Why SERA exists, structurally.
SERA (Sustainable Economies and Resilient Access) is a systems-focused nonprofit working at the intersection of circular economy, ethical procurement, and women's economic participation. We exist to close the gap between sustainability commitments and the real economies required to make them possible.
Commitments are growing faster than the systems to deliver them
Around the world, sustainability and gender commitments are accelerating, but the operational systems needed to implement them are not keeping pace.
Women producer groups remain excluded from formal procurement pathways. Companies struggle to translate ESG ambitions and regulatory requirements into supply chains that are transparent, measurable, and commercially viable. Circular economy initiatives stall as isolated pilots.
SERA was founded to work in exactly this space, not through charity-driven models or temporary interventions, but by designing market-integrated systems that embed social impact directly into procurement. We sit between field implementation, institutional strategy, and commercial systems, and we build the connections that let all three function together.
We do not position women as beneficiaries. We work with women as producers, economic actors, and system builders.
SERA Foundation builds inclusive economic systems that bridge women producer communities, corporate buyers, and institutional actors through circular value chains and resilient market access.
An economy in which circularity and women's economic participation are built into how markets work, not added to them as afterthoughts.
Our values
Systems over interventions
We build repeatable, scalable systems rather than one-off projects.
Producers, not beneficiaries
Women are economic actors and partners, central to how value is created.
Operational realism
We design for what can be delivered to standard, at volume, over time.
Traceability & accountability
Claims rest on verifiable practice, documented at every step.
Market integration
Impact is embedded in procurement and commercial relationships, not adjacent to them.
Durable impact
We measure success by long-term participation, not short-term activity.
Founder
Izabela Erşahin
FounderIzabela Erşahin is a social entrepreneur and systems-builder with over 15 years of experience working across circular economy, ethical supply chains, and women's economic empowerment. As founder of SERA Foundation and Vice Chair of WFTO Africa, Middle East & Türkiye, her work focuses on building practical bridges between corporate sustainability commitments and women-centered production economies through procurement-driven, market-based models.
Before founding social enterprises in Türkiye, she worked in luxury fashion in Paris, including at Yves Saint Laurent. Her work today sits at the intersection of circular procurement, hospitality sustainability, fair trade, and inclusive economic systems.
Governed for transparency
SERA Foundation is structured as a Dutch stichting, designed around transparency, mission integrity, and accountable governance aligned with ANBI principles. SERA's board, advisory structure, and wider team will be introduced here as the foundation completes its formation.
Build better systems with us
SERA collaborates with organizations seeking practical pathways toward more inclusive and circular economies.