Dhurata Thanasi Daneri, Snjezana Köpruner, Elki Shehu, Mirjana Babic, Zagorka Blazevska, Marijana Gligoric are the Western Balkans Women Entrepreneurs of the Year 2022, as presented at a ceremony organised by the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) in Tirana on 9 March.

The RCC launched this initiative last year in the framework of the Common Regional Market Action Plan 2021-2024 and the Women Economic Empowerment Agenda to recognise women who have started and developed their businesses and contributed to new and sustainable jobs for other women and men in our region.

Four years ago, the RCC launched a campaign to empower Women in Entrepreneurship (WE) in the Western Balkans. WE started with the promotion and continued with numerous tangible activities, including supporting women businesses through small tourism grant programmes, competitions such as Balkathon, Regional Butterfly Innovation Award and Futourismo, encouragement of young women to choose STEM careers, and finally, creation of the Regional Network of Women in Entrepreneurship, whose key intention is to unlock the women potential of this region, enhance their partnerships and economic empowerment, spark the debate on creating an inclusive environment and address challenges and needs of diverse women entrepreneurs across our region and key Common Regional Market value chains.