Namibian Women Summit

NWS in a Nutshell

Purpose
The Namibian Women's Summit (NWS) was established in 2007 as an annual forum for business women and entrepreneurs to network and build capacity. Later on the target group was expanded to all professional women holding leadership positions at all levels of the Namibian society, including young women aspiring for those positions.

Idea
The idea for the summits come in 2006 when the Joint Consultative Council (JCC, a network of service providers to micro, small and medium enterprises in Namibia) brought together a group of women leaders to discuss the possibility of establishing a women leaders' roundtable which would focus on identifying issues and challenges affecting women entrepreneurs.Â

Scope and activities
The initiative has grown to a three-day event, which draws approximately 300 participants from throughout Namibia. Each summit is organised under a specific theme and includes modular sessions covering various topics of interest to participants.

Presenters
The majority of the presenters are Namibian, but the summit also features sponsored speakers from countries like South Africa, United States of America and Finland.

Recognition
The initiative has gained substantial recognition from various donors, partners and local corporate bodies.

Beyond the annual summits
NWS has piloted two types of capacity building initiatives for women. One was a series of workshops focusing on life skills, such as financial management, time management and health. These workshops were organised throughout the country. The other was a 5-day professional training for women wanting to become directors. This training was organised in conjunction with PriceWaterhouseCoopers and the Finnish Chamber of Commerce.

Governing body
NWS is organised by an informal body overseen by a group of volunteers, called roundtablers. The roundtablers come from various regions of the country and they perform the function of what a board would do if NWS was a registered body. One of the roundtablers is an active executive member who is the current NWS President. The staff includes one coordinator on contract and one part-time bookkeeper.

Changes ahead
From the 2010 Summit onwards NWS will be organised by a new non-governmental organisation called the House of Women (HOW), which will be launched at the 2010 Namibian Women's Summit. HOW is to develop a sustainable response to the capacity building needs that have so vocally been brought up during the summits. The purpose, vision, values, functions and strategy of HOW, which are presented on this website, were agreed by NWS staff and roundtablers together.

NWS Timeline

Page last updated on : 2010-08-09 15:09:42