OWIT participated in high-level meetings in Peru and Geneva:

• 13th Meeting of the APEC Women Leaders' Network, sponsored by APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation), May 10-14, Arequipa, Peru. Lilia Navarrette, President of OWIT, addressed the opportunities for women around the world within the context of globalization (see below). The overall mission of the 13th meeting is to encourage and empower women in dynamic economic activities.
• Expert Round-table on the Gender Dimension of the Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF) at the World Trade Organization (WTO), organized by Lao PDR, Zambia, and the International Trade Centre (ITC), April 29 and 30, Geneva, Switzerland. Ania Jakubowski, President of the Geneva chapter and OWIT's Executive Vice President, presented a paper at this roundtable which explored how governments can unlock women's export potential for trade and development gains

Following is a summary of the APEC Women Leaders’ Network meeting from Lilia Navarette:

The Women Leaders’ Network is a network of women that is affiliated with APEC that comes together on an annual basis to develop recommendations for APEC Leaders and Ministers. Its membership is composed of the private sectors, academia, government and civil society. The purpose of WLN is to seek ways and develop strategies so that women’s concerns are heard, their aspirations considered, and their involvement firmly established when decisions and policies are made within APEC. The key objectives of the 13th meeting of WLN were to:

• Identify the key topics that affect the businesswomen and to remark their contribution to the economy.
• Establish solutions for the challenges that businesswomen face against the economy, the free trade and the globalization.
• Give opportunities to the leaders in order to interchange experiences and have a better access to the market.

Ms. Navarrete was asked to speak on a panel on the topic of Challenges and Opportunities of Globalization for Women. Also on the panel was Susana Pinilla, Minister of Women and Social Affairs of Peru, Ms. Zhao Shaohua, Vice President of the Federation of Women of China and Meg Jones, Woman Advisor for the ITC.

With an audience of over 400 representatives from APEC’s 21 economies, Ms. Navarrete spoke about the important place a professional women’s business association has in providing some of the opportunities and programs that promote and support women and how associations such as OWIT can, and do, contribute to the achievement of world economic growth and the minimization of gender distortions and bottlenecks.

She also promoted OWIT’s Annual Conference to be held in Monterrey, Mexico, October 22-24, 2008 and explained the relevancy of its theme, Trade and the Triple Bottom Line: Economic, Societal and Environmental Sustainability, to current global concerns. Afterwards, she spoke to several top level people as possible speakers for the conference.

In addition, Ms. Navarrete also attended the APEC Digital Economy Forum for Women and Women in Export Trade organized by the Ministry of Women and Social Development of Peru in coordination with the academic, business and private sectors. Its aim was to give information about exporting for strengthening women’s enterprises in the region, as well as to generate a space for women in export to share experiences.

Takeaways from these meetings were greater understanding of the need for professional women’s organizations in international trade around the world, the eagerness of top business and government leaders to learn more about OWIT and the possibilities of partnering, forming alliances or forming OWIT chapters in all 21 economies of APEC.

Instrumental in disseminating information about OWIT along with Ms. Navarrete was Carmen Romero, OWIT VP Chapter Support, who attended the meetings, participated as moderator on a panel and was instrumental in securing sponsorship from Scotiabank for the APEC Women Leaders’ Network. Scotiabank is also a sponsor of OWIT Peru. Ms. Romero was key in spreading the word, promoting OWIT and setting up informational meetings with Ms. Navarrete and APEC WLN government officials as well as business leaders. OWIT Peru participated in APEC in a variety of ways with various members of the chapter in the Exhibition of Businesswomen’s Products in APEC Peru 2008, with over 125 exhibitors.