The Brief
- Five women from five countries won across four categories at the ninth World Investment Forum in Doha on 26 October.
- Empretec centres nominated 52 entrepreneurs. Twelve reached the final.
- The awards put business leaders in contact with investors and buyers. UNCTAD’s announcement did not report financing deals for the winners.
The 2026 Women in Business Awards recognised five entrepreneurs at the World Investment Forum in Doha, Qatar, on 26 October. Among them were Uganda’s Sandra Letio, whose agribusiness works with more than 5,000 smallholder farmers, and Brazil’s Adriana Fernandes, whose company makes food for people with allergies and dietary restrictions. One leads a business that connects producers to markets; the other identifies customers whose needs a conventional food range can miss.
UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) organised the ninth Empretec Women in Business Awards around the challenge of growing an enterprise. The Empretec centres that nominated the 52 entrepreneurs had provided them with training and business development support. The ceremony brought the finalists into a room with investors, policymakers and business leaders.
Who won the 2026 Women in Business Awards?
| Award | Entrepreneur | Business recognised |
| Leadership | Sandra Letio · Uganda | As CEO and managing director of Pelere Group Limited, Letio leads an agribusiness working with more than 5,000 smallholder farmers in shea and oilseeds. |
| Sustainability | Paula Gianserra · Argentina | The co-founder and chief operating officer of Reforest Latam combines biotechnology, artificial intelligence and drone seeding to restore forests. |
| Innovation | Aisha Albinali · Qatar | Albinali co-founded Wafir, which adapts a traditional savings practice for use through financial technology. |
| Innovation | Adriana Fernandes · Brazil | As CEO of Mátrika Special Foods, Fernandes develops foods for customers whose allergies or dietary restrictions limit what they can safely eat. |
| Technology | Biobele Oyibo · Nigeria | Oyibo is co-founder and CEO of Earlybean, which uses technology to help young people understand money and participate in the financial system. |
Who gets considered for investment?
“Investors back what they can see,” UNCTAD said in its ceremony remarks. The observation gets to the inclusion question behind the awards. An investor who mainly considers companies referred by people they already know has made a selection well before anyone opens a set of accounts.
The winners also illustrate why women-led businesses deserve to be assessed on their own terms. A buyer evaluating Mátrika’s products needs to understand dietary safety and customer demand. An investor considering Reforest Latam needs to examine how its technology performs in the field. The women running those companies should have access to people equipped to ask those commercial questions and authorised to act on the answers.
The forum addressed the other side of the investment table, too. A session on women as investors brought together investors, family offices and business leaders to discuss women’s role in directing capital. UNCTAD and the Qatari Businesswomen Association also signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen cooperation on women’s entrepreneurship. The memorandum records a commitment to collaborate; it does not announce investments in the five winning companies.
The Change in Content view: Follow the introduction
For an awards organiser, a useful follow-up would be to ask each winner which introduction she wants next: a distributor, a technical partner, a lender or an investor. For the institution making that introduction, the test is whether it reaches someone who can commission a trial, assess an application or place an order.
Our reporting on how lenders can better serve women entrepreneurs examines why the decisions after a first meeting deserve scrutiny.
The achievement in Doha belongs to the five women and the businesses they lead. The responsibility for what happens after Doha also belongs to the people who control access to capital and customers.
Editorial note and sources
This Bureau report draws on UNCTAD’s winner announcement, official press release, finalist programme and ceremony remarks linked above. Business descriptions and the farmer count are attributed to the organiser. The follow-up proposals are Change in Content’s editorial analysis.
