Kenya

<p>EFI has mobilised consumers and creative skills to leverage a new positioning for artisans from marginalized communities in the international markets of lifestyle and fashion/luxury. EFI has enabled new creative talents to trade internationally and to get access to platforms of e-commerce and promotion that are reshaping the segment of ethical fashion, which is now a mainstream part of the market.</p><p>EFI&rsquo;s experience illustrates how investing in human capital through culture means bringing about change at the level of:</p><ul><li>Individuals, who become involved in training, capacity building and personal transformation/consciousness raising, workshops and/or business processes, dialogue and encounters;</li><li>Consumers and citizens, who become mobilized through media and/or action campaigns;</li><li>Professional development, supply and collaboration networks, who become involved through a series of relationship-building processes, joint efforts and practical programs on substantive problems linked to product development and market responses; and,</li><li>Communities, where social capital is developed and/ or solidified by connecting new human resources (from the informal sector) to existing formal business and social networks.</li></ul>

<p>The aim of the programme is to <strong>increase the participation of women-owned businesses in trade in order to increase economic growth and job creation in Commonwealth countries</strong>. With interventions at the beneficiary-, firm-, institutional-, national- and inter-national level, it will: &nbsp;</p><ul><li>Address policy change at the national level, making trade-related policies gender responsive;</li><li>Facilitate new/better linkages with buyers and investors internationally; connecting women to opportunities and facilitating gender sensitive business practice; &nbsp;</li><li>Support BSOs and the private sector to strengthen the business environment for women owned businesses;</li><li>Support BSOs to target women owned business directly to improve capacity; combining face to face training with coaching, mentoring and exposure to buyers.</li></ul>

<p style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US">This project is designed to implement selected activities of the COMESA Cross Border Trade Initiative (CBTI) programme, which aimed at facilitating small-scale trade across borders of targeted countries. The initiative is funded by the European Commission under the 11^th European Development Fund. The project will be implemented within the framework of the Co-delegation agreement signed between COMESA and ITC in June 2018.&nbsp;</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US">The project has a general objective of increasing formal small-scale cross-border trade flows in the COMESA/tripartite region, leading to higher revenue collection for governments at targeted borders as well as increased security and higher incomes for small-scale cross-border traders. It has a specific objective of facilitating small-scale cross border trade flows between targeted countries through institutional capacity building and better data collection and monitoring.</span></p>

<p>The Market Access Upgrade Programme (MARKUP) is a regional initiative aiming at improving market access to the European Union (EU) and the East African region for five East Africa Community (EAC) partner countries - Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda - agro-industrial crop and horticultural sectors. MARKUP is funded by the EU 11th European Development Fund over the period 2018-2022. The Program will be implemented by various partners, including ITC, GIZ, UNIDO and other partners that will be selected by the EAC Partner States. &nbsp;The intervention of ITC will entail the implementation of the activities to improve product quality compliance, value addition, access to finance and business promotion as well as business advocacy to facilitate trade in the EAC region.&nbsp;</p><p><a name="_ftn7" title="" href="#_ftnref7"></a></p><p><a name="_ftn7" title="" href="#_ftnref7"></a></p>