Priority groups

We are committed to economically empowering women, youth and people in vulnerable situations, including the poor, refugees, the internally displaced, those with disabilities and other marginalized groups.

    Women to market
    3 million women have been connected to international markets
    54% of women
    54% of MSMEs owned/operated by women are more competitive
    SheTrades.com
    40,000 women are active on the ITC SheTrades platform
    women in Academy
    48% of SME Academy participants are women

    Empowering women

    ITC places a premium on ensuring trade supports the economic empowerment of women and we have fully incorporated gender mainstreaming into our work. We support women entrepreneurs, women business associations, and strive to integrate policies that benefit women-led suppliers.

    We also offer SheTrades, an initiative that unites the full range of our service offers from a gender perspective. It addresses specific barriers for women to access markets, finance, digital technologies and business development services, supports the upgrading of women-led businesses and women producers in value chains, and improves ecosystems for women’s entrepreneurship.

    Our SheTrades Outlook provides information on how countries are addressing a gender perspective in trade policies and practices, and we are working to ensure ever-better collection and analysis of sex- disaggregated data.

    Empowering youth

    The participation of youth in entrepreneurship and trade can unlock boundless possibilities for economic prosperity. Our work emphasizes economic empowerment and creating entrepreneurial and remunerative opportunities for youth as well as women and others in vulnerable situations.

    Our Youth and Trade initiative positions young people in developing countries as a competitive force for the future. We do this by providing tools for entrepreneurship development and employability, and establish connections with market partners. We also work with incubators and vocational training organizations and emphasize initiatives and projects that create opportunities for youth.

    We are building a large community of young entrepreneurs who benefit from our  Ye! Community platform, that offers mentoring, capacity building, networking and an amplified voice to achieve their ambitions for economic success.

    Empowering migrants, refugees and displaced

    Migrants, refugees, the displaced and disabled face unique challenges to achieving economic success. The last decade has seen an exponential growth of forced displacement of people, reaching nearly 80 million in 2020.

    We are engaging where most effective, including linking trade, humanitarian and development assistance. We are also improving our analytics to better target systemic factors that improve the resilience of enterprises and allow the vulnerable to benefit from trade.

    Our work includes our Ethical Fashion Initiative (EFI) and our Refugee Employment and Skills Initiative (RESI). EFI connects international brands in fashion, interiors and fine foods with talented local designers, artisans and micro- producers. RESI is expanding its reach to over 40 countries, creating digital jobs for displaced people and getting the private sector to participate more actively in refugee-inclusive businesses.