“Making the Invisible Visible and Valuable”
— Tsunami Assists OECD with Global Research

Ministers of Industry and SME Ministers from 75 countries will meet in Istanbul from June 3- 5, 2004, to consider strategies to spur economic growth. For the first time at a Ministerial Conference organized by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), ministers will look at women in small and medium enterprises (WSMEs) as one valuable mainstream strategy for stimulating economic growth. In preparation for the OECD’s Double Ministerial, Business Forum and Global Marketplace in Istanbul, Dr. Frédéric Delmar with the Stockholm School of Economics is authoring an OECD study about the economic impact of women’s entrepreneurship, using Tsunami’s global online team of WSME researchers.

“We are delighted about this development,” said Virginia Littlejohn, Co-Chair of Project Tsunami and Senior Advisor for the OECD’s WSME Conferences held in Paris in 1997 and 2000.

Dr. Delmar’s multicountry study will assess the number of WSMEs and start-ups; their economic impact on job generation, accumulated wealth and assets, productivity, market share and GDP; and trends over time. “It is crucial,” he says, “that we are able to establish the value of women’s entrepreneurship to show that women represent an overlooked and untapped resource. So the more countries we can include, the better. We are making the invisible visible and valuable.”

The study will consider:

• The availability of data in various countries, including sources and quality,
• Policy measures directed to entrepreneurship, women’s entrepreneurship, and gender equality and society (which Dr. Delmar views as an interdependent triangle), and
• The need for future work and changes.

Corporations wanting to sponsor this highvisibility research should see sponsorship details on our website, www.projecttsunami.org.

U.S. Prepares for “Road to Istanbul”
— Other Countries May Join the Trek

Seizing upon three parallel OECD events in June 2004 in Istanbul, where the impact of women’s entrepreneurship will be among the topics profiled—the Double Ministerial, Business Forum and Global Marketplace—Project Tsunami is launching a U.S. “Road to Istanbul.” It will use facilitated online conferencing and other cuttingedge technologies to accelerate knowledgegathering about women’s entrepreneurship globally, and to prepare U.S. participants for the meetings in Istanbul.

Tsunami will partner with leading organizations with substantive expertise to organize a series of online forums and face-to-face symposiums over the next 10 months. We have 3 goals: 1) To identify challenges, gaps, and effective U.S. programs, policies and practices; 2) To develop U.S. case studies and best practices; and 3) To make policy recommendations that will be shared with policymakers, women entrepreneurs and the media.

U.S. members of Tsunami’s Global BrainTrust will share knowledge about the Women’s Entrepreneurial State of the Union in these areas:

• Research, data and statistics
• Entrepreneurial education and training
• Access to finance
• Access to markets
• Access to technology

One outcome will be a Best Practices Case Study to be presented in Istanbul on the U.S. experience with high-growth women entrepreneurs, supported in part by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Leading venture capitalists, angel investors and high-growth women entrepreneurs are participating in Tsunami’s High-Growth BrainTrust.

We are also in discussions with Cabinet Ministers and Members of Parliament in several other countries about joining us on “The Road to Istanbul.”

Corporations interested in sponsoring this highvisibility initiative and accessing its cutting-edge research should see sponsorship details on our website, www.projecttsunami.org.

Mme. Marie-Florence Estimé, Director of the OECD’s SME Unit in Paris

About Project Tsunami

Project Tsunami, Incorporated (www.projecttsunami.org), is a non-profit corporation based in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, that is a global accelerator for women’s entrepreneurship. It was formed to implement policy and program recommendations from a 50-country women entrepreneurial conference organized by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris in November 2000. The organization began its work with a major seed grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which funds innovative programs that foster entrepreneurship.

Tsunami was designed to help create a tidal wave of economic opportunities for women entrepreneurs in the U.S. and abroad. It uses state-of-the-art technology to make a clearinghouse of resources and best practices available to a powerful network of leaders and multipliers worldwide, who then help to disseminate this information widely to their members and stakeholders. Project Tsunami influences policies, practices and programs that expand the women-owned small and medium enterprise (WSME) sector by concentrating on 5 core strategies—research, data and statistics; access to capital; entrepreneurial education and training; access to markets; and access to technology.