World Chambers Competition...atmosphere caused by imposed sanctions against Iran by designing some inspiring and motivating events like ‘’The Success Path’’. • Entrepreneurial

World Chambers Competition

Best Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) project

Isfahan Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture

Iran

FINALIST

New Generation Bright Horizons 1



In Iranian ancient and present Culture, dealing with CSR matters is a ‘’must do’’ and all Iranian organizations try to have contribution in this regard. Although ECCIMA’s CSR activities has been started since its’ establishment, in recent years we have decided to form our CSR activities in a systematic, futuristic and more efficient frame instead of dealing with scattered unplanned activities. In a research we recognized that in our society we have to focus on ca-pabilities of our youth and women, who have been kept aside from the wheel of economy for many years. Their innovative ideas and expertise can be a great aid to reach sustainable development. In this regard, we started series of strategic activities under the term of Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) by establishing Women Affairs and Youth Affairs Commis-sions in order to provide better opportunities for women and youth to be involved in social and competitive econom-ic activities. To make a brief description of our activities, we categorized our activities into two major fields:

• Education, consultancy and inspiring activities: In this part, we tried to provide a number of training courses to cover all the educational requirements for women and youth in various fields from psychological to commercial subjects. Moreover, we tried to eliminate the depressing atmosphere caused by imposed sanctions against Iran by designing some inspiring and motivating events like ‘’The Success Path’’.• Entrepreneurial Events: in this part, we organized sev-eral events to introduce innovative ideas and innovative products to potential investors as well as contributing to participation of women and youth in international events.The significant upward trend in the number of women and youth involved in the business and economic activities, no-ticeable increase in commercial cards issued by the cham-ber for women and youth, increase in women and youth self-reliance and self-confidence as the result of the im-plementation of CSR programs motivate us for our future projects.

Iranian Activities regarding social responsibilities enjoys a very rich and old background and roots back to Iranian culture and religious beliefs. Isfahan Chamber of Com-merce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (herein after re-ferred to as ECCIMA) has been involved in CSR projects since its establishment. With respect to the welfare level reduction in developing countries and environmental is-sues mentioned in Sustainable Development concept, pro-posed by United Nations1, ECCIMA defined the sustain-able development as its main goal. Based on our research2 , sustainable economic development and sustainable social development are the most important aspects of sustain-able development indices respectively. We had a general question, ‘’HOW can we play a constructive, dynamic and effective role in our society?’’Investigations on the economic and social status of the province in 2014 showed that:• Despite the population of women, which is almost equal to the men, only 15% of them are involved in business activities. Moreover, 48.81% of women are highly educat-ed while 43.11% of them are unemployed3 . On the other hand, male-dominated culture considers men as the only source of earnings for family, which impose an intolerable pressure on men especially in Iran’s recent bad economic conditions due to sanctions.• While the government pays for youth and women’s edu-cation from national budget, putting aside their capabili-ties from social and economic activities is a sort of wasting national treasure.• There is lack of balance between young generation’s ed-ucational level and available job opportunities, which is leading young job seekers to reach higher levels of educa-tion and ask for better employment conditions (higher sal-ary, better position etc.). In case they cannot achieve their goals, these talented and elite youth might immigrate to abroad seeking better job opportunities and higher life welfare. These factors convinced us to concentrate on women and youth empowerment activities.

Project summary Origin

1. The future we want, 11 September 2012, United Nations Gener-al Assembly2. Prioritizing sustainable Development indices in Isfahan Prov-ince,13/06/2013, Reza Sepahvand & Mohsen Aref Nejad 3. Statistical Center of Iran


ECCIMA initiated strategic and integrated activities with the purpose of increasing women and youth participation in economic activities in 2014. Our pre studies on the case showed that although the majority of women and youth were highly educated, they need some especial expertise to successfully participate in the economic activities. more-over, there were social and personal restrictions in order to be involved in economic and social activities:• Social obstacles: few job opportunities in limited fields, sexism against women in the workplace due to the tradi-tional beliefs, unequal salary, rights and behavior toward women, low job security, lack of facilities such as insur-ance, male-dominated culture in the workplace • Family and Personal obstacles: significant decrease in time spent with family members, difficulties for taking care of children during work hours, higher possibility of getting divorce for employed women, exhaustion due to both work and home duties for employed women, higher chance of illness caused by stress and anxiety in work place, lower level of self-confidence in women, lack of awareness about their legal and social rights in the work environment.Although CSR projects should not rely on governmental supports, the role and effects of the government is unde-niable. In this regard, Isfahan Chamber of Commerce as a non-governmental organization started its negotiations with governmental sector of the province thorough PPDC4

channel to inform the government about mentioned obsta-cles and to find a solution for them.On the other hand, ECCIMA organized several meetings with the Supreme Leader’s representative in Isfahan province, Governor General of the province, City Mayor, and other authorities. The main purpose of these meetings was to inform government about the challenges that wom-en and youth are confronting in the society and to provide better infrastructure for the participation of women and youth in economic activities. To lift personal obstacles we established Women Affairs and Youth Affairs Commissions and navigated activities to empower women and youth by increasing self-confidence and self-reliance and consequently competitiveness in them.After providing required infrastructure in the society, our main mission, could more efficiently started. Our efforts in economically empowering women and youth were catego-rized in to two main fields:• Education, consultancy and inspiring activities•Entrepreneurial Events

Education, consultancy and inspiring activitiesIsfahan chamber of commerce provides great number of educational courses to increase competitiveness in women and youth as well as SMEs.

1. Training Courses and Consultancy: ECCIMA offers its members a package of courses with the price of 4000 USD consisting 40 technical courses an-nually as well as consultancy in these fields. It is worthy to mention that all the courses are free to attend for wom-en and people under 40. Main topics of the courses are: Marketing, Branding and advertisement, import and ex-port regulation and custom services, law, arbitration and mediation regulations, taxation, innovation development, logistics and transportation, banking and financial affairs, and also MBA courses. According to our surveys over 79.44 percent of participants in courses found them fruitful. 2. ‘’The Young Merchants’’ training coursesIn 2013, Isfahan chamber established an elementary school in Varzaghan -an Earthquake-stricken city in East Azer-baijan province of Iran- with the purpose of reviving an ed-ucational department for children in the region. We also provided some pre elementary business training courses for the students and received great positive feedbacks. We found that to have a dynamic economy, we have to pay a especial attention to the children by providing educational infrastructures for teenagers. That is why we decided to organize Young Merchants courses for children and teen-agers from 7 to 15 in Isfahan Chamber to introduce our young generation with entrepreneurship and trade con-cepts as well as helping them to experience team working.

3. ‘’ The Success Path’’ eventAccording to our surveys and number of attendants, this event is among the most favorable activities of ECCIMA; in which we invite the most prosperous entrepreneurs to share their experiences, obstacles they faced and over-came, turning point of their lives and their recommenda-tions to business beginners.

Description

4 PPDC: ‘’Public and Private sector Dialogue Council’’ in Iran’s Chambers of Commerce. It is a useful way to be directly connected with government’s decision makers and to inform them about the requirements of the society since the Governor General transfers re-sults of these negotiations to top governmental authorities and the parliament representative to legislate proper laws. PPDC of Isfahan has been awarded as the most active PPDCs of Iran since 2014 for 3 consecutive years.


_Entrepreneurial Events & Promotional ActivitiesIn our meetings with ECCIMA members, educational centers and other organizations, we noticed that some young people have innovative profitable business ideas in mind, but they

IKAB5 STARTUP EVENT

6 ideas were introduced to Science and Technology Town to facilitate the implementation of the ideas by receiving services including: Equipped office, industrial laboratory, and 15,000 USD fund for implementation of the Idea. They also enjoy ECCI-MA’s full support including consulting services, introduc-tion to ITDO and ESPX centers

This special event designed to promote entrepreneurship culture among university students and was focused on en-vironmental and agricultural issues. It was held during 2 months with 91 participants in Isfahan University of Tech-nology.

Startup Trip Event

The top 3 ideas entered the incubator center of Isfahan University. they enjoy: • Full consulting services support from ECCIMA • an equipped office in the incubator Center• 10,000 USD fund to develop and commercialize

“Startup Trip” was a 3-day event in which young entrepre-neurs were gathered together to use this opportunity to make their ideas practical. The main purpose of this event was to increase entrepreneurship interest in young peo-ple to set up business in the field of tourism through some practical training courses. “Startup Trip” is designed like global nonprofit educational-experimental “Startup Week-end”. In this event, we had 90 participants divided in to 8 groups.

Hamnet Startup Event

The accelerator offered:• Equipped office for selected participants • Collaborate in product commercialization with the help of consultants and facilitators. • 15,000 USD fund to top three ideas

ECCIMA organized this ICT entrepreneurship event in collaboration with National Elites Foundation and Isfahan Telecommunications company. In this 4-day event, three teams were chosen to enter the Accelerator Celebrities.

Women Entrepreneurship Event

After training courses, 100 talented women were chosen among 300 participants from 6 cities to participate in the event. During the event they were divided into 10 groups working on 10 ideas and on the last day the top three scored ideas won the package gift including:• Financial sponsor• space allocation in order to track the idea implementation• Free of charge consulting services• linking ideas with relevant organizations through our ITDO and ESPX centers• 1 year participation in training courses of Isfahan Cham-ber of Commerce free of charge

Main objectives of ‘’Women Entrepreneurship’’ event was to provide appropriate infrastructure for capable Iranian women to encourage them to enter the entrepreneurial eco-system and help them to exhibit their abilities and trans-form their ideas into money making businesses.With the collaboration of a diverse group of entrepreneurial women, including Mentors, Coaches, promoters, lecturers and administrative staff our executive team started the project around 3 months before the event to collect talented women from all around the country and prepare them for the event by:• Launching especial website for the event: http://eventcen-ter.ir/swwi• Providing 300 hours training courses and workshops be-fore the event.

need financial and consultancy supports to implement the ideas. ECCIMA with the cooperation of related organizations made an active contribution in this regard thorough:

1.Startup event

6 Ikab is a Persian word pointing to a chicken that decides to fly.


2. Omid Event“Omid” in English language means “hope”. Considering heavy pressure on industrial units caused by years of imposed sanc-tions against Iran, we designed this event to demonstrate the sense of hope and innovation in current industrial and eco-nomic conditions of the country. During this event, ECCIMA provides companies an opportunity to introduce their innova-tive products to find investors or counterparts interested on joint venture for production of these products.“Omid” event consists of two main parts and ECCIMA has tried to organize these events in an effective way to cover all fields of industrial activities; In the first session of the event, innovative products had 10 minutes to talk about their prod-uct and then they unveil their products.In the second part, we prepared suitable spaces for product owners to negotiate with potential investors. In 2016, we held 5 “Omid” events and introduced 20 innovative products to in-vestors.

3. Talented Girls of Turquoise City eventThis event was the most focused event for talented girls in Isfahan Province, and all the girls from all around the prov-ince and from different religions with different talents and capabilities were invited to send their profiles to ECCIMA or through the official website of the event: www.economicwom-en.com. After receiving 300 profiles, we started to categorize and evaluate them, and then we organized 100 hours train-ing courses for each group. Among these 300 participants, 55 girls passed the qualification test successfully and during the event, they received admiration note and membership card of Isfahan Chamber of Commerce. With the use of this card, they could attend all the training courses as well as interna-tional B2B meetings and participate in ECCIMA’s foreign del-egations. They can also enjoy ECCIMA’s consultation services free of charge.

4. SPX and ITDOEstablishment of ITDO and ESPX offices in ECCIMA was a great approach to help SMEs in finding their business coun-terparts, implementing innovative ideas and promote their businesses. Their dynamic services are free of charge and available for all women and youth introduced by Isfahan Chamber. For further information, please check: www.spx.ir and www.itdoiran.net

5. International ActivitiesAttending international events, visiting companies and meet-ing businesspersons all around the world, will give women and youth a perspective of their jobs in the future. So we de-cided to assist them to try an international experience by sup-porting women and youth to participate in:• Ukrain export and import exhibition.• SSGATE conference in Washanton D.C*.• Meeting with the Confederation of Indian women entrepre-neurs to extend the bilateral cooperation between the econom-ically active women in the State of Hyderabad and Iran.• The third national conference on women’s economic activi-ty with the capability approach, challenges and solutions in Egypt*.• The seventh gathering of muslim business-women and the fourteenth trade fair of OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooper-ation).• Holding conference with the topic of “ balanced economic development with the presence of women in the managerial position” with professors from Sabanci university of Turkey. • Meeting with Busan Chamber of Commerce, South Korea.• Inviting members of Junior Chamber International (JCI) from Baden-Württemberg to Isfahan.• Inviting the ambassadors from African countries in order to facilitate communication of young entrepreneurs with others.• fifth forum for business-women in Islamic countries.

*NOTE: Aalthough Iran doesnot have bilatral political rela-tions with Egypt and USA, we believe that youth and women issues are a globaly concern, far beyond the political boarders.


During almost 3 years after implementation of our project in Isfahan Chamber of

Commerce, we made some analiticalassessments to see

the feedbacks:

________________________Intangible feedbacks• Increase in women’s self-confidence and self-reliance feelings.• Achieving significant success in fighting with wrong be-liefs of the society againts the women contribution to eco-nomic activities.• Providing specialized educational courses for exporta-tion and importation.• Building a bridge between universities and educational centers and bussiness persons, to decrease unemployment rate among women and youth.• Decrease women’s vulnerability in economic and social environment.• Women’s participation in national elections as candidates.• Increase in people social beleifs about the importance of women’s participation in economic activities .• Increase in women’s awareness of their own social rights.• Increase in women’s capability in product marketing and negotiation with their commercial counterparts .• Empowerment of highly educated youth to run their own business.

____________________________Tangible results• 2.7 percent increase in participation of women in eco-nomic activities in Isfahan Province based on Statistical Center of Iran’s data.• Significant Increase (78 percent) in the number of com-mercial cards issued by the chamber for women.• Remarkable increase (76.9 percent) in the number of commercial cards issued by the chamber for youth.• Wining CACCI 6th Asia- Pasific young enterpreneur award by Mr. Masoud Jamali, one of the most acrive members of Isfahan Chamber of Commerce.• Increase in number of women and youth nominated as the most exemplary exporters of the Isfahan Province. (2 women and 9 young enterprenuers among top 15 export-ers of the Isfahan province in 2016).• Increase in the number of women who are running a bussiness or in the top positions of the organizations and factories among the members of ESPX center.• Significant increase in the number of young enterpreneurs. • Since late 2014 up to the end of 2016 our ESPX center could succesfully match counterparts together and as a result of their efforts we could reach 18 signed conteracts with the value of 3380312 USD for our young enterpreners.• Nomination of Ms. Akhavan Nasab (member of the board of representatives of ECCIMA) as the president of Iranian Bussiness Women Association.• Significant increase in the number of female members of ECCIMA who candidate for city council and parlament election which indicates an increase in women self-con-fidence.• Receiving so many endorsements from incubator cen-ters of universities whom we have refered our successful ideas for implementations.

Results

percentage of women pa commercial cards is commercial c مدیران زن زیر 0 شرکتھا با مدیران 2013 1270.00% 26.45 56.25 * *2014 2384.00% 52.45 62.35 24.52 33.32015 2519.00% 64.04 72.41 29.82 502016 2704.00% 76.98 78.08 56.52 77.7

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percentage of women participation in economic activities commercial cards issued for youth

commercial cards issued for women سل40شرکتھا با مدیران زیر

سال40مدیران زن زیر

Women directors


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Young directors


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Commercial cards for women issu


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Commercial cards for youthسال40مدیران زن زیر


Our world is home to 3.4 billion female and 1.8 billion young people between the ages of 10 to 24 and the youth population is growing fastest than ever, especially in de-veloping and least developed countries. Although some of these youth and women are already involved in economic and social activities and making contribution to sustain-able development, many of them are feeling to be deprived by extreme poverty, discrimination or lack of information. Contribution to CSR programs and dealing with women and youth issues should be considered as a ‘’must’’ for worldwide chambers and NGOs. Accordingly, proper in-vestment to educate youth and women and making oppor-tunities for them is a necessity in order to benefit from their capabilities, innovation and ideas for a better future. We designed this project with applicability in mind from its beginning to the way that all of the activities could be applied globally. As a witness, we could refer to our co-operation with Chaharmahal and Bakhtiary Chamber of Commerce6 to establish Businesswomen Committee there. This committee is to help the women of that province to export their products.

Evidently Esfahan Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, since its establishment in 1931, have done great numbers of activities in the field of social responsi-bilities (CSR). Moreover in the recent years, ECCIMA in connection with universities, industries and organizations has strived to solve one of the most important problems de-veloping countries are facing in a systematic or methodical manner according the province’s needs and situation. Although so many projects introduced to WCC 2017, there are several reasons why we believe that we deserve to win this award:1. We ensure that our CSR programs are inclusive for all type of people involved or affected by it directly or indirect-ly. Our employees are dealing with CSR projects as well as their casual duties, and we believe that these programs are among their most favorable duties. CSR activities have strengthen the ties among employees and have increased a sense of loyalty and attachment towards the organization.2. Through our CSR programs, we created an intimate bond among the government authorities, business society and the public sector. 3. There is no end line for our project since there are still women and youth whom our services will change their fu-ture. This award will aid us on our difficulties and moti-vate our stakeholders to contribute even further.4. While Iran’s economy has been suffering from a terrible recession caused by years of imposed sanctions, we made any effort to train capable and educated human resources to keep industrial units active. We proudly claim that our efforts could increase the rate of women and youth par-ticipation in economic activities of Isfahan province. We strongly fought with dim and hopeless atmosphere trough leading women to successfully be both businesswomen and house wives to keep their families happy.

Project applicability globally

Finalist eligibility

6. Chaharmahal and Bakhtiary is a neighboring province to the west of Isfahan, which is well known for its hand made carpets, mostly produced by women at home.

Naqsh-e Jahan Square: A world heritage site built in 1598 in Isfahan

we continue our wayto make bright horizons

for new generatios...

Appendix 1

Appendix

Appendix 2

Appendix 3

Appendix

Meeting with the Supreme Leader’s representative in Isfahan province dealing with social obstacles (Page 4)

Meeting with Isfahan Mayor dealing with social obstacles(Page 4)

4

Appendix

’The Young Merchants’’ training courses(Page 4)

Elementary school established by ECCIMA in Varzaghan, 2013(Page 4)

5

Appendix

‘’ The Success Path’’ event(Page 4)

Talented Girls of Turquoise City event(Page 6)

6

Documents

World Chambers Competition...atmosphere caused by imposed sanctions against Iran by designing some inspiring and motivating events like ‘’The Success Path’’. • Entrepreneurial