Middle East and North Africa
Egypt: SheTrades (AfTIAS)
Contact
First name
Mehdi
Last name
Chaker
Email
chaker@intracen.org
Body
Shutterstock
Women economic empowerment in the handicraft sector.
The International Trade Centre’s flagship initiative on women and trade, SheTrades, has launched a new chapter in Egypt to empower and boost the competitiveness of women-owned micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in the handicraft sector.
The project’s overarching objective is women’s economic empowerment as part of the country’s inclusive and sustainable development and economic growth.
The project will provide women-led small businesses with trainings on production, packaging, logistics, trade information, quality management, and sector-specific marketing and sales.
Fifty targeted women-owned small businesses will benefit from adopting best export practices and connecting with export markets and buyers, translating into increased resources and growth of their businesses.
Assisting trade support institutions to enhance services to women
Shutterstock
To ensure strong support for women entrepreneurs entering new markets, the project will also provide advisory services, trainings and technical guidance to the Export Development Authority of Egypt and selected trade support institutions to establish more effective trade institutional frameworks for women-owned businesses.
SheTrades Egypt will:
- Train trade support institutions on gender and how to mainstream gender in their institutions
- Help institutions understand the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs and how to build up their capacity to trade
- Provide support on trade information services, market development and quality management
- Advise buyers on how to better engage with women entrepreneurs, providing online and offline training, best practices and helping them commit to sourcing goods and services from participating women entrepreneurs
- Support select trade institutions who take a lead role in mobilizing buyers and ensure effective business-to-business links
Statistics show that only 1/5 Egyptian companies in the handicraft sector are women-owned exporters. ITFC is therefore very proud to support the She Trades Egypt project.
Statistics show that only 1/5 Egyptian companies in the handicraft sector are women-owned exporters. ITFC is therefore very proud to support the She Trades Egypt project.
Eng. Hani Salem Sonbol, CEO
International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC)
Recipients
Sustainable Development Goals
This project contributes to the following Sustainable Development Goals, as defined by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
<p>The proposed project focuses on supporting businesswomen in the <strong>handicraft</strong> sector in Egypt to sustain and grow their business with a view to contributing actively to the welfare of their families and securing livelihoods.</p><p>The project will help Egyptians women owned small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the<strong> handicraft </strong>sector to<strong> </strong>integrate into domestic and global value chains and access new markets by assisting SMEs to deliver products in accordance with market requirements, improving the capacities of trade support institutions (TSIs) to provide quality business support services to women owned SMEs, and linking SMEs to new markets.</p>
Type
Project
Funding partners
Date
-
External ID
B821
Highlighted
Off
Middle East and North Africa
Body
ITC’s work in the Middle East and North Africa regions includes encouraging the exports of textiles and clothing to promote employment and income generation throughout the value chain. This includes focusing on institutional infrastructure and policy as well as product diversification, digitalization and e-commerce, social and environmental sustainability and gender inclusivity.
Country (for relations)
Region (for relations)
Header color
Cyan
Import hash
-779036142
External ID
RAB