ACCESS! ACCESS! for Africa Business for Africa Business

Women in International Women in International Trade Trade

Paper Presented at the ATPC Meeting Addis Ababa, April 21-21, 2009

ContentContent

Implementing Partners - CAWEE and SIDO Situation of Women Exporters in the Two Countries The Role ACCESS! Program Played in Addressing the Needs of Women Exporters Overview of the ACCESS! Program Product Development & Market Promotion Award Event   Complementary Initiatives ACCESS! Initiative Outcomes/Achievements

C A W E EC A W E E

CAWEE is an indigenous NGO established in June 2004 to promote women entrepreneurs CAWEE believes that “ Empowering Women Economically is Key to Development” The mission of CAWEE is to promote women entrepreneurs with a special focus to women exporters The vision of CAWEE is to have globally competitive core women entrepreneurs class To promote its activities, CAWEE works very closely with different partners & stakeholders – both Governmental and non governmental

S I D OS I D O

To facilitate the development and strengthening of SMEs - skills upgrading, linkage to potential suppliers of working tools, products and market promotion To facilitate the development of basic infrastructures for SME’s - working premises, utilities, technology development centers, Incubators, etc

To provide guided technical trainings through Training Cum Production Centers Facilitates appropriate technology development and transfer Offering financial services to SMEs

Situation of Women Situation of Women ExportersExporters 

Sample surveys on situation analysis in Ethiopia and Tanzania, conducted in 2004 by CIDA , indicated that women exporters face diverse problems & challenges :

> Lack of access to market information > Lack of knowledge in international market

> Lack of access to export financing > Lack of access to advisory services ( e.g mentoring) > Lack of capacity to develop export plan > Lack of capacity to find joint venture partners > Lack of capacity in using the internet for international business

 

ACCESS! was a very timely program to address some of the problems women exporters face The intervention was made based on survey results and it was demand driven The careful preparations made before the launch of the program ( preparation of the training manual, selection of country focal points & trainers, training of trainers) was the key to the success of the intervention The professional guidance, proper follow-up of the executing agencies (International Trade Centre-ITC and Trade Facilitation Office, Canada-TFOC) played a vital role

 

Role ACCESS! Played

Overview of ACCESS! Program  

ACCESS! program targets actual, potential/emerging women exporters The initiative provides: . An exporter training program, for women exporting their products and services . A mentorship element to complement the

exporter training, . A web-portal, facilitating women's access to

relevant export information tools & services as well as networking opportunities

. An award program to encourage best performers & to profile role models

Overview Cont.

The ACCESS! 1st phase was operational for 18 months ( June 2005-December 2006)

Training package, covering 22 modules was prepared

National ACCESS! trainers were trained in Dar Es Salaam- Tanzania (3 women & 2 men in Ethiopia ;3 women and 4 men in Tanzania)

The Pro-invest support ACCESS! Regional program, covering 3 countries – Ethiopia, Tanzania & Uganda complemented ( August 2007-February 2008)

ACCESS! Trade in Services, covering 3 countries – Ethiopia, Nigeria & South Africa continued ( November 2007- September 2008)

Trainings

Trainings Conducted in International Trade in the two countries had following results:

For women exporting their products, 12 trainings took place, 282 entrepreneurs trained - 25 % were men & 26 ACCESS! potential trainers trained in both countries

For women in trade in services in Ethiopia, 2 training done, 44 entrepreneurs were trained of which 11 were men

There is a long waiting list ready for up-coming trainings, both producers and service providers

Feedbacks from trainees , stakeholders and external evaluation reports have confirmed that ACCESS! trainings were very relevant in filling a big gap which was never properly addressed and given due attention as women are mostly not included in general training programs

Mentoring

Mentoring tool kits were developed, for both existing and potential exporters

81 companies both existing and potential exporters were mentored in the two countries

In Ethiopia 12 companies that are in trade in services were mentored

One to one Mentoring complementing the ACCESS! training proved to be very effective

  With major support given from Trade Facilitation Office, Canada the portal was created (www.womenexporters.com)

The profiles of 87 ACCESS! Trainees from the two countries are featured

Many of the trainees visit the portal regularly and few managed to develop their own web sites

Web-portal

Product Development & Market Product Development & Market PromotionPromotion

Focused on the hand-loom sub-sector:

- Six companies, all owned & managed by women, went through a product development process for 10 months

- Product samples were continuously tested in the Canadian market, based on the feedback, the products were further developed to meet the export standard - The companies developed professional marketing materials for export promotion

- The 6 companies, that went through the product development & market promotions processes, participated in an international trade show in Canada & were able to meet potential buyers & establish sells contacts

- The companies cost shared in all the activity areas

Award EventAward EventAward events were organized to celebrate success & encourage women exporters:

- Based on their export performance, 4 companies were awarded in Tanzania and 6 companies were awarded by the President of Ethiopia - The event was very instrumental in encouraging the companies awarded and also encouraging others to follow their foot steps - The awarded companies started to serve as role models to others

- The event motivated workers of the awarded companies

Complementary Initiatives -EthiopiaComplementary Initiatives -Ethiopia

The US Embassy, Addis Ababa, supporting the Women Entrepreneurs Group (WEG): - Capacity building activities - Providing support in facilitating export market - in May 2007 five US buyers came to Addis, with great impact resulted in , some companies exporting to the US

- Guarantee Fund of 4.3 million USD allocated targeting women entrepreneurs The GTZ working on capacity building of Ethiopian Women Exporters Association The ILO working on capacity building of women entrepreneurs & their associations The UNDP/Regional Gender Program promoting African women entrepreneurs role models by documenting profiles The Spanish Government, through its NEPAD fund, supporting women entrepreneurs

Complementary Initiatives-Tanzania Complementary Initiatives-Tanzania

The UNIDO program on Food processing started in 1993 whereby over 7,000 women (1% men) were trained of which 3000 have started their own businesses The UNIDO Regional programme on Development of Women and Youth in Agri Business covering countries of Malawi, Eritrea, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Tanzania

The UN-International Fund for Agriculture Development project focusing on rural entrepreneurship development The ILO working on capacity building of women entrepreneurs & their associations Creation of Tanzania Women Chamber of Commerce-TWCC to to empower women entrepreneurs with SIDO’s initiative

ACCESS! Initiative ACCESS! Initiative Outcomes/ AchievementsOutcomes/ Achievements

The ACCESS! Program was very instrumental in:

Building institutional capacities like – CAWEE ,SIDO, TWCC and capacities of other Stakeholders/Partners

Developing national human resource, in training trainers in international trade

Developing company capacities in international trade, with a very special focus designed to women exporters

 The Regional programs were good grounds for experience sharing ,networking and exposures