Empowering women business owners with Moody’s Foundation partner WEConnect International
Building on more than five years of partnership, Moody’s and WEConnect International recently launched a series of boot camps focused on business sustainability to help growth-oriented businesswomen break into new markets.
Investing in our communities
The Moody’s Foundation and WEConnect International’s longstanding relationship supports women entrepreneurs in emerging markets by sharing Moody’s research and employees’ subject matter expertise through pro bono volunteering activities and facilitating virtual training sessions.
In July 2024, Moody’s and WEConnect International hosted a joint two-day ESG business boot camp in South Africa called “Building ESG Capacity for Sustainable Growth”. This event brought together 30 women business owners and gave them the opportunity to learn more about ESG best practices and ways they can make their operations more sustainable. Throughout the event, Moody’s employee volunteers facilitated workshops on topics such as ESG risk, credit ratings, and business sustainability in partnership with representatives from WEConnect.
In addition to the boot camps, each year, we run a joint virtual training program called “Financing your Growing Business”, designed to help growth-oriented businesswomen break into new markets while expanding the mission and vision of their business.
Celebrating success
One participant, Zama’s Choice Spices, was successfully able to expand their business following their founder’s participation in our 2023 ESG capacity-building workshop, by incorporating the “Junior Chef Spice Box” into their existing product line. This initiative not only promotes healthy eating habits among young people but also strategically lays the foundation for future customer retention - highlighting the opportunities which can be unlocked through our boot camps. Upcoming events include our in-person sustainability focused boot camp taking place in Costa Rica this September.
To learn more about WEConnect and our other Moody’s Foundation partners, visit https://communityimpact.moodys.io/.