LIIN empowers over 100 women entrepreneurs in Jaffna

From right: Innovay North CEO R. Prashanthan, Sinbon Bakers MD P. Kalpana, SHADES IT Solutions MD M. Dilaxshana, ezBooking Founder J. Jaruza, NORO Solutions MD S. Mathangie and SMILEzone Manager  S. Sharuka

Women entrepreneurs at the event

Women entrepreneurs at the marketplace

UNDP Sri Lanka Gender Specialist Bimali Ameresekere delivering the keynote address

The Emerging Women’s Summit (EWS) wrapped up in Jaffna with more than 100 women entrepreneurs from the North participating in the dialogue held on 29 September at the Jaffna Library Auditorium. 

EWS is an initiative created by the Lanka Impact Inventing Network (LIIN) to increase the visibility of women leadership in social enterprise development and impact investing in Sri Lanka. This was the first regional event of its kind to be hosted in the Northern Province. 

The panel consisted of five leading women entrepreneurs from Jaffna and Vavuniya, namely J. Jaruza, CEO of ez booking; S. Mathangie, Managing Director of NORO Solutions; P. Kalpana MD of Sinbon Bakers; M. Dilaxshana, MD of SHADES IT Solutions; and S. Sharuka, Manager from SMILEzones. The panel was moderated by Robinson Prashanthan, CEO Innovay and Happymarket.lk. 

The discussion looked at the bottlenecks hindering women’s leadership and upward mobility in social entrepreneurship development, particularly in the postwar context of north. 

“Woman face many barriers before starting up a business, especially from their neighbours and society, but if I didn’t face those challenges I wouldn’t have gone forward in my business,” said Jaruza.  

“If people say to me that I can’t do something because I’m a woman, this will motivate and encourage me to want to do it even more,” added Mathangie Selvarajah.  

Trust building with clients, professionalism, quality of the business products, services and deliverables, are some of the key aspects of successful businesses and this is an area where women need more capacity building, said the panellists.

The panellists shared their personal stories and experiences, the various issues they faced related to social norms, negative perceptions and cultural barriers, and how they faced and overcame these challenges. The dialogue wrapped up with a networking session and a pop-up marketplace showcasing the products of some of the women social entrepreneurs from north.  

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Sri Lanka and the World University Service of Canada (WUSC) Sri Lanka were the key sponsors of EWS through the support of Happymarket.lk, SMILEzones, Lanka Social Ventures (LSV), Social Enterprise Lanka and Daily FT.  For more information contact [email protected] and follow @ews_SL. As Sri Lanka’s very first impact investment firm, Lanka Impact Investment Network (LIIN) is focused on channeling private capital to solve pressing social and environmental issues in Sri Lanka by promoting impact investing across the island. This includes providing business development support to nurture a well-developed ecosystem of social entrepreneurs across the country. 

LIIN has structured operations in order to serve social entrepreneurs at all stages and built the necessary support systems. LIIN initiatives support and contribute to UN Sustainable Development Goals of SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth), SDG 10 (Reduced inequalities) and SDG 17 (Partnerships).