Blockchain 101: What Is It and How Can It Empower Women?

Sep 25, 2019 | by The SEEP Network

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The promise — and potential — of blockchain to drive social impact is massive. From financial services, through supply chains, land and identity registries, blockchain is set to become the next transformative technology in development and humanitarian relief. Some of the initial blockchain use cases also showcase potential for how it can drive women’s economic empowerment – by enabling women to access financial services, manage payments and keep business and personal records.

This webinar explored this topic in more detail, providing participants with an overview of what blockchain is and how it can be applied within women’s economic empowerment programming. The webinar also showcased two practical use cases for how blockchain has been applied to financial services and supply chain management to empower female-owned MSMEs in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Moderator

Lis Meyers, Managing Associate, Gender and Social Inclusion, Nathan Associates

Lis Meyers co-facilitates the SEEP Women’s Economic Empowerment Working Group and served as the chair of the Technical Advisory Committee for the 2017 WEE Global Learning Forum in Bangkok, Thailand. Ms. Meyers leads efforts on gender and women’s economic empowerment across Nathan’s portfolio of international projects. She is currently undertaking research on legal and regulatory barriers that affect women’s employment in the Asia-Pacific region. With over a decade of expertise in gender integration across sectors, Ms. Meyers has led research on gender equity in the workplace, child, early, and forced marriage, women’s role in cross border trade, engaging men in women’s empowerment in agriculture, the potential of impact sourcing to generate employment opportunities for vulnerable populations, and addressing social norms in women’s financial inclusion. She is also an experienced trainer, and has facilitated Gender 101 and gender integration trainings, as well as Persuasive Communication workshops for women entrepreneurs and women in the workplace. She has a BA from Brown University and an MSc with Distinction from The London School of Economics. Follow Tweets @LisMeyers and @Nathan_Inc

Speakers

Helen Disney, CEO & Founder, Unblocked Events

Helen Disney founded Unblocked Events in 2017 as a hub for Blockchain events, education and information. She is a serial entrepreneur who has founded 3 companies including her most recent project - Dots Ventures. She was recently listed as a Top 100 Regtech Influencer and one of the Financial Technologist's inaugural Fintech Founders 50. In 2016, she was listed in Innovate Finance’s Women in Fintech Powerlist and has been referred to by Barclays as a “Blockchain guru”. She is a co-founder of the British Blockchain and Frontier Technologies Association and a member of techUK's DLT working group. Previously, Helen set up Blockchain Intelligence, a global platform for news, networking and conferences about Blockchain and Distributed Ledgers and worked on outreach at the Bitcoin Foundation, driving a programme of strategic events to communicate the innovative potential of Bitcoin and Blockchain technology to innovators, entrepreneurs, policymakers and thought leaders.

Sofie Blakstad, CEO, hiveonline

Sofie Blakstad spent over 25 years building and transforming international banks before setting up and leading hiveonline, the blockchain platform for community finance, which is supporting communities of financially excluded entrepreneurs in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere. Their research aims to progress sustainability and reduce economic inequality in communities, commercial populations and capital markets by advancing the use of emerging technologies. Her most recent book is Fintech Revolution: Universal Inclusion in the New Financial Ecosystem (with Rob Allen, 2018) and she advises the UN, Central Banks and Financial Institutions on sustainable applications of Blockchain and Fintech. Sofie chairs the Edinburgh Futures Institute's Advisory Panel.

Suzana Moreira, CEO & Founder, Mowoza

Suzana Moreira is Managing CEO of niche innovation consultancy Innova Box, and Founder of Mowoza Limited. Through these entities, Suzana has delivered strategic advice to numerous multinational organizations, policy, academic and civil society institutions to support SMEs operating in informal markets. Currently she is focused on creating a smart connected marketplace in Maputo, Mozambique in order to integrate blockchain solutions across the supply and financial chain. She has worked in East and Southern Africa on the deployment of digital technologies to address the Sustainable Development Goals and to empower women. Prior to this she worked on multiple large scale billion pound infrastructure project in Europe and Africa and mentored infrastructure professionals on NEPAD infrastructure projects.

Suzana Moreira is one of the Mail & Guardian’s Drivers of Change Footprint award winners for her work on digital economy and recognised as a leader by CEO magazine for her contribution to women led SMEs. Her work has been commended by the Melinda Gates Foundation and Meffys. She holds an MBA, from Imperial College, London.

This webinar was hosted by the SEEP Women's Economic Empowerment Working Group.