InfoLab21

Women's enterprise has risen in both the national and regional agendas for enterprise.

The Government's national strategy on enterprise, 'Enterprise: Unlocking the UK's talent', included several specific initiatives aimed at aligning support for women-owned businesses with mainstream business support (visit www.berr.gov.uk for more information).

The Northwest Enterprise Strategy (www.nwda.co.uk/enterprise) also reinforces this approach and is supported by the action plan being produced by the Northwest Women's Enterprise Forum (NWWEF).

This plan will help to shape the ongoing work on women's enterprise in the region and help coordinate the work of both regional and national partners and stakeholders.

The NWWEF was established by the Northwest Development Agency (NWDA) in 2004 to help promote the women's enterprise agenda in the Northwest and consists of 12 influential women from a wide range of business backgrounds.

The group meet quarterly and aim to work strategically to ensure that women's enterprise is recognised and respected in the North West region, nationally and internationally, resulting in a significant increase in the number of women starting and growing businesses.

The 25th June 2008 saw the first anniversary meeting of the Northwest's Women's Enterprise Ambassadors at Stanley House, Blackburn and was attended by over 50 ambassadors who gathered to discuss how they can continue to make an impact in their role and to hear guest speakers talk about current enterprise strategy in the UK, access to finance and WEConnect (www.weconnect.org.uk ), a new government backed initiative which aims to link women owned businesses into multi-national corporations supply chains.