ITC provides a wealth of information and resources on trade for businesses in developing countries. The tools below (some of them joint projects with other organisations, such as the WTO, UNCTAD, World Bank Group, are intended to explore and facilitate trade with other countries.
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We provide tailored support, aligned with national objectives, to grow trade opportunities for micro, small and medium businesses in developing countries.
<p>The project will strengthen ICDT services on trade intelligence to support the public and private sector from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to make better informed decisions and, in the long term, to contribute to an increase of trade between OIC Member States through the embedding of Market Analysis Tools, the development of an online Trade Helpdesk and the development of trade-related studies.</p>
<p>AIM for Results is an intervention approach that strengthens the performance, efficiency and effectiveness of TISIs and builds their capacity to provide more effective support to the internationalisation needs of their clients, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).</p><p>AIM stands for Assess, Improve and Measure. It is a holistic and targeted integrated three-step-approach focusing on measurable results in order to improve the managerial, operational and service delivery performance of TSIs. The three pillars of AIM are offered either as a single module or as a complete performance improvement programme, depending on the needs of the beneficiary institutions.</p><p> In 2017, the project aims to improve the operational and managerial performance of 40 TISIs applying ITC’s AIM For Results methodology.</p>
Our SheTrades Initiative has changed the economic lives of three million women in 30 countries by connecting them to markets. We have opened 12 regional hubs across Africa, Asia, South America, the Caribbean and Europe, and we continue to grow.
The Initiative centres on empowering women engaging in international trade and creating a women-inclusive fairer business ecosystem. We help them overcome barriers and, with them, identify areas that urgently need to be addressed.
Consultations with global thought leaders reveal persisting barriers between key actors and the building blocks of women’s enterprise development: gender-disaggregated research, inclusive policy, skills development, access to markets and finance.
SheTrades works across countries, regions and stakeholders to champion quality data on women’s participation in trade. We work with policymakers to level the playing field for women, leverage partnerships with the public and private sectors, and connect women to markets and learning opportunities through our one-stop online platform, SheTrades.com.
The Initiative is a proud contributor to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
ITC SheTrades beneficiary works with over 50,000 smallholder farmers to turn avocado rejects into high-quality oil that is exported to Europe, US, and Asia.
<p><strong>ITC FOR EVERY WOMAN, EVERYWHERE. </strong></p><p><span lang="EN-GB">ITC recognizes that Gender Equality is a right in and of itself and a requisite for sustainable development. All women everywhere have the right to a decent income, employment, working conditions and a choice and voice in shaping their economic context. Over the next four years, ITC will support a broad universe of women (entrepreneurs, producers, workers, young women, small-scale cross border traders), by leveraging trade and public procurement, mobilising SheTrades Hubs and high-level champions, and tapping into partnerships. The implementation strategy will be scaled up, inclusive, results-oriented and future-focused.<br></span></p><p><span lang="EN-GB">ITC’s 2022-2025 Strategic Plan identifies gender as one of the five impact areas to deliver an inclusive, prosperous and sustainable future. </span></p><p><span lang="EN-GB"> </span><span lang="EN-GB">Our Vision by 2025 is as follows:</span></p><p><span lang="EN-GB"><span>1.<span> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB">ITC is recognised as an <strong>agenda-setter</strong> on empowering women to trade, through the SheTrades Initiative </span></p><p><span lang="EN-GB"><span>2.<span> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB">Through ITC support, <strong>BSOs, market partners and financial institutions</strong> develop world-class women in trade programmes </span></p><p><span lang="EN-GB"><span>3.<span> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB">Women <strong>trade more</strong> and on <strong>better terms</strong>, hold more <strong>decent jobs</strong>, and a stronger <strong>voice</strong> in trade </span></p><p><span lang="EN-GB"><span>4.<span> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB">ITC is a <strong>trusted and effective partner</strong> to deliver on the A4T/gender agenda </span></p><p><span lang="EN-GB"><span>5.<span> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB">ITC has an <strong>effective coordinated response</strong> to addressing the trade and gender challenge</span></p>
<p>The "SheTrades - Asian Development Bank: Advancing Women’s Economic Empowerment" project aims to enhance the economic empowerment of women entrepreneurs in Asian countries. </p><p>The project seeks to foster a more equitable financial environment for women by capacitating selected ADB partner banks with gender financing methodologies and good practices. This entails training the partner banks in the development, implementation, and fortification of gender-lens financing strategies, aiming to better address the financial needs of women-led businesses.</p><p>The intervention will also make existing resources accessible to Asian women, by translating SheTrades Academy online training modules into Bengali, Russian, and Vietnamese. This translation endeavour aims to provide crucial information to Bengali, Vietnamese, and Russian-speaking women entrepreneurs in ADB countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kirgizstan), spanning the spectrum from start-ups to established businesses, fostering the enhancement of their business acumen for improved participation in regional and global value chains.</p><p><br></p>
<p>The aim of the programme is to <strong>increase the participation of women-owned businesses in trade in order to increase economic growth and job creation in Commonwealth countries</strong>. With interventions at the beneficiary-, firm-, institutional-, national- and inter-national level, it will: </p><ul><li>Address policy change at the national level, making trade-related policies gender responsive;</li><li>Facilitate new/better linkages with buyers and investors internationally; connecting women to opportunities and facilitating gender sensitive business practice; </li><li>Support BSOs and the private sector to strengthen the business environment for women owned businesses;</li><li>Support BSOs to target women owned business directly to improve capacity; combining face to face training with coaching, mentoring and exposure to buyers.</li></ul>
Working close to businesses to overcome trade barriers
In international trade, Non-Tariff measures (NTMs) are put in place for legitimate purposes such as health and safety. However, many businesses, notably in developing countries, struggle to understand the objectives of the NTMs and how to comply with them.
Policymakers may also not be fully informed on the difficulties traders face when importing or exporting.
Having documented trade regulations in more than 100 countries and interviewed more than 30,000 traders in 70 countries, ITC brings more transparency on NTM issues.
Our Non-Tariff Measures Programme:
Identifies trade obstacles to support decision makers to effectively reduce trade costs related to NTMs
Establishes national mechanisms to solve NTM-related trade obstacles experienced by small and medium-sized businesses in developing countries
Provides trainings to companies, trade and investment support institutions (TISIs) and policymakers so they can better understand these trade obstacles and their effect on competitiveness
Increases the transparency of trade regulations and related procedures
<p>This project, which is financed by the preference funding from Denmark, supports ITC’s ongoing work under its non-tariff measures (NTMs) programme, which aims at <strong>creating the evidence base that decision makers need to effectively reduce trade cost related to NTMs and create a business environment conducive to inclusive trade</strong>. The programme ensures that the concerns of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) about regulatory and procedural trade obstacles are brought to the attention of policymakers and other stakeholders, <strong>enabling them to take concrete actions to address these</strong>. The work also contributes to<strong> increasing the transparency of NTMs</strong> and related procedures, and provides thought leadership through research and analysis, informing national, regional and multilateral trade policy making.</p><p>The following outlines the vision for the 3-year horizon of the preference funding with a detailed results planning and budget breakdown for the 500K W1 allocation for 2018, 800K for 2019, 800K for 2020 and 300K for 2021.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p>
<p>Clothing is one of the largest industries in the world economy employing 60 to 75 million people worldwide. The negative social and environmental impacts of the fashion industry have been well documented, demonstrating that these impacts mostly occur within the upstream portion of the value chain. Improving traceability is a priority in order to determine how and where parts and components in production processes have been sourced and what are the environmental, social and health risks in the value chain. The action will support enhanced transparency and traceability in garment value chains, through the development of an IT 'track and trace' platform that offers customized and open self-assessment and data sharing solutions for value chain stakeholders. Alongside the implementation of this platform, ITC will deliver a training and continuous improvement programme and, in collaboration with private sector partners, implement in a subset of textile and garment oriented countries.</p>
We deliver customized solutions for least developed countries (LDCs), enabling them to increase their participation in the global economy and reach development goals through exports. We focus on creating access to digital technologies and capabilities in LDCs, where current internet penetration is at 27%, as this is increasingly critical to ensure opportunities are universally shared. We also assist LDCs in their bid for WTO membership, and support their implementation of WTO agreements.
