International Women’s Day
The United Nations recognizes 8 March as International Women's Day.
Closing the global gender gap will take 135 years — a gap widened by multiple crises, reversing progress on poverty reduction. Women and girls in developing countries pay the highest price, as they’re more likely to shoulder unpaid domestic work and face barriers in accessing financing, market information, digital tools and professional networks. It’s time for a strategic rethinking of the way we tackle gender inequality in trade at every level, from policy reform to institutional strengthening to targeted capacity building for small businesses.
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Our vision by 2025 is to have built on our projects, services and tools to deliver gender-transformative interventions that tackle the root causes of persistent inequalities in trade — at the individual, community and national levels — to ensure long-term results. We're calling it our Gender Moonshot.
The goal is to address the context-specific gender norms holding women back from succeeding in trade, so they can access the same training, entrepreneurship and market access opportunities that men have. All interventions will be delivered with public and private sector partners through our flagship SheTrades Initiative. We will equip business support organizations, market partners and financial institutions with the skills and tools needed to develop tailored programmes — using proven strategies — to advance women in trade.
Women will not only have better access to trade and procurement opportunities, but they will also have a stronger voice in trade, in policy and in practice. ITC is a trusted partner in delivering on the Aid for Trade and gender agendas, responding in a coordinated manner to the challenges and opportunities women entrepreneurs face.
- Develop innovative services for new target groups. ITC will broaden and deepen its interventions to reach various groups of women, including workers, young women, and smallscale traders; and by focusing on high-growth, male-dominated sectors, and digital readiness.
- Use SheTrades Hubs to deliver high-quality services. ITC SheTrades Hubs are 13 decentralized platforms (and growing!) hosted by local institutions across Asia, Africa and Latin America. Through a new governance structure, ITC will co-deliver highquality, results-driven offerings on competitiveness and strengthen business-to-business linkages. We are partnering with local host institutions to launch new Hubs to widen our in-country reach.
- Work with partners for joint programmes and advocacy. ITC will build upon its network of over 200 partners to revamp its partnership management framework and develop new workstreams. This includes targeted supplier chain diversity, advocacy for the new target groups, and a coaching programme with partners. Under ITC SheTrades Invest, we will roll out automated matchmaking functionalities and gender-lens investing tools in multiple countries.
- Work with Ministers towards inclusive policies, with a focus on gender-responsive public procurement. ITC will mobilize countries to launch gender-responsive public procurement initiatives, creating a global movement involving trade, finance and gender equality ministers as well as women’s business associations. ITC will provide technical assistance to governments, build the capacity of women-led businesses to bid and win tenders and rally partners and other UN agencies around this agenda.
- Support an inclusive African Continental Free Trade Area. ITC will strengthen women’s participation in the African Continental Free Trade Area negotiation and implementation through an Africawide network of women’s business associations, supporting the Protocol on Women and Youth in Trade, and ensuring women-led businesses are export-ready. The expected outcomes include a network of African women’s business associations, advocacy for a gender-responsive Free Trade Area, and export-readiness interventions for women-led businesses in 10 countries.
- Promote ITC trade and gender data tools. ITC will enhance its data collection and analysis capabilities on trade and gender by promoting inclusive data practices across projects, increasing research outputs and conducting a gender audit of data collection across ITC. The expected outcome is an ITC-coordinated approach to the collection and analysis of trade and gender data and being recognized as a world leader in the field.
- Strengthen gender mainstreaming across ITC. ITC will establish a gender mainstreaming technical unit to increase the visibility of its women and trade agenda across all projects and develop new services and tools. The unit will house a pool of resources on trade and gender for project managers, share best practices, and increase the uptake of existing tools on trade and gender. ITC is a trusted partner in delivering on the Aid for Trade and gender agendas, responding in a coordinated manner to the challenges and opportunities women entrepreneurs face.
This year’s International Women’s Day highlights the need for inclusive and transformative innovation and technology to bridge the gender gap.
Globally, since 2020 our ecommerce programme through the ecomConnect platform has supported 3000 women from 160 countries to trade online.
Getting women artisans onto online marketplaces such as eBay or Novica increases their income, and also makes preserving cultural traditions a bankable effort.
ITC developed the SheTrades platform to matches women entrepreneurs with potential buyers and investors. It also provides training and support to help women develop the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in international trade.
As of 2021, we have connected three million women to the international market through the platform.
On 9 March 2023, we will launch the SheTrades Hub in Mauritius, bringing the total count of Hubs to 12 worldwide. Each takes a country-specific approach to support women-owned businesses to benefit from opportunities to expand their business and jointly advance women economic empowerment.
The Netherlands Trust Fund V at ITC runs two tracks of support. One track supports tech businesses to better trade and grow. The second develops innovative ways for agribusinesses to digitize. Since the programme began 1.5 years ago, 324 women-led businesses have made international deals, and 474 women have learned to use technology improve their businesses.
Our 10-day social media campaign centred on Gender Equality for Sustainable Trade.
Supporting women in sustainable trade helps mitigate climate change by making them - the underrepresented - more active in the global value chains. We celebrated women entrepreneurs who are at the forefront of bringing sustainable solutions to trade, and to our daily lives.
Two of those women created video messages highlighting their work: Louise Mabulo, founder of the Cacao Project, and Zhipara Raimkulova, who leads a handicraft association in Kyrgyzstan.
From Tajikistan to Nicaragua, from tourism to textiles, businesses and government leaders around the world took to social media to share their tips on how small businesses can survive the pandemic, focusing on women.
Images of inspirational women entrepreneurs featurd on buses and trams in Geneva, Switzerland, to promote gender equality in business.
