The Africa Centre for International Trade and Development (ACINTaD) partnered the International Trade Centre (ITC), a joint UN and WTO organization based in Geneva, in hosting a two-day workshop on “SheTrades in the Commonwealth” on 18th – 19th January 2019, at the Accra City Hotel in Accra, Ghana.

The workshop was with the theme, “Preparing for the Export Market”. The SheTrades in the Commonwealth project is funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and aims to increase economic growth and job creation in Commonwealth countries by enabling the increased participation of women-owned businesses in international trade.

The two-day workshop was organized with the aim of giving the project stakeholders and participants an overview of the project and its goals and activities to be undertaken as well as hearing from participants about the key issues and challenges they face.

Speaking at the workshop, Mr. Isaac Hubert Arthur, the Executive Director of the Africa Centre for International Trade and Development (ACINTaD), said that women’s participation in international trade is crucial in achieving the ‘Ghana Beyond Aid Agenda’.

He said that there is the need to build the capacity of more businesswomen to engage in international trade in order to contribute to achieving the agenda.

According to Mr. Arthur, more women business owners should be included in trade policy-making process to ensure gender mainstreaming and understanding of the relevant trade policies that affect their businesses.

“Partnership with the ITC in organising this workshop is a very strategic one because both institutions are primarily focused on international trade and ACINTaD will be supporting ITC’s programs and activities in Ghana”, Mr. Arthur added.

According to him, “we are looking forward to strengthening and deepening our relationship with the Geneva-based ITC to promote international trade and sustainable development in Africa”.

The workshop was well attended by public sector institutions, Business Support Organisations (BSOs), Women-Owned Businesses, and private sector companies engaged in Shea, Textiles and Apparels, and IT & Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sectors.

The first day of the workshop focused on the BSOs and their work. Some of the participants that attended the workshop were representatives of the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA), National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI), Association of Ghana Apparel Manufacturers (AGAM), African Women’s Entrepreneurship Program (AWEP), Global Shea Alliance and other stakeholders involved in the implementation of the project.

The second day had more than 150 women-owned businesses in IT&BPO, shea, textiles and apparels, as well as the BSOs, from different regions in Ghana coming together to participate in the last day of the two-day workshop in Accra.

The Africa Centre for International Trade and Development (ACINTaD) team collaborated with the ITC National Coordinator and Experts to ensure that the organization of the workshop was successful.

The Accra-based trade policy think tank is committed to promoting trade and investment in a way that contributes to the advancement of sustainable development in Africa.

The organisation believes that trade is the catalyst for development that could be used to achieve prosperity and economic transformation in Africa.