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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<p>This roundtable is co-organised by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Trade Centre’s (ITC) SheTrades Initiative, under the ‘Empowering women and boosting livelihoods through agricultural trade: Leveraging the AfCFTA’ project (the EWAT project). </p><p>Under the EWAT project, FAO and ITC are conducting research to study the participation, roles, constraints and opportunities of women in the soybean-to-poultry value chain in United Republic of Tanzania with a trade lens. Findings of this research will be used to develop gender-responsive recommendations to promote market expansion, and upgrading along the value chain of women farmers, processors, traders, and businesses, in particular in the context of the intra-regional market opened by the AfCFTA. </p><p>This roundtable aims to present, discuss, and gather feedback and insights from key stakeholders operating in United Republic of Tanzania’s soybean-to-poultry value chain to inform and complete the study’s key findings and recommendations.</p>
<p>The <i><strong>Empowering Women and Boosting Livelihoods through Agricultural Trade: Leveraging the AfCFTA</strong></i> <i><strong>(EWAT) </strong></i>programme aims to support formal and informal women producers, processors, traders, women’s cooperatives, and associations to seize opportunities created by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in agriculture and agro-processing value chains.</p><p>Within the scope of this programme, FAO and ITC have co-implemented trainings for women producers, processors, and traders on regional value chain opportunities. This includes capacity bulding sessions on trade facilitation (TF) for women in Ghana, Malawi, and Nigeria. The programme is also conducting value chain mappings (qualitative and quantitative) of women’s participation in the soybean-to-poultry and fisheries value chains in Southern Africa (i.e. Malawi and South Africa) and West Africa (i.e. Ghana and Nigeria) respectively. </p><p>Additionally, four policy briefs on gender considerations in the context of trade facilitation (TF), non-tariff measures (NTMs), sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures, as well as technical barriers to trade (TBT) are currently under development. These policy briefs will provide policy recommendations targeted at regional and national policymakers and women’s organizations in agriculture and agro-processing value chains in the context of the AfCFTA.</p><p>This second of two policy dialogues will focus on SPS measures and TBT and build on the policy briefs under development. It will:</p><ul><li>Explore causes of food safety concerns and the potential of African women producers, processors and traders to contribute to food safety assurance. </li><li>Investigate opportunities that the AfCFTA offers to women to develop their production and processing activities by expanding their export market and eliminating non-tariff (TBT) barriers.</li></ul>
<p>The Project <em>SheTrades: Empowering Rural Women in the AfCFTA</em> contributes to ITC’s <strong>One Trade Africa </strong>Strategy and FAO strategy to support the AfCFTA. </p><p><span lang="EN-GB">Spanning 54 countries, supporting a market of over 1 billion people, and contributing $2.5 trillion USD to global GDP, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) presents a ground-breaking opportunity to create a unified continental market, boost Africa’s share of global trade and achieve the goals of Agenda 2063. </span><span lang="EN-GB">The AfCFTA is operational since early 2021, and these goals can only be accomplished if the AfCFTA is fair and inclusive. Women’s equal participation in international trade is critical to promoting economic growth, enhancing productivity, increasing international competitiveness and reducing poverty. Moving up the value chain, leveraging networks of women’s associations, upgrading their businesses and tapping into new markets are some of the many benefits women can reap by trading under the AfCFTA. According to FAO, from a food security standpoint, closing the gender gap in agriculture in Africa would lead to a yield increase of 20 to 30 percent and this could reduce by 100 to 150 million the number of undernourished people</span><span lang="EN-GB">. </span><span lang="EN-GB">ILO estimates that over 90% of women’s employment in Africa is in the agricultural sector, largely informal. </span></p><p><span lang="EN-GB">This project works with women traders and producers to identify priority issues and opportunities under the AfCFTA in agriculture and agro-processing, facilitating public-private dialogues to agree on next steps women’s priorities, and providing market intelligence and training to women in a select agricultural regional value chain to help it expand to the continental level.</span></p><p>This project aims to empower women producers, processors and informal and formal traders in agriculture and agro-processing value chains as well as agriculture women-led MSMEs to benefit from trade opportunities created by the AfCFTA through capacity-building, policy research and policy dialogues. The project contributes to ITC and FAO’s ongoing support to the implemention of the AfCFTA.</p><p><br></p>
