The APEC-Canada Growing Business Partnership sponsors women entrepreneurs from Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, and Peru, for one-year mentorship programs with a Canadian mentor. Many women in developing and emerging markets have the ideas and ambition to become successful entrepreneurs but are held back by barriers such as lack of access to business skills, technology, networks and finance. In response, the APEC-Canada Growing Business Partnership works with Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, to develop an innovative solution that combines mentoring with their technology to offer cross-border support to women entrepreneurs. Using an online platform, women entrepreneurs spend one-year working one-on-one to achieve key business goals. Participants build their business skills and digital literacy through trainings, and become part of a global community of committed, ambitious entrepreneurs who are invested in each other’s success. The program boosts confidence, improves business performance and ultimately creates wealth for the entrepreneurs we support.

The Cherie Blair Foundation for Women supports women entrepreneurs in low and middle income countries to access the skills, technology, networks, and financial services they need to become successful small and growing business owners. We are driven by our vision of a world where women have equal opportunities and the capability, confidence, and capital necessary to create thriving enterprises and have a stronger voice in their societies. Since its launch in 2008, the Foundation has directly reached over 141,000 women across 105 countries in our Mentoring Women in Business, Mobile Technology, and Enterprise Development Programmes. Through the ripple effect of our work, thousands more benefit. The women we support go on to become role models, create new job opportunities, and invest income back into their families and communities.