Supporting businesses that are a force for good

The Cartier Women’s Initiative (CWI) was created in 2006 in collaboration with the Women’s Forum as an annual award and event to identify, support and encourage projects by women entrepreneurs. In the last five years, it has expanded into a programme comprising four key elements: awards, fellowship, community and thought leadership.

Earlier this month, the Paris-based maison raised a glass to women who leverage business as a force for good at a world reunion of CWI laureates in Dubai, host of Expo 2020 (on until March 31). Since its creation, the initiative has supported 262 women impact entrepreneurs from 62 countries and awarded US$6.44 million in prize money to women-run and women-owned businesses aimed at solving pressing global challenges and improving people’s lives. Financial help aside, there is also social and human capital support to build leadership skills.

To celebrate CWI’s 15th anniversary, Cartier launched the new Impact Awards on March 6 to reward nine past fellows for the extraordinary impact their businesses have achieved over the years. For three days, the community of change-makers reconnected at workshops, forums and networking sessions to celebrate their progress and collectively shape the future of the programme.

Every edition was represented, says CWI global programme director Wingee Sampaio and “with the laureates’ physical presence, you feel this greater sense of community across all the years. It affirms that a lot of our work is creating space [for the] feeling of belonging, and growing that belonging into becoming who you want to be in the world and delivering on a purpose you represent”.

This is particularly relevant in light of the pandemic, which has resulted in what entrepreneurs term the “triple burden”: Women took on more family responsibilities in the last two years; weathering the storm of Covid-19 was especially hard for them because their businesses tend to be smaller in size, and the barriers they were already facing were amplified.

The triple burden has made it even more pertinent to have conversations about driving change by empowering women entrepreneurs, a topic hardly broached when Cartier first started its initiative, Sampaio adds.

Last year, 228 former fellows took part in an online survey that will serve as a baseline to measure the impact of the CWI, particularly the ripple effect of change initiated by the women entrepreneurs.

Looking forward, the programme intends to create a global network of diverse allies of the brand and leverage their strengths, knowledge of the ecosystem and ability to activate different players to expand opportunities to more women in business worldwide.

Submissions for the 2023 edition of the awards programme will open from May 16 until July 14, and there will be three new regional categories: Francophone Africa, Oceania, and Central Asia & Eastern Europe. Cartier will also pilot a new category to support Chinesespeaking entrepreneurs who need additional language support to join its global programme.

For the first time, men will get to vie with women for a new Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Award, introduced to encourage entrepreneurial solutions designed to close gaps of access, opportunity or outcome for underserved and/or under-represented communities.