Malaysia, ITC and Commonwealth Secretariat to host dialogue on women in the digital economy and trade

Attendees will have the opportunity to learn about the design and functionalities of the SheTrades Outlook, a key output of SheTrades in the Commonwealth, a project of ITC’s global SheTrades Initiative.

Based on the seven pillars of the SheTrades Initiative, the SheTrades Outlook aims to provide an invaluable tool for users to assess, monitor, and improve the extent to which the institutional ecosystem supports women’s participation in international trade. It will do so by supporting evidence-based policy-making through the collection and analysis of data, identifying gaps, and enabling dialogues and consensus on high-impact policy measures.

Taking into account different dimensions, contexts, and geographies, the SheTrades Outlook will create an innovative digital tool for Commonwealth governments, trade and investment support institutions, development partners, lead firms and women’s business associations to pinpoint actionable items and benefit from evidence-based policy change.

Funded by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID), the SheTrades in the Commonwealth project was initiated in April 2018 and aims to deliver training, strengthening, and mentoring activities to 3,000 women-owned businesses in Bangladesh, Ghana, Kenya, and Nigeria as well as provide Commonwealth-wide support to governments through advisory services and tools to encourage more gender-responsive trade and trade-related policies.

The event will also see the launch of work of the Commonwealth Connectivity Agenda, which was adopted at the 2018 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

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