Thank you for having us this morning.
The Réseau des femmes d'affaires du Québec, or RFAQ, has been active for 42 years. It plays a key role in supporting women entrepreneurs on the ground so that they can expand their professional network. The RFAQ also helps them conquer local, national and international markets and win contracts in the public and private markets. RFAQ does this in various ways, whether by creating networking opportunities between women entrepreneurs and large businesses or by organizing events to give them visibility through structured networking.
The RFAQ's uniqueness stems from the fact that we have developed our own expertise in supplier diversification when it comes to promoting under-represented groups in entrepreneurship, including women, in medium and large business supply chains. For example, for the past 14 years, as part of supplier diversification, we have been accompanying and preparing women on trade missions, mainly to the United States and France, so that they can meet with the large companies that could award them contracts.
The women entrepreneurship strategy has helped the RFAQ in a number of ways. First, I want to highlight the importance of this strategy, because it has played a crucial role over the past five years for the entire women entrepreneurship ecosystem. We can talk about the extraordinary work that has been done as part of the Women Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub, or WEKH, and other initiatives that have enabled all women, including those from under-represented groups, to benefit from programs focused on their specific development.
Through this strategy, the RFAQ has established a pan-Canadian project with an exceptional vision for women entrepreneurs in all sectors, including manufacturing and services.
Our project connects Canadian women entrepreneurs with large businesses to increase business opportunities, including through a web platform that is unique in Canada, called Maïa. This platform has an algorithm that connects women entrepreneurs to potential partners, thereby maximizing their chances of successful collaboration.
The site operates in a number of ways. Large companies submit requests for proposals, or RFPs, through the platform, and then a robot extracts RFPs from government contracts that match the profiles of women entrepreneurs on Maïa. Women entrepreneurs are trained to respond to RFPs, just as large businesses are trained to better understand the benefits of supplier diversity. In addition, women entrepreneurs can also do business with each other.
It is important to build on that momentum. Over the past three years, we were able to build a solid foundation and demonstrate that the project meets specific needs, both for women entrepreneurs and for large businesses, which are constantly looking for under-represented suppliers in their supply chain.
We operate in a market where businesses are small. The majority of them have fewer than five employees. They need help on the ground selling the products and services they design and manufacture. The RFAQ is the ideal partner for them. It is a unique way for these women entrepreneurs to expand their markets, in which it is often difficult to break through.
The last three years have allowed us to set the stage, but three years is not a long time to implement a new, more inclusive business vision in Canada and the tools needed to make it happen. Canadian women need ongoing support on the ground. We believe it is crucial to continue our work, but financial support is still important for the RFAQ, as we cannot carry out a major societal project such as this on our own.
Thank you very much.