Inclusive trade

Economic opportunities for refugees and their hosts 

The International Trade Centre’s Refugee Employment and Skills Initiative (RESI) provides innovative, trade-led and market-based solutions to create jobs and generate income for refugees and the communities where they live.  

RESI works with refugees and their host communities in Gaza, Kenya, and Somalia in the areas of online freelancing and home décor. These areas provide viable paying jobs for people in unstable conditions who may be subject to such security challenges as movement restrictions and repatriation.  

We provide training and mentorships and through our private and public partnerships, link the unique skills of the different communities to market needs for specific services and products.  

RESI is ITC’s first direct implementation in refugee camps. Through collaboration with partners like the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), RESI is a great example of what humanitarian-development cooperation can achieve. 

Jobs creation for women and youth

The International Trade Centre’s South Sudan Jobs Creation and Trade Development Project was created to help create jobs for the people of South Sudan by boosting micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) working in the fruit and vegetables sectors. 

ITC is lending its international expertise and providing training opportunities to help these businesses improve their production, processing and handling practices, build up their capacities and skills and strengthen producer cooperatives. 

The project is also responding to the need for jobs for women and youth, by building up local entrepreneurship and business management capacities, as well as implementing innovative schemes to help youth entrepreneurs and youth-owned businesses access finance. 

Fostering economic development through trade

The International Trade Centre (ITC) is engaging India’s powerhouse economy, its know-how, technology and investment strength to invigorate exports from Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.   

Through the Supporting Indian Trade and Investment for Africa (SITA) project, ITC is working with small businesses in East Africa in the technology, textile and apparel sectors, pulses, spices, and sunflower oil, and partnering them with institutions and businesses from India.  

For example, In Rwanda and Kenya we are helping farmers to grow rosemary commercially alongside their main crops. By diversifying into produce with increasing demand, farmers get a steady secondary income, which leads to greater economic resilience, and more jobs for predominantly female workers.  

We also mentored 300 East African women in business and technical expertise and provided 72 women entrepreneurs with e-commerce platforms to market their brands globally.  

Our goal is to increase job opportunities and incomes and foster economic development through trade. Through SITA, ITC has facilitated $69 million worth of additional exports from these five East African countries to India and elsewhere, and $111 million of investments from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in India to East Africa. 

KPR Mill Ltd, an integrated textile manufacturing company from India, opened its first overseas garment unit, in Ethiopia’s Mekelle Industrial Park in 2019, in an investment facilitated by SITA

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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

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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