International Trade Center or ITC issues a call for Women Entrepreneurs and women-owned businesses to join the second phase of 2019 SheTrades Invest. It is an opportunity to receive training and ultimately finance to grow their businesses. Furthermore, SheTrades Invest is open to all women entrepreneurs across Africa, Asia, Carribean, and Latin American countries.

The SheTrades initiative aims to connect three million women to market by 2021. The initiative brings together stakeholders around the world to work on seven actions to address trade barriers as well as create greater opportunities for women entrepreneurs.

During the first phase of SheTrades Invest, ITC trained over 600 women and businesses on topics related to investment readiness. Also, it conducted boot camps in five countries in partnership with local accelerators and other partners.

ITC SheTrades Invest 2019: Benefits for Women Entrepreneurs

ICT SheTrades Invest 2019 provides several advantages to businesswomen and women entrepreneur all over the world. These benefits include:

• Access to a range of local, regional and global investors as well as impact investors
• Also, access to capacity-building/technical assistance from ITC
• Increased level of competitiveness as well as a deeper understanding of business practices, trade and investment.

Eligibility for ITC SheTrades Invest 2019

An enterprise is eligible for the ICT SheTrades Invest if it complies with at least one of the three criteria below:  

• Be at least 51% owned by woman/women;
• Be at least 20% owned by woman/women, has at least one woman as CEO/COO/President/Vice President; and has at least 30% of the board of directors composed of women, where a board exists;
• Or, be an SME benefitting women.

Further, the enterprise must be working in one of these sectors: agriculture, artisan, culture, education, energy, environment; financial services; health; housing development; information and communication technologies; Infrastructure and facilities development; manufacturing; supply-chain services; technical assistance services; textile and clothing; tourism; transport and logistics; and also water.

How to apply for the ITC SheTrades Invest?

Candidates can apply by filling out the survey form(existing applicants should only apply again if their details have changed). The survey form is available in:

• English
• French
• Spanish

Deadline

Women Entrepreneurs and Businesswomen may apply for the ICT SheTrades Invest until 30 September 2019. ICT doesn’t entertain late applications.