Over the entire project duration, intercultural exchange visits among BSO members are planned in order to share experiences and transfer of know-how among BSOs where a member of a BSO will offer/receive technical expertise to/from members of other South BSOs. The exchange will boost the skills in delivering effective services.

The First exchange visit was organized, from 22 to 25 February 2020, between the Centre of Arab Women for Training and Research "CAWTAR" and Business Women of Egypt 21 "BWE 21" in the framework of the 6th annual conference of BWE21 which gathered more than 120 participants from more than 20 countries representing business women networks and organizations.

Hedi Bchir, project coordinator at CAWTAR, in charge of women economic participation and financial inclusion projects has benefited from this opportunity. His mission was to get in touch with women entrepreneurs from the entire globe, learn from their experiences and challenges; it was also about enhancing partnership and networking with women entrepreneurs’ organizations and networks and learn from BWE21 their experience in organizing such big International events. Digitalization of business ecosystem (the event title) is among CAWTAR strategic orientation for the next years, hence learning from experiences, best practices and new initiatives was with high add value for CAWTAR and its ongoing and future projects.

The visit starts with the participation in the opening sessions held at the Arab League State Headquarter. Then several cultural and professional roundtables and sessions were organized in different venues; in Cairo and Sharm el Sheikh.  The visit agenda included several topics   such as the Digital Transformation & Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, fintech, machine intelligence, Investment opportunity in Egypt, success stories and experiences from different countries etc.

As a result of the exchange visit partnership between CAWTAR and BWE21 was enhanced, Hence the two organizations started collaborating in the framework of other projects such as the InnovAgroWoMed projet kickoff-webinar where BWE21 was among the main speakers. Their contribution was about the Impact of COVID on business women operating in the agri-food sector. Both organizations are envisaging to sign an MOU on gender mainstreaming In the private sector. Relationships with women business owners from several countries were built.