International Trade Centre (ITC)
Q1. How have the COVID-19 pandemic and the current food, energy and financing crises changed the priorities of your organization?
A quadruple shock of COVID, climate change, conflict and cost-of-living has undone years of hard-fought development gains. As financial conditions tighten, even countries that had seemed on track to prosperity and stability now stare into the abyss of debt distress, fragility and uncertainty about the future.
Coordinated, multilateral action is necessary to tackle the crises we face. Both aid and trade have key roles to play in reversing the impacts of this quadruple shock and putting the world back on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
For micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, with their scarce resources, surviving the COVID-19 crisis has been daunting. According to ITC’s COVID-19 Business Impact Survey, MSMEs suffered the most from the pandemic, with 60% of micro and 57% of small businesses strongly affected, compared with 43% of large firms. This is partly because smaller firms record lower levels of resilience, on average, than larger companies. Beyond the pandemic, resilience is crucial for facing the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.
Globally, MSMEs account for 60–70% of employment and the majority of new job creation in developing countries. They also tend to employ women, youth, and people from poor and vulnerable communities. MSMEs integrated into international markets are more productive than those that do not participate in international trade.
As a result, the COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced ITC’s focus on supporting micro- small and medium-sized enterprises in developing countries to become more internationally competitive. Moreover, the pandemic has sharpened ITC’s objectives to include resilience and sustainability.
In ITC’s Strategic Plan 2022–2025, the organization outlines its vision to help create a world where trade builds inclusive, sustainable and prosperous economies, one where the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic creates resilience and ensures a green transition.
Q2. How has your organization supported Member States to accelerate their recovery from COVID-19 and the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda? How has your organization cooperated with other UN system organizations in these efforts to achieve coherence and synergies?
ITC has supported Member States to accelerate recovery from COVID-19 by focusing on making trade greener, more inclusive and more connected. Increasing the international competitiveness of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises improves productivity and job creation, especially for poorer and more vulnerable communities.
ITC has deepened its collaboration across the UN system to support COVID-19 recovery. In 2022, ITC formalised partnerships with UN Global Compact, UNFPA and UNCDF for focused, impactful collaboration, particularly linked to women's economic empowerment, youth and intra-African trade.
Please highlight up to three high-impact initiatives, especially those that address interlinkages among the SDGs and involves interagency collaboration. Concrete initiatives might be selected to be spotlighted during relevant intergovernmental meetings.
| Initiative | SheTrades |
| Partners | ILO, UNDP, UN Global Compact, UN Women, eBay, International Chamber of Commerce, Maersk, Mary Kay, UPS, Visa |
| Relevant SDGs | 1, 5, 8, 17 |
| Member States benefiting from the initiative | Argentina, Bangladesh, Cote D’Ivoire, Chile, Colombia, Egypt, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Mauritius, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Uruguay, Vietnam, Zambia, Global |
| Description | There can be no ‘build back better’ for COVID recovery without a focus on achieving gender equality. Women play a major role in the global economy and studies show that advancing women’s economic empowerment could add as much as $28 trillion to global GDP by 2030. Yet only around 20% of exporting companies worldwide are women-owned or women-led. So empowering women economically, especially through their involvement in trade, creates opportunities for everyone. ITC’s SheTrades initiative seeks to connect women entrepreneurs to market. SheTrades works with governments, corporations and business support organizations to undertake research, shape enabling trade policies and regulations, facilitate investment and financing, expand access to public tenders and corporate supply chains, and transform sector-based value chains. At the end of 2021, ITC achieved its objective of connecting 3 million women entrepreneurs to markets, generating $382 million of trade and investment opportunities for women. |
| Website | https://www.shetrades.com |
| Initiative | GreenToCompete |
| Partners | BMZ, GIZ, KOICA, SIDA, USAID, DCED, UNCTAD, UNEP, Green Growth Knowledge Platform, Green Tec Capital Partners, Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs |
| Relevant SDGs | 8, 12, 13, 15, 17 |
| Member States benefiting from the initiative | AAntigua & Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Kenya, Lao PDR, Nepal, Peru, Saint Kitts & Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent & the Grenadines, Trinidad & Tobago, Vietnam, Global |
| Description | ITC’s GreenToCompete initiative supports developing countries seize the economic opportunities of the green transition. The initiative focuses on three key areas: circular economy, climate resilience and biodiversity. Pillars of the GreenToCompete initiative: • Green competitiveness: supporting micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to compete through environmentally friendly business practices and access to green finance. • Ecopreneurship: supporting innovative entrepreneurs to build and grow their solutions to environmental challenges. • Sustainable value chains: Working with market partners to connect MSMEs to international value chains, generate more local value add, and generate green business opportunities. • Business environment: Working with key stakeholders in the supportive ecosystem to unlock the relevant services that MSMEs require to succeed. • Green policies: Supporting policy making at the domestic, regional and multilateral levels to transform trade and investment in a manner conducive to developing countries. |
| Website | https://greentocompete.org/ |
| Initiative | Youth & Trade Programme |
| Partners | UNCDF, ILO, Accelerate 2030, UEFA Foundation, Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth, Visa |
| Relevant SDGs | 4, 8, 17 |
| Member States benefiting from the initiative | The Gambia, Guinea, Iraq, Palestine, Global |
| Description | Increasing the income opportunities available to young entrepreneurs, especially with trade, is good for future economic growth and social inclusion. ITC’s Youth and Trade programme works to expand entrepreneurship opportunities, grow job prospects, and strengthen vocational skills. The programme focuses on: • Developing youth-inclusive national strategies Strengthening youth entrepreneurship support ecosystems, including youth-led institutions • Upskilling young entrepreneurs: capacity building and access finance, • Online community of over 17,000 young entrepreneurs Ye! Community: https://yecommunity.com/ |
| Website | https://www.intracen.org/youth |
Q3. Has your organization published or is it planning to publish any analytical work or guidance note or toolkits to guide and support recovery efforts from COVID-19 while advancing full implementation of SDGs at national, regional and global levels?
Yes.
Please select up to three high-impact resources to highlight, especially those that address interlinkages among the SDGs. Selected resources will be highlighted to inform relevant intergovernmental meetings.
| Resource | Women Entrepreneurs: An Action Plan to Build Back Better |
| Publishing entity/entities | International Trade Centre (ITC) |
| Relevant SDGs | 5, 8, 17 |
| Target audience | Policy makers, business support organizations, private sector |
| Description | As COVID-19 reshapes global value chains and policy landscapes, governments, corporations and the international community must collectively take steps to ensure a full and sustainable economic recovery. And women have a key role to play in that recovery. This policy brief outlines nine actions that policymakers, corporations and the global community can take to ensure that ‘building back better’ after the COVID-19 pandemic unlocks women entrepreneurship and creates more equal and sustainable societies. |
| Website | https://intracen.org/resources/publications/women-entrepreneurs-an-acti… |
| Language | English |
| Resource | COVID-19 Temporary Trade Measures Dashboard |
| Publishing entity/entities | International Trade Centre (ITC) |
| Relevant SDGs | 8, 17 |
| Target audience | Policy makers, business support organizations, private sector |
| Description | The free-to-use online COVID-19 Temporary Trade Measures Dashboard maps all countries that have adopted export or import measures related to the pandemic. The dashboard is updated daily through a live 24-hour tracker of relevant measures adopted. Dashboard users are able to access a detailed table that documents all countries, measures introduced, as well as the corresponding original government decrees. The dashboard along with the comprehensive and free ITC databases on trade, tariffs and export potential, provide reliable, transparent and up-to-date information to deploy health-related products where they are needed most. |
| Website | https://www.macmap.org/en/covid19 |
| Language | English |
| Resource | SME Competitiveness Outlook 2022: Connected Services, Competitive Businesses |
| Publishing entity/entities | International Trade Centre (ITC) |
| Relevant SDGs | 1, 8, 17 |
| Target audience | Policy makers, business support organizations, private sector |
| Description | Four services sectors are key to an economic transformation. This report calls them 'connected services.' Transport and logistics, financial services, information and communication technologies, and business and professional services contribute directly to economic growth – with an increasing share of output, trade and jobs. These sectors also contribute indirectly, making other firms more competitive by connecting them to global value chains and digital innovations. For example: in regions with high-quality connected services, 44% of all companies export, compared with 19% of firms where the quality of connected services is lower. Connected services spur inclusive growth that is favourable for small businesses, including those led by women and young people. Yet most small firms in developing countries do not access them easily. This report explores the measures that companies, business support organizations and policymakers must take to help connected services flourish – to foster more prosperous economies and build more inclusive societies |
| Website | https://intracen.org/resources/publications/sme-competitiveness-outlook… |
| Language | English |
Q4. How has your organization engaged with stakeholder groups to support SDG implementation and COVID-19 recovery at national, regional and global levels? Please provide main highlights, including any lessons learned. For example, what has worked particularly well as a model for effective stakeholder engagement?
As a UN development system entity with limited physical presence, engaging with stakeholder groups is vital for ITC to support SDG implementation an COVID recovery.
If your organization has established multi-stakeholder partnership(s) in this regard, please describe them (name, partners involved, relevant SDGs, Member States benefiting from the partnership) and provide links to relevant websites for more information.
| Partnership | SheTrades |
| Partners | 350 partner organizations, including UPS, eBay, Mary Kay, Mastercard, VISA |
| Relevant SDGs | 1, 5, 8, 17 |
| Member States benefiting from the initiative | Argentina, Bangladesh, Cote D’Ivoire, Chile, Colombia, Egypt, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Mauritius, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Uruguay, Vietnam, Zambia, Global |
| Description | SheTrades has 350 partner organizations across 65 countries. The Initiative employs three partnership models. 1. Advocate: Partners that actively engage in dialogue and advocacy events to increase the outreach of the SheTrades Initiative. Example: Mastercard promotes the development of tools and solutions to enable trade for women entrepreneurs through the SheTrades Initiative. 2. Contributor: Partners that work with SheTrades to generate integrated solutions to accelerate the inclusion of women in global value chains. Example: The Nigerian Export Promotion Council has organized technical workshops and mobilized the support of private-sector partners and financial institutions to improve the skills women entrepreneurs and facilitate their market linkages. 3. Transformer: Partners that provide financial resources, expertise and methodologies to pilot in-depth programmes for women entrepreneurs. Example: In 2019, ITC began collaborating with marketing company Mary Kay to sponsor the creation of tools and methodologies to develop entrepreneurship training modules and content for women entrepreneurs. |
| Website | https://www.shetrades.com |
| Partnership | Global Trade Helpdesk |
| Partners | UNCTAD, WTO |
| Relevant SDGs | 8, 17 |
| Member States benefiting from the initiative | Global |
| Description | This integrated online platform provides accessible, timely and relevant trade intelligence to help MSMEs with details from doorstep to destination market. Though this helpdesk, companies can compare demand for their products across markets, explore tariffs and other market access conditions, access details about buyers, navigate domestic export processes, find business partners, and more. It includes COVID-19 temporary trade measures. |
| Website | https://www.globaltradehelpdesk.org |
| Partnership | One Trade Africa |
| Partners | AFCFTA Secretariat, UNECA, UNDP, African Union Commission, Afreximbank |
| Relevant SDGs | 1, 8, 17 |
| Member States benefiting from the initiative | African countries |
| Description | Through the One Trade Africa initiative, ITC works with partners to make the African Continental Free Trade Agreement benefit micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. The initiative focuses on: developing continental and regional value chains in key sectors; improving quality and standards of African products and system; strengthening digital trade and green technology opportunities for Africa, improving cross-border trade mechanisms, especially for women and youth, and integrating sustainability and resilience approaches in agri-business and service sectors. Working closely with AfCFTA national committees, trade ministries, national and regional business associations, regional economic communities and the AfCFTA Secretariat, One Trade Africa will move the AfCFTA to concrete business transactions that bring jobs and inclusive and sustainable growth to the continent. |
| Website | https://intracen.org/our-work/projects/one-trade-africa-connecting-the-… |
Other partnerships:
The ITC Alliances for Action (A4A) Programme works with a network of partners worldwide to increase agribusiness value chains ethically and sustainably. The programme boosts farmer and small firm competitiveness, market access and values-based food systems. To keep the sector growing during the pandemic, the programme prioritized training on climate-smart crop diversification and value addition. https://www.intracen.org/sectors/Inclusive-agribusiness-value-chains/
Q5. In the 2019 SDG Summit declaration (GA Resolution 74/4), Member States outlined ten priority areas for accelerated action in SDG implementation. Please highlight any major integrated and innovative policies or initiatives that your organization may have adopted in these ten priority areas:
5.1 leaving no one behind
ITC’s Refugee Employment and Skills Initiative provides innovative, trade-led and market-based solutions to create jobs and generate income for refugees and their host communities to build self-reliance and foster economic resilience. https://intracen.org/our-work/projects/refugee-employment-and-skills-in…
5.2 mobilizing adequate and well-directed financing
SheTrades Invest connects eligible women entrepreneurs with financial institutions and builds their capacity to become investment ready. https://www.shetrades.com/en/projects/shetrades-invest MSME Financing Gateway provides a free listing of financing instruments available for MSMEs in 5 East African countries. https://dev.financinggateway.org/en
5.3 enhancing national implementation
ITC’s Trade Strategy Programme empowers countries to develop, manage and implement home-grown strategies to harness trade and investment for economic transformation and to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. https://www.intracen.org/trade-strategy/
5.4 strengthening institutions for more integrated solutions
ITC helps to build a more supportive business ecosystem for MSMEs by strengthening trade and investment support institutions to provide improved and expanded services for companies
5.6 reducing disaster risk and building resilience
Through the Alliances for Action initiative, ITC supports actors across agricultural value chains in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific to make systemic changes for climate resilience, risk diversification and value addition.
5.7 solving challenges through international cooperation and enhancing the global partnership
The Social & Labor Convergence Program provides the tools to capture accurate data about working conditions in global supply chains. This multi-stakeholder initiative replaces the need for repetitive social audits audits by facilitating data sharing. This increases transparency in supply chains, reduces the need for social audits and ultimately allows users to redeploy resources into improving working conditions. https://slconvergence.org/
5.8 harnessing science, technology and innovation with a greater focus on digital transformation for sustainable development
ecomConnect is an e-commerce community engagement platform with a special focus on entrepreneurs from developing and least-developed countries. We bring together micro, small and medium sized companies, start-ups, organizations and business experts in e-commerce to: Connect with other entrepreneurs to create business opportunities and investigate new markets. Share e-commerce experiences, success stories and solutions with others. Explore the latest e-commerce news, trends, publications and case studies. Solve e-commerce-related problems using innovative and exclusive online tools. Learn from experts. https://ecomconnect.org/
5.9 investing in data and statistics for the SDGs
ITC works closely with its parent organizations, UNCTAD and the WTO, to provide data and statistics on the contribution of trade to the SDGs. https://sdgtrade.org/en
Q6. Following the adoption of the 2022 Ministerial Declaration, please highlight any major integrated and innovative policies or initiatives that your organization may have adopted related to the below, if applicable:
6.1 Member States encouraged "the United Nations system and all relevant actors to take advantage of emerging technologies and their applications, as appropriate, in order to maximize impact and effectiveness in data analysis and collection and stress the need to bridge the digital gap among and within countries" (Paragraph 86)
N/A
6.2 Member States specifically called upon the UN system "to work with the newly established United Nations Food Systems Coordination Hub, hosted by FAO, to support Governments to develop and strengthen SDG-based national pathways for sustainable food systems transformation" (Paragraph 128)
Together with its partners, ITC is building more sustainable and competitive conditions at every step across agribusiness value chains. We are building public-private partnerships, alliances between supply chain operators, meaningful investment and enabling policies which are essential for lasting impact.
We help enterprises meet market needs, upgrading value chains and facilitating linkages across all value chain stakeholders. We leverage partnerships to connect people and stakeholders and explore more inclusive, resilient and greener practices that reconcile development objectives and business interests.
ITC engages its Alliances for Action approach across the agribusiness projects it implements. We also provide direct technical support to small enterprises, exporters, farmer organizations, business support organizations and industry associations in areas like product market development, quality and efficiency, business development, access to finance and development, and compliance and competitiveness.
Q7. The 2023 SDG Summit is expected to provide political leadership, guidance and recommendations for sustainable development and follow-up and review progress in the implementation of sustainable development commitments and the achievement of the 2030 Agenda, including through national and regional consultations, which will mark the beginning of a new phase of accelerated progress towards the SDGs. In the lead up to the 2023 SDG Summit, please provide your organization’s recommendations on how to overcome challenges to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the achievement of the SDGs, taking into account the thematic reviews and voluntary national reviews conducted to date.
We are at a critical moment in time to ensure that developmental gains are not undone and that we can plot a course of action to maintain momentum. Building resilience - Resilience in the face of COVID, resilience in the face of climate change - into our strategies and interventions is of paramount importance as we move forward.
As a joint organization of the WTO and the UN, ITC supports and advocates for the promotion of a universal, rules-based, open, non-discriminatory and equitable multilateral trading system. Commitment to multilateralism, especially during times of global crisis, is critical to achieving a just, sustainable and resilient future as envisioned in the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs. Trade is a key ingredient to not only generate growth, but also to transform economies for inclusion and sustainability.
To achieve inclusive and sustainable development and resilience in the post-COVID era, national development plans and international cooperation initiatives must have micro, small and medium-sized enterprises at their centre, as they are the backbone of the global economy. The COVID-19 crisis has demonstrated the vulnerability of MSMEs, in particular women and youth-owned enterprises, and the importance of supporting these groups. We have to build back boldly after the pandemic and put gender equality, social responsibility, and environmental protection at the heart of the recovery.
Well-coordinated efforts and a systematic approach to delivery among Member States and within the UN system are critical for success.