SheTrades Ghana Hub: Expanding opportunities for women to trade
The new SheTrades Hub in Ghana will serve as a resource centre for women entrepreneurs to join training programmes, access ITC resources, and find new business opportunities.
This brings to 18 the number of SheTrades Hubs operating around the world. This growing network is a cornerstone of efforts at the International Trade Centre (ITC) to enhance the business environment for women to unlock new markets.
ITC, in collaboration with the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA), launched the Hub during a four-day series of events that ran 19-22 March. Among the offerings was a two-day workshop for Ghanaian women, a SheTrades Outlook policy workshop, and an exhibition showcasing women-led businesses from Ghana and Rwanda.
British High Commissioner to Ghana Harriett Thompson attended the launch, as well as Ghanaian policymakers, business support organizations, women’s business associations and development partners.
Dr Afua Asabea Asare, who heads GEPA, signed a memorandum of understanding with Raimund Moser, who heads the ITC Women, Youth and Vulnerable Communities Section. That marked another step to strengthen their organizations’ partnership to support Ghanian women in trade.
ITC also conducted a two-day workshop for 40 Ghanian and eight Rwandan women entrepreneurs on digital branding, social media marketing and visual content creation. They delved into graphic design principles and effective brand communication strategies for their business.
Bolstering women’s entrepreneurship and access to new business opportunities
A panel discussion on unlocking opportunities for Ghanaian women through trade followed the signing ceremony.
On the sidelines of the event, eight Rwandan women showcased their fruit and vegetable businesses, alongside 24 Ghanaian women working with shea and chocolate. Over 50 potential buyers visited the booths and conducted sales inquiries.
The exhibition was organized in collaboration with two ITC programmes: the Ghana: United Kingdom Trade Partnership and the Value-added Initiative to Boost Employment Programme for Women-led Businesses.
Sharing good practices on inclusive policymaking and identifying areas for improvement
ITC also delivered a SheTrades Outlook policy workshop, presenting key findings of the SheTrades Outlook data collected on Ghana’s trade and business environment for women from 11 national institutions and five private sector organizations.
65 representatives from government agencies, business support organizations and women’s business associations participated in discussions on SheTrades Outlook results and ongoing policies and programmes on women’s economic empowerment. Priorities highlighted during the discussions included identifying next steps to better integrate women’s participation in public procurement and to update the SheTrades Outlook data, which was collected in 2019.
During the workshop, ITC, GEPA and the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI) shared how they collaborated to incorporate women’s voices into the country’s 2019 small business policy and its National Export Development Strategy 2020–2029 to promote women’s participation in business and trade-related policymaking.
ITC is committed to continue collaborating with MOTI, GEPA and other government institutions to ensure that gender-responsive policies create concrete outcomes for women.
About ITC SheTrades Hubs
ITC SheTrades Hubs are resource centres dedicated to women entrepreneurs and implemented in partnership with the ITC SheTrades Initiative. Hosted by leading in-country or regional institutions, SheTrades Hubs offer women entrepreneurs the knowledge, skills and platforms to access market and investment opportunities.
We bring together a community of partners to scale up resources and initiatives to support women in trade.
About ITC SheTrades Commonwealth+ Programme
Financed by the UK International Development and launched in April 2018, the ITC SheTrades Commonwealth+ Programme aims to foster an enabling gender-inclusive business ecosystem by promoting inclusive policy and data and engaging business support organizations, private-sector partners, and women-led businesses in the Commonwealth+ countries.
About ITC SheTrades Outlook
SheTrades Outlook is ITC’s policy tool that promotes more inclusive policies and data. Through 55 indicators and 6 pillars, the tool helps stakeholders assess, monitor, and improve the institutional ecosystem for women’s participation in business and international trade.
Policymakers and other stakeholders can find more details on the results and recommendations in the SheTrades Outlook Ghana policy brief, available on the online tool.
ITC invites additional countries across the world to join SheTrades Outlook. For more information, please visit https://outlook.shetrades.com or contact womenandtrade [at] intracen.org (womenandtrade[at]intracen[dot]org).
