Jak Eskinazi, Coordinator President of Aegean Exporters Associations, congratulated all women on International Women's Day on 8 March, stating that women must participate effectively in social and economic development for sustainable development to be achieved. Jak Eskinazi, Coordinator President of Aegean Exporters Associations, who believes that EİB has taken a pioneering role in Turkey in ensuring gender equality, made the following statements on the matter: "In Turkey's exports, education, health, animal rights, children's rights, emancipation, development—in short, at every stage—our women must be in the forefront. This is Turkey's greatest deficiency. If we have not reached the desired level at many points in Turkey, it is because women have been left in the background. Aegean Exporters Associations is one of the institutions with the highest representation of female workforce in Turkey. In our association, one out of every two employees is a woman. Compared to the previous term, female representation in our Board of Directors increased by 100 per cent in this term. We are among the institutions with the highest female representation in Board of Directors. All our Board members hold active positions in NGOs related to women's rights."

Largest representation in TİM Women's Council belongs to female exporters from the Aegean region

Eskinazi stated, "Female Vice Presidents serve in three of our Exporters Associations: ferrous and non-ferrous metals, tobacco and ready-made clothing. The first female President among Exporters Associations in Turkey was Deniz Ataç, who served as President of Aegean Olive and Olive Oil Exporters Association between 2004 and 2006. Today she serves as Chairwoman of the Board at TEMA Foundation. I believe that in the coming period, female Association Presidents will take positions within EİB. In 2020, we established the Young Exporters Council to enable young people and women to engage in and work on exports. Nearly half of the Young Exporters Council membership comprises our female exporters. The largest representation in the TİM Women's Council comes from our female exporters from the Aegean region, meaning one out of every three exporters is among our female exporters from the Aegean."

EİB works for gender equality

Jak Eskinazi listed the activities carried out by Aegean Exporters Associations in the name of gender equality as follows: "In accordance with the principles of UN Global Compact, the world's largest sustainability initiative which we signed in 2019, we embody the issues of social justice, social responsibility, gender equality and environment both in our institutional culture and through our projects. We are the first Exporters Association to join UN Global Compact. Additionally, we signed the Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs), a joint initiative of UN Women and UN Global Compact, one year ago."

Female leaders more inclined towards digitalization and sustainability

Eskinazi stated, "Just as we were the first Exporters Association to sign the Global Compact, we were also the first Association to design a mentoring programme for women and young people. Through our EİB Export-Up Mentoring Programme, we continue to support our female and young entrepreneurs for sustainable exports. Research shows that new generation leaders, particularly young women or family businesses led by women, are more inclined towards digitalization and sustainability and have more knowledge about digitalization and sustainability.

Solidarity chain for women in earthquake-affected areas

Jak Eskinazi added that out of a total of 26 beneficiaries in two cycles of the EİB Export-Up Mentoring Programme, 19 were comprised of female entrepreneurs. "Nine of our female entrepreneurs are in agricultural sectors, seven in textiles, one in leather, one in plastics and one in chemicals. And all our female entrepreneurs have activities in many areas including digitalization and sustainability. In the third phase of our EİB Export-Up Mentoring Programme, we are preparing to launch a solidarity chain targeting our women who work on exports in earthquake-affected areas together with Southeastern Anatolia Exporters Associations. We will continue the new modules of the Export-Up Mentoring programme along the line of positive discrimination in gender balance."