Brics Women’s Business Alliance urges supply chain access and scale for women-led entrepreneurship

The Brics Women’s Business Alliance has urged member states to integrate women entrepreneurs into global supply chains and expand access to capital, digital tools, and investor networks.

New Delhi: The Brics Women’s Business Alliance has urged member states to open supply chains and scale women-led enterprises, presenting a policy road map at the Brics Leadership Summit in New Delhi.

The annual report outlined four priorities: procurement access, corporate value chains, care economy infrastructure and workforce leadership. It called for stronger investor connections and digital tools, such as the Unified Payments Interface, to expand financial inclusion.

Chairperson Avarna Jain stressed that women’s economic empowerment is not a sectoral issue but a core economic strategy. “Women must not only be users, but they must also be creators, innovators and leaders,” she said.

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The Brics Women’s Business Alliance is urging member states to open supply chains and scale women-led enterprises, emphasizing the need for procurement access, corporate value chains, digital tools, and stronger investor connections.

Women’s economic empowerment is viewed as a core economic strategy rather than just a sectoral issue, crucial for business innovation, job creation, and overall economic growth across Brics nations.

The Alliance suggests leveraging digital tools like the Unified Payments Interface and creating stronger connections between women entrepreneurs and investors to facilitate financial inclusion and scaling of women-led enterprises.

The report outlines four major priorities: procurement access, corporate value chains, care economy infrastructure, and workforce leadership, all aimed at boosting support for women-led businesses.

Women across Brics are recognized for building businesses, creating jobs, driving innovation, and contributing significantly to economic growth, with efforts needed to elevate their leadership roles.

Among the recommendations were scaling successful cross-border programmes, strengthening digital healthcare, climate-smart agriculture, and intellectual property protections. Jain said women-led development must help define the Brics growth story, not sit alongside it.

The group presented its 2026 annual report to heads of state at the Brics Leadership Summit in New Delhi that concluded on Sunday. India hosted the two-day summit, where heads of 11 members and other partner countries gathered under the Indian presidency.

“Across Brics, women are building businesses, creating jobs, driving innovation and contributing to growth. The next step is to enable more women entrepreneurs to move from participation to leadership, from small enterprise to scale, and from success in one market to opportunities across Brics,” said Jain.

Leading the workforce

The Women’s Business Alliance’s report on the care economy recognized the importance and its impact on women’s ability to participate fully and lead the workforce.

Noting that good ideas do not become strong businesses without finance, Jain emphasized the need for stronger connections between women entrepreneurs and investors, as well as financing mechanisms that enable women-led enterprises to scale. Jain also referred to the compendium on financial inclusion, which includes scalable practices and solutions from various Brics nations.

She further noted that across Brics, women are already creating solutions in healthcare, agriculture, food security, tourism, and the creative economy.

The Brics Women’s Business Alliance’s series of knowledge reports with 10 key recommendations across healthcare, inclusive economy, agriculture, creative economy, innovative development and tourism was also presented.

About the Author

Priyanka Sharma is a journalist at Mint, where she covers the Union Ministry of Health and the pharmaceutical industry. Her work focuses on explaining government policies and how they impact healthcare and the medicine market in India. With 12 years of experience in journalism, she has built a reputation for providing clear and honest news on important health topics that affect the entire country.<br><br>Her educational background includes a journalism degree from the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) and specialized training in public health from the Public Health Foundation of India. Before her current role at Mint, Priyanka worked with India Today, The Pioneer, and ANI. She also served as a lead consultant for the National Health Authority, which gave her firsthand knowledge of how the government manages large-scale health programmes.<br><br>Priyanka is based in New Delhi and is an avid traveller who loves visiting the mountains. She has a great interest in regional flavours, particularly South Indian food.

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