UN Women, UN Economic Commission for Africa to support women and youth-led SMEs in the AfCFTA: collaboration at Intra-Africa Trade Fair (IATF) 2021
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UN Women’s Liaison Office to the African Union (AU) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the African Trade Policy Centre (ATPC) of the ECA are collaborating on an initiative aimed at supporting women and youth-led Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the AfCFTA. This support will be initiated at the Intra-Africa Trade Fair (IATF), that will take place from 15-21 November in Durban, South Africa.
The theme for 2021 is the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). UN Women Liaison Office will have a pavilion at the IATF to support women-led SMEs who wish to exhibit their products and use the space for meeting buyers, as well as to and share experiences with women from various regions.
While senior officials of UN Women are participating in several sessions in the IATF, UN Women’s collaboration with ECA focuses on the following two main activities: the exhibition inside the IATF pavilion and a working session discussion entitled ‘Establishing an entrepreneurial ecosystem for women-led SMEs in the AfCFTA’.
Collaboration on UN Women-sponsored pavilion at IATF 2021
UN Women will offer spaces to women-led SMEs to exhibit products in its pavilion at IATF 2021. SMEs can display samples of their goods and products in the pavilion. In addition, entrepreneurs can make use of the pavilion to network, particularly to meet with potential buyers as well as to share information and contacts so that collaboration with fellow entrepreneurs and larger private sector representatives can continue post-IATF 2021. Benefits that accompany an onsite presence include access to the exhibitor portal, exhibitor listing online, social media exposure, VTF – digital networking platform and the trade and investment conference, among others.
Establishing an entrepreneurial ecosystem for women and youth-led SMEs in the AfCFTA: UN Women-sponsored working session
UN Women is supporting a working session on Thursday, 18 November from 14:30-17:30 SAT. The objective of the session is to explore priority challenges confronting women and youth-led businesses in the network and seek to identify targeted interventions that will support these businesses on their trading journeys in the AfCFTA.
The focus for the working session will be on the creation of an enabling entrepreneurial ecosystem that goes beyond networking and exhibition objectives at IATF 2021. Key intervention areas for support could include skills development, capacity building and training, the creation of partnerships to support access to finance and other priority needs identified by women and youth-led businesses in the working session.