswomen’s Network and other partners. It was announced and welcomed in a plenary session on women’s economic empowerment at the CHOGM Women’s Forum in Kigali in June 2022 endorsed by Secretary-General Patricia Scotland at the 2023 Commonwealth Trade Ministers Meeting in London in June 2023. Its mission is to enable high potential female-led businesses to scale and to internationalise through the unique commercial advantages of the Commonwealth empowering them to achieve social and economic impact through technology and innovation.

CWEA has been developed by the Commonwealth Secretariat in collaboration with the Commonwealth Businesswomen’s Network, the Global Entrepreneurship Network (a non-profit organisation operating programs in 200 countries aimed at making it easier for anyone, anywhere to start and scale a business) and Oxentia (a global leader in the design and delivery of international accelerator programmes for governments around the world). It is an international capacity-building programme which aims to support and scale existing women led businesses to drive, deepen and develop their impact in the digital economy. These include digital trade in growth sectors which support export diversification highlighted at CWES in emerging tech spaces such as fintech, heathtech, edtech, agritech, createch and cleantech which also address key Commonwealth challenges. While these sectors are growing significantly there is a real risk that this could increase the gender digital divide unless a proactive approach is taken to providing targeted support for women-owned businesses so woman can also critically shape these sectors as they develop.

CWEA is unique in key respects:-

1. no other international programme is so focused on women in the changing digital economy

2. partners include the leading Commonwealth organisation working with women in business which is the first Commonwealth organisation to launch a community-wide app on 31 May which has been developed by a woman CEO who was on a Women’s Canada Trade Mission to the UK led by Mary Ng, Minister of International Trade, Canada during Commonwealth Week in March 2023. This is a powerful example of the digital and fast paced innovation that will drive the programme when women are connected and collaborate.

3. participants will also come from recent Commonwealth programmes for women on digital business bootcamps in Africa and digital infrastructure opportunities for E-Commerce and Digital Marketing in South Asia

4. participants will be equipped with the requisite skills to be growth-capital ready. At the end of 12 months of acceleration and mentoring, there will be a pipeline of risk-adjusted investments for commercial investors or for setting up a Fund of Funds which the partners can help to establish through their access to the entrepreneur ecosystem.

5. have clear impact measures to ensure sustained economic growth delivery so that high potential digital companies are given support to scale and grow.

6. designed around creating global success and role models to impact many others including in schools and universities and via media to inspire and support the next generation of entrepreneurs in their own country.

7. use key criteria to qualify participants from 2X Global which is used for investors, capital providers, and intermediaries working in public and private markets, across both developed and emerging economies.

Design elements ensure sustainability for each region once the programme is rolled out across the Commonwealth.  Separate regional accelerator programmes will be phased across a 17-month period with each global programme cycle supporting 225 high impact female entrepreneurs. CWEA is a public-private partnership with funding primarily coming from the private sector which will be managed through a foundation already registered in the UK.