ACINTaD partners with the ITC GENEVA in a Two-Day Workshop on “SHETRADES IN THE COMMONWEALTH”

ACINTaD partners with the ITC GENEVA in a Two-Day Workshop on “SHETRADES IN THE COMMONWEALTH”

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 18^th – 19^th January 2019, at the Accra City Hotel in Accra, Ghana. 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 aims to give 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.

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) is an independent, non-partisan and non-profit organisation incorporated in Ghana as a Company Limited by Guarantee.  ACINTaD operates as a trade policy think tank in Africa dedicated to building sustainable trade development capacity through research, advocacy, capacity building, trade policy analysis, and advisory services. The advisory services include business linkages, technical assistance, market research, representation, among others.

ACINTaD’s Executive Director, Mr. Isaac Hubert Arthur, speaking at the workshop, said that “the partnership with the ITC 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”. According to Mr. Arthur,    “we are looking forward to strengthening and deepening our relationship with the Geneva-based ITC to promote international trade and sustainable development in Africa”.

ACINTaD’s Executive Director, Mr. Isaac Hubert Arthur, speaking at the workshop

The ACINTaD team collaborated with the ITC National Coordinator and Experts to ensure that the organization of the workshop was successful.