SheTrades and UPS partnership

Summary

Women own an estimated 31-38% of MSMEs around the world. However, they are likely to be smaller and face wide-ranging and complex challenges such as limited access to skills, networks, property rights, finance and support institutions.

ITC SheTrades initiative, which aims to connect three million women to market by 2021, provides a framework for interventions, which allows for collaboration with private (and public) sector partners who provide their expertise to achieve greater impact and scale.

The project "SheTrades and UPS partnership", funded by UPS Foundation and implemented by ITC SheTrades and UPS, aims to ultimately improve women entrepreneurs' competitiveness to trade. The project will do so by providing women entrepreneurs and business support organisations with capacity building and a platform for best practices exchange. The project will work at the global level, through online activities, and at the national level, with in-country activities in Nigeria, Vietnam, Mexico and UAE.

The project falls under ITC's Empowering Women to trade programme which contributes directly to ITC's focus area 5 “Promoting and mainstreaming inclusive and green trade” and SDGs 5 and 17.