Small businesses are combining traditional practices with innovative traceability tools to ensure trade compliance, enhance market access and empower the local economy.

At a tannery in Addis Ababa, Ethiopian and Indian project researchers are pilot testing enzyme-based methods to replace harmful chemicals.

Some 5,000 kilometres away in Pakistan and Bangladesh, each hide’s pilot production journey will be logged digitally, helping demonstrate product standards and reduce waste and pollution.

This transformation is backed by the Sustainable Manufacturing and Environmental Pollution (SMEP) Programme implemented by UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

Funded by the UK Department for International Development, SMEP supports home-grown and locally adapted innovation and affordable technology to help manufacturers mitigate their environmental impact, improve working conditions and compete globally.

Compliance matters

The leather industry is the second largest export sector in Bangladesh, a South Asian nation scheduled to graduate from the UN list of least developed countries in late 2026.

The country’s leather sector met around 10% of global demand in 2020, but weak compliance has so far cost up to $10 billion in lost export potential, according to Ebenezer Laryea, who leads the Leathertrace project under SMEP.

“Our pilot is testing how digital traceability with environmental monitoring can show buyers progress and prepare producers for premium markets,” says Mr Laryea.

Turning waste into value

The textile sector is also adapting. In Pakistan, where 1.7 million tonnes of post-industrial waste are generated each year, SMEP supports a project that connects textile waste with recyclers through digital channels, making production more circular and helping exporters meet the traceability requirements of high-value markets.

In Nigeria, women and youth use mobile phones at community-run hubs to collect, sort and manage plastic waste. The hubs provide income and a safe work environment, while generating data that help inform national policies and enhance labour rights in the informal economy.

By turning waste into an economic resource through innovative and locally adapted digital tools, SMEP initiatives are helping developing countries use digital transparency to access premium export markets, while making supply chains more inclusive and equitable at home.

Reimagining trade and a broader path to development

From leather to textiles to plastics industries, SMEP pilots show how developing countries are competing not just on price, but proof of sustainability in markets where billions of revenues are at stake.

By advancing circular and biodiversity-based economies, sustainable trade and environmental stewardship can go hand in hand, benefitting people, prosperity and the planet.

More discussions in this regard will take place at the upcoming 16th United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD16) set for 20-23 in Geneva, under the theme “Shaping the future: Driving economic transformation for equitable, inclusive and sustainable development”.